We REALLY Need to Talk! - Comments Page 2

Hello Comrades!
Wow, and I thought I was alone in this world.

The numbers are bewildering: It is said that over 91% of US adults own cellphone (as of May 2013) w/60% being the smartphone variety. The number is 6 of the 7billion world population got them and more people own them then they own toilets. "While the adoption figures are stunning by every measure—the cell phone is the most quickly adopted consumer technology in the history of the world." Last week, I heard the number is at 98% penetration in the US (May 2014) but I am not buying that one. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/06/cell-phone-ownership-hits-91-of-adults/

I violate every demographic bracket that is assigned a statistic.
I still try to communicate with Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and fastmail.fm but I am losing my audience at a very rapid pace, as I have been told I am too analog for the 21st Century. When I must text someone, I use my gVoice number but at least I have pitched my landline in favor of a Vonage SIP. I gave up Facebook as an early adopter and now use WordPress in attempt to leave an indelible mark in our digital world, via blogs. The 140 character limitations for new-age communications be damned, as far as I am concerned! Unfortunately, I have not found the proper Rx for accusations that I have verbal diarrhea (Q.E.D.)!

Hello!

I want to say that I totally agree with you Bob, and I am a baby boomer...a younger one, of course...at 58 LOL!!

I hate to see all the social sites out there like they are now! Competition is overwhelming, and it is just too much. I think My space had the right idea and now everyone has copied it. I bet I have 20 sites just for socializing, plus a ton of other stuff.

Thanks for all that you do Bob. I have followed you for years now. I always turn to you here for help. You are the best! Thanks!

Kat Markle

I'm a PC buff, now for nearly 35 years.
Like many who have responded, here, I only need an email address and my phone, (now 10 years old).
The rest of most of it, (except the needs of people and countries in perils or conflicts) is, in my humble opinion, proportionately a waste of Bandwidth.

Best regards to yourself and all here.
(UK)

"Personally, all I need is an email address and maybe a phone number."

Amen to that! All the rest of that bullsh*t is rubbish!

Buffet read my mind or stole my message...whatever! Ditto, dude!

(For the lackey who screens Bob's Mail: this is a personal question that might be worth a line or two in the weekly geeky update)

1) Bob, I too prefer to talk a phone call, not text one. It's why have a telephone. And use my messenger of FB to give a person my home phone. In five years I've gotten one phone call in return, so far more than 99% of what people want to type is not worth a (collect if they wish) phone call. (I'm 520-265-3738 and screen my calls, I don't need a new solar powered refer on my new integrated power-hot water heater that drapes under the gutters to give me what looks like new siding and double glazed windows. I do return all phone calls if asked to, save sales calls)

2) Yesterday I visited Yahoo! mail and noticed that they'd put up a notice that they turned off the 'do not track me' radio button in Mozilla. A) does this affect the DoNotTrackMe program from (?)Abine(?) ? I show what appears to be an uptick in blocked trackers yesterday, though it may have been due to my searches.

Thought that might be of interest to other readers, or perhaps it was only me.

2a) working on a second doctorate (Ph.D.) this time, not an Ed.D. as before. It is while on an VERY extended sabbatical - seems it's cheaper to hire freeway-flyers since the difference in my salary is only double digit numbers, w/o my benefits. So I may retire on sabbatical with only 3 years left.

2b) NOT FOR PUBLICATION. While wandering the Nevada Desert (NW and N Central) I found evidence for a series of coverups of what appears to be several nuclear 'spillages' that show up as a 400x-800x rise in background radiation (and a partly destroyed log-book with locations and readings which appear to have been changed. Thus I like to leave as small a footprint as I can now. It may turn out to be another MS/A degree if I play my cards right.

I suspect Yahoo! (more like Poop! these days)may be keeping records I do not wish to be kept on me, though I know that my ISP has most of my on-line searches conveniently caelogued in one place were someone really interested. Though changing computers (public library in different state from residence) would do little good if Poop! Mail tracks me throughout my session. I generally try to dump all cookies on exit and manually remove a few that 'intelligent cookie removal keeps) while at home, though the Library won't (for good reason) allow (even) a good patron to close and re-boot a computer like I do at home.

Is this just the ethical reason I need to dump Poop! Mail since I have been with it since Netscape times past. Do I need to start taking the steps to close out all my Yahoo!Mail now?, or is the threat so small as to approach Zero?

It's a true bother, an with many pages open simultaneously, closing completely out from Mozilla, manually dumping cookies, and rebooting. It becomes a costly (time wasted) process, even when done by rote. Especially when I check my e-mails for delivered journals (like ours) when I need a break from on-line reading.

=====================
Pet Peeve: Facebook 'pass-arounds' seem to all come in he same flavor third person plural, so platitudes apply to everyone but the person sending them. "You see to X before you Y" rather than "**I** need to X before "I" Y, or '. . .before **WE** Y". It's as though the person is preaching to ME, from ON HIGH (think: they are talking down to me with a problem they may or may not have). The embodiment of psychological denial, and improper self-projection onto others . . .

Thanks for any feed back you can give me about Poop!Mail, and if I should consider changing mail accounts because of this breach of moral values: (WE (poop!) don't have to abide by generally accepted rules because we are above your wishes, which is why we want to retain you as a good customer" - I find the policy highly unethical, and this is very close to my last straw. First moving unrelated adds composed of distracting images on the right, a mail bar that deletes messages BELOW IT without warning, and now notifying me that my personal choice is not important to them! Will they be reading my mail next and deciding what I may and may not read to fit into their concept of my world?

===========
Aside: If God is Dog backwards, is CAT, Tac backwares, which is why they always seem a pain in the butt? And is this why Yahoo become Oohay (ooh-eye) as in "Oh, you wanna good program well laddy Oh, aye, laddy this is the one for you!"

Thank you Bob for helpin turn Ignorance (not knowing) into Knowledge (not-stupid) --

Thanks, as always Bob, - Doc Paul.

Absolutely so right Bob. I have lost touch with old friends because they use one thing and I use something else, etc etc etc. Email or phone me or write me a letter. Or even, for heaven's sake, see if you can find that little button by my front door and try pressing it. Those are about the only "universal" means of communication left. All the rest is just useless money making junk that will disappear once the novelty wears off.

Written by a grumpy old 69 year old grandfather (grin).

Hey Nation its the nature of ageing and the garnering of wisdom that makes us appear cranky. Its just that we find it increasingly difficult to suffer fools and be PC except when it comes to those beautiful creatures aka grand children :)....and yep, emails and a mobile (cell) phone satisfies my comm needs

There's messaging and then there's communicating. There's a world of difference between the two. To communicate nothing beats face to face.

Ditto on the sheer insanity of (mostly stupid) communications options now. We have a tremendous regression going on in the guise of progress. Think of the tiny plastic prize in a Cracker Jack box.

Compare: speed typist 90+ wpm, vs 9 wpm tapping on a Palm Pilot handheld!! The old "hunt and peck" method with one or two fingers is now known as blasting away (so-o-o fast!) on a smartphone, hunting and pecking with ... 2 thumbs! (There was a reason for the negative expression "all thumbs.")

Compare: videos in real time (S - L - O - W) vs. speed-reading/skimming the written word.

Win in the race against time: resist most of those "urgent" news stories, resist commenting (let people be wrong on the internet!). Best: resist the computer and clean your house!

I finally signed up for a few social media accounts, only so I could tell people I had the accounts and avoid being called an old-fogey. But not Facebook (nothing but a time-sucking patchwork quilt on either side, posting or looking).

I use email, magicJack, land line phone and simple cell phone, and I use snail mail whenever I can. I want to live *my* life, not everybody else's!

I'm with you fellers' Email and phone (not necessarily in that order) is all I use. I was emailing and phone talking prior to the WWW and do not see any need for anything else. I do however, enjoy the hell out of using the USPS. Great dollar value, having someone pick up a document at my doorstep and getting it hand delivered to anywhere in the USA for less than half a dollar. Best deal around..

Email and phone number for me, too! Too many of the other means of communication are designed around the premise that everyone needs to know every little thought or action, and that's not my way of thinking at all.

You are right Bob, email and phone is essential.
All the others are luxury which I don't want and need. Beside that these are collecting tons of information, don't respect privacy and use it for other purposes. I still don't like them and spend time on it.

So glad to hear I am not the only one that thinks the over load is crazy. I'm directing your article to many who just might see the light......but they'll need the app for that won't they! LOL

Well for me it's primarily email. Still use the landline phone answering machine. Got a cell phone but barely use it. Texting is becoming a bit more necesary as I am working with a lot of 20-somethings and that's about all they know. I ended up with a Facebook account somewhat reluctantly but it became neccessary when a group I work with decided to use it for all primary communications (via a "secret group"). Plus the younger members of the family seem to communicate that way so...

And here's a tidbit for all of you. Was talking to an ATT installer/repair person recently after my landline went down. According to him we will be kissing landline service goodby within about 4 to 5 years around here as they switch over to "everything over a cable/fiber optic" system like U-Verse or cellular service. Copper wire POTS is following the dinosaurs into the sunset.

I completely agree with you - someone told me recently the being popular on Facebook is like sitting at the cool table in the cafeteria of a mental institution...................

email and cell phone mainly, 2 cells ($15 for the pair/ mo.).. USPS also. No texting, as that seems like reverting to Morse code especially on older phones. No social networks of any kind either. We did drop our land line as it was seldom used and got faster internet instead.

I completely agree with you - someone told me recently the being popular on Facebook is like sitting at the cool table in the cafeteria of a mental institution...................

I've come to appreciate my cell phone... and even texting. Especially now that I have an iPhone where I can voice text. No need to laboriously spell it out.
I would give up my landline in a split second if I knew how to send and receive faxes easily without one.

As for Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. - they all seem like they're a pain in the rear.

I'm with you fellers' Email and phone (not necessarily in that order) is all I use. I was emailing and phone talking prior to the WWW and do not see any need for anything else. I do however, enjoy the hell out of using the USPS. Great dollar value, having someone pick up a document at my doorstep and getting it hand delivered to anywhere in the USA for less than half a dollar. Best deal around..