I remember pre smart phone that people actually had to read up on a topics to have an opinion , or watch the news. Now FB, Twitter snd IG make everyone experts with no fact checking. I used to love my encyclopedias!!

i used to collect dictionaries for my etymology research. 'tis amazing how much word definitions change over the decades. today i can't remember the last time i used a paper dictionary.

public libraries are in sorry straights these days. my postal carrier thinks she works for amazon.

Humans were free when the phone had a cord.

i didn't lose my chorded phone anywhere near as often as i lose my pocket brain. you didn't have to find the remote to turn off your television set.

I remember people made eye contact and wanted human to human connection. I miss the conversations and I don't mean text conversations.

yeah, i'm seeing more head tops than eye colors these days.

eye contact grounds me somewhere deep inside my soul.
heads bowed to the cellu-light. . . not so much. . .

I just remember being "right" without the other person having instant access to telling me I was wrong...

My TV remote is also now on my phone, so it's double trouble.

I remember when the first blackberry smart phone came out, and a friend of my dad's telling us how he expected smart phones to make him smart. I can tell you, it really didn't work out that well (sorry Scott)

yeah, the people with pressing needs to tell me how wrong i am are the top of my list of reasons for calling portable phones, "electronic leashes." my bad attitude about electronic leashes started with the 80's pagers. that batch of bosses never did get me on an electronic leash and i'm still not above turning my pocket brain off and thinking for myself, free of the critics who keep dinging my leash.

i bet even scott was smarter than his phone in the 80's.

i've been boycotting the newest trend of dual device sign-ins and using my phone as a remote. i'm debating on launching a political campaign to get tv producers to build control options directly onto the tv. with three young kids in the house, being forced to keep up with device remotes is cruel and unusual punishment. i suspect the 4 and 7 year olds wouldn't do any better at keeping up with cel phones.

the 9 year old is surprisingly adept at keeping up with his devices. he's already committed his first computer crime. make a foster mama proud? yes, son, i really can and will take away your e-crack. watch me. . . poor booby had to live without his e-toys for two whole months for that little digital adventure. the initial grounding was two weeks with an extra week added for the first cheat, two weeks added for the second cheat and 3 weeks added for the third cheat. he decided not to risk the 4th cheat, or? ? ? did he just get sneaky enough that i didn't bust him after the 3rd cheat?

People would actually call and talk on the phone. Now we have phones and I get no calls, and no one answers. Somehow everyone is to busy and texts. Yet on the flip side, if you don't respond to a call or text, people freak out and have become impatient.

I went to the library to do research.

I used a pay phone if my car wouldn't start.

People looked up and said hi and smiled, now everyone's head is down looking at the phone.

I used a laptop or PC, and had to make time to go on it because I was out enjoying life.

Work had a harder time getting a hold of you LOL!

I am guilty of the phone addiction, don't get me wrong. However, I dont go out and buy new phones for the latest technology. My last phone lasted almost 5 years. It has a camera, internet, text, calls. That is all needed. I am tired of all these apps. I still like my startech phone the best out every phone! Easy to put in a purse. Pull out the antenna to get a signal. And if it didn't work, oh well no call made.

I think technology is ruining our lives. My opinion. It's great for some things, but for people it's just dumbing everyone down. Don't get me started on social media.

back when people were smarter than phones, i still had hearing problems and found phone contact to be more work than it was worth and far more work than i could enjoy. my current tech fantasy is of having a text connection with no audio capabilities.

i don't believe the tech is ruining our lives. the ruination is in our strictly personal choices in how we use that tech. are we using our tech or is our tech using us? who's the boss?

@arfie you make a very good point on personal choices. I would love to discuss this further.

Example, would be work. My job is strictly tech and new applications that are for more labor intensive than what the programs we had before were. I see no benefit on it exvept a check box someone used to get a raise with. Click here and click there, and so one multiple clivks that take 2 minutes to do where before it was 1 click done in 10 seconds. Quite annoying.

At home. I dont buy into this whole house wifi stuff. Or use my phone as a remote control. However that is how some things are going. Or the alexa to turn on lights. I have 2 alexa gifted to me and i cant remember last time i used them. I cam dowload an app that will tell me when laundry is done or preheat my stove when i am in the car. I dont use those, but so many people love the "convenience" faster.

One fascinating thing, is how all this technology is affevting our brain waves.

ramble warning. how all this tech is affecting our brain waves is one of my pet ponderances.

have you ever seen the movie, "a beautiful mind?" the russel crowe character, john nash, was real and a bit of a hero to the men (yes, all men) who mentored my early tech career in the early 70's. john nash's plight was a syndrome in their generation of tech gurus. as mentors, these men were fanatical about monitoring the effects all this tech is affecting our brain waves. at that phase, the concern was more about lights and noise. the monitors we were using literally set off geiger counters. the old cryo-tube technology made enough noise to challenge the battlefield decibels in their unwavering buzzes and hums. my first real computer job was u.s. army signal corps. the first integrated networks were being introduced and debates were raging over the value that integration. the synchronization makes it all too easy to take down the entire net in one fell swoop. non-integrated circuits are closer to shooting down a swarm of locusts. fire away, good buddy. nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

not too many of those old world drips are in the digital cloud. they have stayed with the lost art of real-time conversation and printed media. when i walk into rooms filled with heads bowed to the cellu-light, i feel like i am witnessing the fulfillment of their most grim predictions. john nash's plight is the new normal. virtually speaking, of course. . . does "virtual" still mean almost?

@arfie i didnt see that movie. However, all the tech noise is not natural compared to nature noise. Tje nature noise is what was meant yo be and has been for centuries. Therefore causes chronic stress to us. And a slew of other things.

the noise levels of the old cryotube computers i started my communications career with has seldom been heard outside a server room since the advent of personal computers in the 80's, but that doesn't diminish the truth of nature noises being salve for the stressed out soul. and a slew of other things. . .