'Slow living', and life in a pre-current-internet world

[John Webb]

I've steadfastly turned down the suggestions from a few friends about getting a 'smart phone'. Being retired I don't feel the need for it - I can look up things on the Internet at home; if I'm out I rarely need to. And some friends who do have smartphones do seem to be rather easily distracted.....

 

[Broucek]

For those of us working in the fully commercial world, the Internet and working at home have increased the pace of work very substantially. Taking a day or two of sick leave is actually quite tricky as deadlines are now stupidly compressed....

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Access and Barclaycard - mum and dad had to be interviewed by the bank manager to get one. Then in the shops, you had those swipey things where you laid carbon paper over the card and the "machine" imprinted the card details...

Yes and ribbon typewriters which were superseded in part by daisy wheel typewriters

 

[GusB]

To an extent, I feel as if I'm trapped between two worlds. I left school in 1992 and when I went to university I was introduced to this thing called the internet (it was actually called JANet, but various networks were becoming more interconnected and I don't want to go too off-topic). At the time, the concept of "talking" to someone in the US without an expensive telephone call was quite alien to most "normal" people. The "web" was a thing, but it was very much in its infancy and it was mostly boffin/geek stuff.

The boffin and geek stuff is still around if you know what you're looking for. Much of it has fallen by the wayside but I think that's to be expected when many of those sites were simply set up as hobby sites and people naturally move on to other interests.

The "professionalisation" of the web probably has much to do with it. Many of the early sites were hosted on academic networks - all well and good as long as the host remains a student or employee of the institution. Likewise, many early internet service providers used to provide some free web space, but the moment you switch to another company, your site will eventually go down. It all costs money these days and the "free" (as in beer) internet has largely disappeared.

 

[Falcon1200]

To put it straight the first thing I would do is censorship of the internet. There is a lot of rubbish out there - some of it very nasty. We need to face up to the fact it needs controlling.

I agree 100% re the rubbish on the internet, not just nasty but harmful sometimes too, but censorship is IMHO a dangerous path to take - Who decides what should be censored and what should not?

These days websites such as Traksy/Real Time Trains/Gen groups and forums et al are so helpful

Indeed, RealTime Trains in particular is so useful, and is now my default train journey planning tool. If only every operator would allow their stock allocations to be shown!

Being 65, I too grew up pre-internet, but would and could not do without it now - Apart from anything else, this Forum would not exist!
So many things are so much easier; For example, in 1975 I planned a trip to Wath Depot, which involved getting a bus from Rotherham. My Locoshed Book included basic details, but to find out more I had to make a special trip to Gloucester Green Bus Station in Oxford, where fortunately they had a copy of the relevant bus timetable book, and were able to tell me the times. Much easier now (although there is no longer any reason to visit Wath....)

 

[Indigo Soup]

I saw something somewhere (possibly another thread on this forum) about how "younger" people today - millennials (or at least those towards the younger half of the millennial generation) and younger generations - are almost incapable of being alone with their own thoughts, requiring a constant stimulus of conversing with other people, watching television or listening to music. It's nice to take a step back, put your phone in your pocket, leave the earphones at home and look and listen to what's going on around you. So many of us (as a whole) have abandoned "good old fashioned" hobbies and activities and replaced them with juggling half a dozen social media apps.

It's worth remembering that 'millennials' now includes people comfortably into their forties, some of whom are reasonably senior managers and/or grandparents, and even the youngest are nearly 30. The days of 'millennial' meaning 'work-shy young person' are long gone!

I do think we need to accept that the world of today is much more interconnected than in the past, and much more fast paced, for good or ill. The problems that come with it need to be managed. Good data protection laws are essential to prevent the harvesting of our personal information - though the horse is probably long gone on this one. Social media websites need to be regulated as media publishers, or as communication providers, not pick whichever of the two suits them on any given day.

And, probably, there needs to be oversight of proprietary algorithms. It's entirely too easy for those who control a platform to determine what content people get to see, and shape messages accordingly. TikTok and Facebook are the famous examples of this. Twitter under Musk has done so in a really obvious way. But the search engines are undoubtedly at it too.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I agree 100% re the rubbish on the internet, not just nasty but harmful sometimes too, but censorship is IMHO a dangerous path to take - Who decides what should be censored and what should not?

Yes how to actually censor the internet is a difficult subject. But probably easier to actually do than not bothering to censor it.

Indeed, RealTime Trains in particular is so useful, and is now my default train journey planning tool. If only every operator would allow their stock allocations to be shown!

Being 65, I too grew up pre-internet, but would and could not do without it now - Apart from anything else, this Forum would not exist!
So many things are so much easier; For example, in 1975 I planned a trip to Wath Depot, which involved getting a bus from Rotherham. My Locoshed Book included basic details, but to find out more I had to make a special trip to Gloucester Green Bus Station in Oxford, where fortunately they had a copy of the relevant bus timetable book, and were able to tell me the times. Much easier now (although there is no longer any reason to visit Wath....)

Ah ha. Brings back memories, same here. Circa 1976 writing off to GMPTE (if that is what it was way back then) for bus timetables allowing me access to the home of class 76s at Reddish depot. I went to the library in Chatham for maps and there was a shed directory (by NREA ?). I was travelling on a Sunday from my grandparents in Birmingham (my launch pad for all sorties in the North of England). My trips North from Birmingham where almost always squeezed by the diversion via Walsall and Rugely !.

Nowadays its all from the internet. Yes my last trip to Wolverton included using google earth to see what angles and vantage points I would need. Crewe and Eastleigh will be the same.

 

[JohnMcL7]

Facebook - I found most of my car forum have drifted onto facebook. I am now bombarded with notifications for non-car related events - usually family oriented. I do not see any actual car related posts. The only place I see that is Vauxhall Carltons selling on ebay for alarmingly high prices !.

It is on forums that things like moderators kept things organised !.

Soon be wishing I was doing everything by CASH.

I do find it frustrating since I don't find Facebook is a suitable replacement for forums but it seems to be the way that many forums have either disappeared or moved onto Facebook groups. I find Facebook groups are fine for very simple, short conversations but they quickly become impractical once there's a few more replies or images while forums can handle much larger threads without issue.

 

[nlogax]

Maybe we should aim to be a bit more like Christopher Walken.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...ll-be-more-like-severances-christopher-walken

Perhaps the buzziest show on TV is Severance, a twisty-turny workplace drama that is available to anyone with a subscription to Apple TV+. Of course, there are ways to watch Severance without an Apple subscription. The primary one is: be Christopher Walken, because then they will send you DVDs of it.

Talking to the Wall Street Journal, Walken explained: “I don’t have technology. I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I have seen Severance on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me.” The reason Walken receives DVDs is because he is actually in Severance, which dramatically raises the bar for people who would also like to watch it on DVD.

Walken didn’t stop there. “I don’t have a cellphone,” the actor went on. “I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered. I’ve never had a watch either. But if I need the time, I just ask somebody. Likewise, once in a while when I need to use a phone, I just ask if I can borrow one.”

 

[Romsey]

There are a lot of interesting view in this thread.
I started work in 1974 and within a year I was working in a TOPS office. I was appointed because I had used a scientific computer at Technical College, therefore I "knew" about computers! When I retired in 2017, I was still using TSBD which is an extension of the early version of TOPS.... Thinking back we had clear instructions (procedure manuals) for all the processes. Nowadays the change from windows 10 to 11 has no meaningful guidance apart from "how smart we are" loading ever more processes which most users don't need. (That was a comment from our local computer repair shop.)

But what get me is things like BT internet blocking e-mails for no reason apart from one message being classified as spam but other servers accepting it. Or the ball aching process of resetting a log in to give access to the web mail version of an email account.

I do use technology, but when it suits me. I have a smart phone which is useful for travel updates and for whatsapp messages organising/managing elderly parents and parents inlaw. (Despairing Children) Otherwise it isn't welded to my hand. Google street view has saved hours of walking to check photo locations in the UK , Europe and Canada. It has also found interesting places which we would never have found like the bell foundry in Innsbruck. Social media is limited to posting items on facebook for two small museum groups. Facebook can be a slippery slope for wasting hours. Otherwise the genie can stay firmly in its bottle. Some of the comments about people stopping conversations to look at their phone because it's made a noise really do need a "like" button here.

Enquiry apps are reducing our knowledge of geography, no longer do we look at a route map and a timetable to work out where to go. Remember that a the batteries won't go flat on a printed map. out of date is better than nothing.

One last comment, from undertaking slide shows for railway groups. At a recent group I was greeted with "good, a real projector and slides. That means there will be no problems!"

Back to listing slides from the 1980's for two talks in March.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I do find it frustrating since I don't find Facebook is a suitable replacement for forums but it seems to be the way that many forums have either disappeared or moved onto Facebook groups. I find Facebook groups are fine for very simple, short conversations but they quickly become impractical once there's a few more replies or images while forums can handle much larger threads without issue.

Yes, the problem with facebook is it does not allow for any structure. You cannot have threads on particular subjects (car cooling systems, engine management, wipers etc etc) and so cannot group things logically. It is just a liner conversation.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2025 ==

There are a lot of interesting view in this thread.
I started work in 1974 and within a year I was working in a TOPS office. I was appointed because I had used a scientific computer at Technical College, therefore I "knew" about computers! When I retired in 2017, I was still using TSBD which is an extension of the early version of TOPS.... Thinking back we had clear instructions (procedure manuals) for all the processes. Nowadays the change from windows 10 to 11 has no meaningful guidance apart from "how smart we are" loading ever more processes which most users don't need. (That was a comment from our local computer repair shop.)

But what get me is things like BT internet blocking e-mails for no reason apart from one message being classified as spam but other servers accepting it. Or the ball aching process of resetting a log in to give access to the web mail version of an email account.

I do use technology, but when it suits me. I have a smart phone which is useful for travel updates and for whatsapp messages organising/managing elderly parents and parents inlaw. (Despairing Children) Otherwise it isn't welded to my hand. Google street view has saved hours of walking to check photo locations in the UK , Europe and Canada. It has also found interesting places which we would never have found like the bell foundry in Innsbruck. Social media is limited to posting items on facebook for two small museum groups. Facebook can be a slippery slope for wasting hours. Otherwise the genie can stay firmly in its bottle. Some of the comments about people stopping conversations to look at their phone because it's made a noise really do need a "like" button here.

Enquiry apps are reducing our knowledge of geography, no longer do we look at a route map and a timetable to work out where to go. Remember that a the batteries won't go flat on a printed map. out of date is better than nothing.

One last comment, from undertaking slide shows for railway groups. At a recent group I was greeted with "good, a real projector and slides. That means there will be no problems!"

Back to listing slides from the 1980's for two talks in March.

Ah yes. Navigation. I find the TfL site for navigation a bit tiresome. It will come up with different routes at different times only minutes apart. All are the quickest in the 5-10 minute slot but involve some quite convoluted routes, many connections and rely on everything working fine. I prefer a route with the fewest stages (connections) and good frequency on all stages so no missed connections.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

To paraphrase Victoria Wood, that title took two days to think up: one day for the name, and another for the comma... and yet it still makes no sense.
Let's see if I can explain myself - strap yourselves in, keep arms and feet inside the ride at all times, and keep an eye out for a buffet service of hot food and drinks...

I've found myself thinking of late that the internet and Life In General is perhaps a bit too fast and that it would be nice to slow down a little bit. I don't whether this is just me - but I do know I won't be the only one here who has spent much too much time scrolling endlessly on my phone (or laptop or fridge or other web-enabled device), and that's the sort of thing I'm referring to because I think we all know how quickly fads and news stories and pretty much anything seems to come and go online and how social media in particular is always keen to serve users the 'next big thing' and all that. I promise I'm getting somewhere...

So, the reason behind this thread: I'm mostly wondering if there are any other users who feel the same? I'm also wondering - would you say that in the, say, decade or so before the mass-adoption of the internet (which someone as hideously young as me wasn't around for), the pace of life was better or worse? Gosh it sounds like a survey now but I hope you see what I mean. I've been trying to find ways of not spending so much time stuck to the internet (including reading these paper things - books?) - and yes, I'm perfectly aware of the irony of how that sounds when I've spent so much time writing this - and each time I find a 'new' way of doing this I find myself thinking 'this feels like how life must've been before the internet'. Again - probably making no sense here, but there's nothing new there.

If you can decipher any of the above, I should very much like to hear your own thoughts on my pontifications (triple word score).

-Peter

I’ve been thinking of starting a thread along similar lines so well done for beating me to it!

For me though, the all-pervasive use of the internet/ smartphones and slow living are two separate concepts so I’ll take each issue separately.

Yes, the internet, once a useful source of information, is now designed to be an addictive waste of your time; not just social media but so-called reputable websites as well. Take a news website such as The Guardian, for example. Every article or opinion piece on there has several clickable links within the text leading to related articles and you’ll also find further links to similar stories at the bottom of the page. Then of course you’ll find a comments section underneath with hundreds of comments and counter arguments and it takes a strong will to avoid joining in and correcting people whose opinions are so-clearly wrong! Sadly I can be just as easily sucked in as anyone else. Many’s the time I’ve sat down in the pub with a pint and a good book and thought “I’ll just check the news on my phone” then, half an hour later I’ve finished my pint, haven’t even opened my book and have found out lots of information I didn’t really need to know.

And it doesn’t seem to be just young people who are addicted to the internet/ smartphones either. Many of the mature commuters I see on my journey to work can barely get on the train before they’re obsessively gawping at their phones for the entire journey and some can’t even tear their eyes away from their screen when they get off so walk down the street still entranced by their phone, oblivious to the people and traffic around them. I sometimes wonder if these people are connected to a secret internet I can’t access as I’ve never found a website so fascinating I have to spend every waking minute staring at it!

So what’s the solution? Well for one thing I would suggest only turn on your phone when you need to know something. The analogy I’ve used before is that you don’t leave your oven on all day in case you suddenly fancy a pizza so why leave your phone on all day? Simply switch on, find out what you need to know, then switch off. If people need to contact you they can always leave a message; respond when it’s convenient for you, not for them!

Secondly, in terms of social media, I accept that it can be useful to have a twitter or facebook account for keeping up to date with your hobbies and interest but if you do, don’t use your real name and never post anything as it’s human nature that as soon as you do, you’ll be curious to see how others have responded and be tempted to repsond to them in turn

I’ll post about the “slow living” aspect later as it’s something close to my heart but if you’ll excuse me, I’ve just got to check my WhatsApps!

 

[dcbwhaley]

I've steadfastly turned down the suggestions from a few friends about getting a 'smart phone'. Being retired I don't feel the need for it - I can look up things on the Internet at home; if I'm out I rarely need to. And some friends who do have smartphones do seem to be rather easily distracted.....

I find my smart phone very useful for checking bus and train times when I am out and about.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jan 2025 ==

Agreed. My mother is bad for this, the moment her phone "pings" she will cut off mid-sentence to read and reply to a message instantly, as if the message is going to disappear. She doesn't seem to see the irony of interrupting the flow of a face-to-face conversation in order to maintain the flow of a remote conversation.

But that happened in the days before mobile phone.
Nobody would leave a ringing POT unanswered however important the meeting it disturbed.

I was one disciplined for failing to answer the phone on a another desk in our communal office, even though I knew nothing about the occupants affairs.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jan 2025 ==

I

Being 65, I too grew up pre-internet, but would and could not do without it now - Apart from anything else, this Forum would not exist!

Does no one see the irony of decrying social media ion a social media platform.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I find my smart phone very useful for checking bus and train times when I am out and about.

Same here - I use my (old) smart phone primarily for information. It was the main reason I replaced my (even older) old Nokia.

But that happened in the days before mobile phone.
Nobody would leave a ringing POT unanswered however important the meeting it disturbed.

I was one disciplined for failing to answer the phone on a another desk in our communal office, even though I knew nothing about the occupants affairs.

Indeed I have been nagged for not answering the landline.
My reply is the person at the other end cannot see I am busy.

Does no one see the irony of decrying social media ion a social media platform.

I do see the irony.
Oh...

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I see two issues.

Firstly the perceived need to be on every social media platform, constantly checking for 'likes', 'replies' or whatever which just fills your time for no real benefit. Just as you can limit yourself to a single railway orientated forum rather than every single one (this one, obviously!), you can limit yourself to fewer, or just one social media. It would be helpful if organisations did the same. Could First please decide (if!) where it is going to post bus service updates, then stick with that one method, or post to them all at the same time.

I guess that depends on your lifestyle and how essential being in touch is eg for updates to events. I go to the pub, some people are there this week, some aren't, just like it was in the days of the carrier pigeon. I don't need a constant update of who is thinking of coming, dropping out, being a bit earlier / later etc. Do I really need that photograph of someone’s pretty ordinary curry on a Saturday night, do I really need to post a copy of mine in return?

Secondly the rise of poor quality information which people treat as FACT, especially from so-called 'influencers' who are, in reality, advertisers. Any reasonable questioning of such stated 'facts' seems to pass many people by. Oh, by the way, the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese. It must be I read it here on social media, no need to seek a second and third source. The mainstream media are just as lacking in much verification nowadays. Cutbacks I suppose, no time, pressure to publish more with fewer resources.

However, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. The ability to get, near instantaneously, worldwide information on any subject which would never have been possible from a bricks and mortar library - however good its reference section and use of inter-library loans. Imagine waiting several weeks to get a Peru atlas, just to find that the railways weren't marked on it. Or the historical information was in a different book, cue several more weeks wait and hope. Neither included any information about current services / times / prices so, as previous posts have suggested, a letter or phone call to somewhere.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I see two issues.

Firstly the perceived need to be on every social media platform, constantly checking for 'likes', 'replies' or whatever which just fills your time for no real benefit. Just as you can limit yourself to a single railway orientated forum rather than every single one (this one, obviously!), you can limit yourself to fewer, or just one social media. It would be helpful if organisations did the same. Could First please decide (if!) where it is going to post bus service updates, then stick with that one method, or post to them all at the same time.

This is what I notice. How desperate some people are for feedback.

Granted I frequent the forum for its information and get attracted to non-railway discussions.
My only other forums was a car forum that demised.

Other than that I use Whats App and I am on a few groups. One group has too many people and too many digressions. A family group with one son who posts HUNDREDS of pictures forwarded from facebook apparently (facebook periodically send him an album of everything from ten years ago so its easy to select all and click forward). I have to keep on top of deleting photos/videos as otherwise my phone chokes. It is when I spend an hour deleting hundreds of old posts I realise how much time I must have spent reading them when they first arrived !.

I have to check reasonably carefully as the hoarder in me is afraid I might delete something I want !.

Must keep on top of all these posts !!!!!.

I guess that depends on your lifestyle and how essential being in touch is eg for updates to events. I go to the pub, some people are there this week, some aren't, just like it was in the days of the carrier pigeon. I don't need a constant update of who is thinking of coming, dropping out, being a bit earlier / later etc. Do I really need that photograph of someone’s pretty ordinary curry on a Saturday night, do I really need to post a copy of mine in return?

This is so true. I once replied with my empty plate ?.

My missus watches YouTube videos of people eating and eating and eating !.

Secondly the rise of poor quality information which people treat as FACT, especially from so-called 'influencers' who are, in reality, advertisers. Any reasonable questioning of such stated 'facts' seems to pass many people by. Oh, by the way, the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese. It must be I read it here on social media, no need to seek a second and third source. The mainstream media are just as lacking in much verification nowadays. Cutbacks I suppose, no time, pressure to publish more with fewer resources.

I have come across TV news stories that are just reporting what they have found on the internet. Sort of undermines the whole purpose of TV journalism.

However, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. The ability to get, near instantaneously, worldwide information on any subject which would never have been possible from a bricks and mortar library - however good its reference section and use of inter-library loans. Imagine waiting several weeks to get a Peru atlas, just to find that the railways weren't marked on it. Or the historical information was in a different book, cue several more weeks wait and hope. Neither included any information about current services / times / prices so, as previous posts have suggested, a letter or phone call to somewhere.

This is the painful truth - the quest for information.
Sometimes in life we have to sift through stuff to get rid of the chaff.
Trouble is it sometimes feels like a sack of wheat only contains a few grains
- and a weevil (aka mis-information).

 

[The exile]

The ability to look up information is amazing, but with regards to the rubbish and the nasty stuff - is it worse than what would be heard in the pub ? Is the issue amplification by social media, and to be frank, today's media?

What you heard in the pub was different in a couple of ways - firstly , the person you heard it from was there - in person - and you, or someone else, knew them. Secondly - for the gossip to go further it first had to be exposed (literally) to the cold light of day. In the same way, discovering that six of your clique of seven have gone to a party without including you is bad enough when you find out by chance a couple of weeks later - but much worse when you see the photos in real time on Social Media.

 

[scotrail158713]

I’ve just deleted the Twitter app off my phone this week and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. I was wasting far too much time on it and more recently it was getting far too toxic for my liking. I’m still on Facebook (mainly for parkrun information) and Instagram (to keep in touch with friends) but I don’t tend to post much on either site.

The constant pinging of my phone with notifications does tend to annoy me, especially as most of them are not time critical. For that reason my phone tends to be on silent most of the time. If I know I might be expecting a phone call then I’ll leave the sound on, but the rest of the time it’s usually off so I don’t constantly need to check and see what that sound was.

Other than that I use Whats App and I am on a few groups. One group has too many people and too many digressions. A family group with one son who posts HUNDREDS of pictures forwarded from facebook apparently (facebook periodically send him an album of everything from ten years ago so it’s easy to select all and click forward). I have to keep on top of deleting photos/videos as otherwise my phone chokes. It is when I spend an hour deleting hundreds of old posts I realise how much time I must have spent reading them when they first arrived !.

Do you know you can turn off WhatsApp photos automatically saving to your camera roll? Like you I used to receive a lot and spent a lot of time deleting photos, but it’s a lot easier now I’ve turned it off. If you do ever receive a photo you do wish to save then you can still do that though.

 

[Ghostbus]

If the documentary film Ferris Beuller's Day Off has anything to say on the matter.....

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

......then it's not really mobile phones or the www.

That movie came out in 1986.

It is capitalism and the rat race. The relentless pursuit of money and things and the all important validation of others all doing the same.

The secret of life is to find what you love to do, and do it.

If that's being wedded to a phone, and you genuinely aren't in an abusive relationship with a tiny little demon in your pocket, then settle in and enjoy your life.

Pre-internet childhood at least most definitely sucked. I'd have definitely traded all those precious few hours spent doing pretty much nothing much pretty slowly, for what can be done when you have 24/7 comms with and tracking of your crew and the world in your pocket. Even secure pocket money.

I am beyond jealous of today's kids. Lucky little anxiety riddled cyber bullied over stimulated innocence lost sods.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I’ve just deleted the Twitter app off my phone this week and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. I was wasting far too much time on it and more recently it was getting far too toxic for my liking. I’m still on Facebook (mainly for parkrun information) and Instagram (to keep in touch with friends) but I don’t tend to post much on either site.

The constant pinging of my phone with notifications does tend to annoy me, especially as most of them are not time critical. For that reason my phone tends to be on silent most of the time. If I know I might be expecting a phone call then I’ll leave the sound on, but the rest of the time it’s usually off so I don’t constantly need to check and see what that sound was.


Do you know you can turn off WhatsApp photos automatically saving to your camera roll? Like you I used to receive a lot and spent a lot of time deleting photos, but it’s a lot easier now I’ve turned it off. If you do ever receive a photo you do wish to save then you can still do that though.

Now that is worth knowing, and repeating.
I have tried, how does one do it ?.

 

[Jimini]

Now that is worth knowing, and repeating.
I have tried, how does one do it ?.

Go into settings, then chats, then turn off the 'Save to photos' radio button.

 

[317 forever]

I'm glad it's not just me!


I completely agree with the sentiment of your last line in particular. I've begun writing letters to people because I think it's just generally nicer to receive a handwritten (or even typed) letter in the post - something someone has put proper effort into composing, presenting, and posting - than receiving a 'ping' notification and seeing someone has sent you a text message. Plus - and this might be the historian in me - I do worry a bit about what will happen to all our correspondence online in years to come. The internet is already littered with once-popular websites and forums where a server has gone down and so photographs etc. have been lost, and I've been thinking about what might happen to all my (many, many) conversations with friends and relatives should something like WhatsApp go down.


I think some of my recent change in attitude, and desire to do things a bit more slowly, is seeing how much worse so many things online seem to be nowadays - when pretty much every website I want to use is filled with AI chatbots and pop-up notifications, it makes me wonder - how on earth did we ever get by before Google introduced its AI search result thing...! </sarcasm>
In all seriousness, though, I completely agree with you re. the internet being addictive. I think I have definitely learned a lot from it - I particularly enjoy being able to connect with, and learn from, people around the globe - but then you've always got to measure that against the negatives to get a true measure of its effect. If there was a way to turn the internet off for a few hours a day around the world just so we could all go outside and do something face-to-face rather than over Zoom or even Microsoft Teams, I'd like that one please! There must be a big 'on/off' button for the internet somewhere.


Yes the rate of progress is a good point. Sometimes I wonder what someone born one-hundred years ago might think about the technological changes the world has seen in their lifetime - from radio through television to the internet and now AI. And of course Ceefax!

-Peter

I often have days when I avoid certain websites. My participation in transport forums is mainly just weekends, while I conversely tend to avoid Digital Spy and watching political programmes online on Saturdays and occasional weekdays.

On a more extreme note, I sometimes avoid accessing emails on my days off work. On some special occasions such as Boxing Day, I even have an "online social holiday" in which I access no emails or social sites - namely forums as I have no Facebook, Instagram etc.

 

[Indigo Soup]

On a more extreme note, I sometimes avoid accessing emails on my days off work.

If that's your work email, then I should certainly hope so!

 

[JohnMcL7]

The constant pinging of my phone with notifications does tend to annoy me, especially as most of them are not time critical. For that reason my phone tends to be on silent most of the time. If I know I might be expecting a phone call then I’ll leave the sound on, but the rest of the time it’s usually off so I don’t constantly need to check and see what that sound was.

This is one of the reasons I like having a smartwatch since it means I can have the phone completely on silent and also means if notifications come in I can just glance at the watch and see if it's something that needs a response or not, it's particularly useful when I'm on call and need to be keeping an eye on them without having them be too disruptive. When I had a smartphone first with a decent amount of mobile data I did spend some time tuning notifications which helps a bit although I've noticed many apps want to send a ridiculous amount of notifications by default when many of them don't need to be sending any notifications.

 

[317 forever]

If that's your work email, then I should certainly hope so!

I wasn't referring to work emails, although I don't log on to those either.

I mean that I avoid my personal emails on occasional days off. Some of them are advertising for example new jobs. I don't need daily reminders of these. One of the dumbing-downs of the internet age I don't like is how it is made out all days are very similar. No they are not

I would keep a maximum of 1 day off emails at a time. Then if there is something important, or where it is sensitive to reply relatively promptly, I can still do so.

 

[Stathern Jc]

Many readers here will remember the days of coming home to find piles of junk mail on the doormat.
And no doubt many will also remember the simple amusement in filling the pre-paid return envelopes to send the various senders the marketing junk that had come from someone else.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Many readers here will remember the days of coming home to find piles of junk mail on the doormat.
And no doubt many will also remember the simple amusement in filling the pre-paid return envelopes to send the various senders the marketing junk that had come from someone else.

Ah, not just me then. And I used to pack the envelope so it was large letter.

 

[dcbwhaley]

Many readers here will remember the days of coming home to find piles of junk mail on the doormat.
And no doubt many will also remember the simple amusement in filling the pre-paid return envelopes to send the various senders the marketing junk that had come from someone else.

Still do that

 

[EveningStar]

When I first started working we had typing pools. A letter would come in, you would draft a reply and send it to the typing pool, when it came back you would read it and think that's not quite right, revise it, send it back to the typing pool and all being well the reply would eventually go out a few days after the original letter came in. The process was slow but more considered. I remember when we received our first fax and the shock of faxing a response back the same day.

Writing a letter required some effort and cost of a stamp and if you wanted a reply you could not be anonymous. Queries or comments were therefore more civil and better thought out.

Likewise. And as the placement student and then for a while as the graduate, between drafting and sending to the typing pool there was let the boss rip the draft to shreds so one learnt to do it properly.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

When I first started working we had typing pools. A letter would come in, you would draft a reply and send it to the typing pool, when it came back you would read it and think that's not quite right, revise it, send it back to the typing pool and all being well the reply would eventually go out a few days after the original letter came in. The process was slow but more considered. I remember when we received our first fax and the shock of faxing a response back the same day.

Writing a letter required some effort and cost of a stamp and if you wanted a reply you could not be anonymous. Queries or comments were therefore more civil and better thought out.

I'm not entirely sure of the last sentence but it does hold water in general terms.

As well as the typing pool there was the filing clerk. Ours had a special file for each of the special individuals who would write in completely incoherently, with or without swear words, or others that would send in their fantasy designs for how bits of the town should be rebuilt.