I hate to further hijack my own damned thread, but, what the hey . . .
I don’t think “offended” is the correct word here and I’m not really speaking to how people use technology, per se. It’s more of an observation that people (IMO) didn’t seem to be showing a lot of respect for what I saw as a pretty momentous occasion. And since it was being photographed / filmed by untold numbers of media sources I don’t really get the cause of the behavior. Kind of the same way I’d feel if I was at a wedding and the bride and groom marched down the aisle with a camera at their eye.
I responded with a weird literal interpretation because I couldn’t make sense out of what your argument was supposed to be. If only some of the people were doing what you describe (and again, I doubt even a majority were doing it) then how could you be making a point about how people, in general, are these days? But you did seem to be trying to make a point that general. So all I could think to do was emphasize how your statements are, in fact, exaggerations–precisely to draw attention to how irrational your reaction to the actual unexaggerated facts appears to be.
It appears to me that you are arguing that people these days can’t simply authentically be anywhere because they have to have a filtered experience. Is that not what you’re arguing? If it is then literally nothing you’ve said justifies the claim. If it’s not then I don’t know what you’re saying. Your summary in your latest post appears to be compatible with mine–you’re talking in terms of “peoples’ inability…” which appears to me to be intended to be a very general point about people in general. How general are you trying to be here? Of course I know you don’t mean every individual–you don’t include yourself for example. But by talking about “people” you seem to be trying to say something about the standard, the norm, what is typical, for at least a generation of people if not more. But nothing you’ve said would support any claims about any group so wide. Is that not how wide the group is? Then how wide is it? Just exactly and only those who use cell phones at the Olympics? You still haven’t supported your point, because as I said, the fact that someone is using a phone to view an event at the Olympics has shit all to do with the question of whether they can have unfiltered experience. It has shit all to do with the question of whether they’re having unfiltered experience even while using that phone in the manner you describe.
Yeah, I guess “offended” is apt here–though I in fact don’t use phones in the manner you’re talking about, so “offended on their behalf” is the way to put it. You’re making huge and significant judgments on the value of people’s experience based, AFAICT, on complete ignorance about what they’re doing.
You’re old, aren’t you? I keep finding myself having a complete and unfortunate lack of respect for the judgments of elders, and you’re sounding like one of them.
I guess I get this way around the holidays… for reasons that may be guessed at…
I cannot fathom this. You’re just… wrong. I know you probably think it’s a matter of opinion what’s “weird” and “inappropriate” but it’s not. It’s not a matter of opinion whether it would have been inappropriate for someone to streak my wedding, and it’s not a matter of opinion whether it’s inappropriate to record events at the Olympics from the stands. Streaking at my wedding would have been objectively inappropriate. Recording the olympics, objectively, is not. Someone who streaked at my wedding would have been making a mistake and would have deserved correction. Someone who judges Olympics recorders is making a mistake and deserves correction.
Frylock, people who are old use camera phones, too. The people who stumble around reading and texting in crowds are oblivious to those they are bumping into and oblivious to the people who are trying to pass them in the sidewalk and in the aisles. Walking into parked cars, bumping older people, mowing down little kids. Cell phone texters and social media addicts will park just about anywhere in public spaces to read and respond, unaware and unconcerned with blocking doorways, paths, and items other shoppers are attempting to reach. Someone who whips out a cell to take a picture steps back to set up a shot (of toothpaste, of a car, of any number of mundane objects) and expects busy strangers to wait or go around. Sitting five rows back at a concert I’m treated to fifteen or so extended arms, constant flashes, and no choice but to watch the band through fifteen tiny viewfinders.
Paying more attention to pocket technology turns people into incredibly rude and inconsiderate zombies. I don’t know if their experience is lessened by recording it, but my experience surely suffers.
Is there a solution? Nope. This is where we are right now. But it’s rude, it’s distracting, and it’s a nuisance to those around you.
Why is the cell phone user the zombie for not getting out of your way? Instead, why aren’t you the zombie for not noticing them and going around them?
You say they’re not noticing the people around them and adjusting accordingly. Yet, it takes two to have a collision. You see a cell phone raising, you steer clear. How is that hard? You would demand that they not raise a cell phone? Then they demand you steer clear. Who is right?
I literally never have the navigational problems some people describe in dealing with those using cell phones. If you find yourself having these run-ins alot, perhaps it would be good to remember the adage about what the common factor is in all the problems an individual keeps having…
So in your world it’s acceptable to block doorways, clog up aisles, back into strangers, walk in an unpredictable zigzag fashion making it difficult to pass your text-crawling pace, prevent others from reaching objects you’ve parked yourself in front of, yell personal, private information to everyone forced to overhear your conversations, force cashiers to repeat totals and questions to you, hold up the line while you juggle a conversation, cell phone, and your wallet, interrupt movies with bright screens and ringtones, and generally operate as if you are the only person in the store/at the show/in line? At best, it’s selfish and impolite. At worst it’s antisocial and dangerous. Doubt me? Check out some insurance statistics. Some people are capable of being considerate while obsessing over a cell phone in public spaces. Most aren’t.
No, those things don’t sound okay to me in my world. I am simply not convinced cell phones are the problem. People are inconsiderate with or without them. I don’t know what you’re saying about insurance statistics. And all of this has little to do with whether it’s “weird and inappropriate” to record the Olympics from the stands. And again I don’t have encounters of the type you’re describing. What difference between you and I can account for this?
My phone doesn’t have a camera. I already alluded to this above.
I basivcally never use it. It’s for emergency communication. When I do text, I try to be either sitting, or against a wall out of the way, or in a wide open space.
Working with what you gave me. Public spaces are for the public to share and utilize. Distracted people staggering about, bumping into things, stopping abrubtly in the the middle of a crowd, obstructing others’ view with extended arms, camera flash, and brightly lit screens are rude, inconsiderate, and antisocial. We have no choice but to learn to live with this behavior and learn to navigate around it, but it doesn’t make it any less of a pisser.
Doesn’t matter how you choose to use your phone in your own space. Video the television you are watching (happens all the time, check YouTube). Run up and down your driveway while texting (but don’t drift into my lane). Photograph your grilled cheese and post on FB (don’t photograph your popcorn in the dark theater). It really isn’t that hard to run errands or enjoy a movie without the cell phone tit held to your face.
And has always happened, even in the absence of cell phones. People in grocery stores, for example, ofteen seem incapable of knowing that they are blocking an aisle. Cell phones need not be present for this. (Indeed I don’t remember even a single phone-related instance, though I remember many instances.)
Say “excuse me,” or wait patiently and think about something interesting. These are my responses, and they seem to work for me.
(BTW why would you find it noteworthy that one record what one is watching for youtube? It seems reasonable to me.)
