241 thoughts on “20 Signs You’re A Slave To Modern Technology”

1. Analogue socialization hint for the young fellas: it’s okay to be with someone in silence. Quietly playing cards with colleagues at lunch. Going camping with a friend and staring at the fire together, each thinking his own thoughts. Or lying in the park, gazing up at the swaying treetops with your girl curled against you. If you’re talking all the time a lot of it will have to be filler. There’s no need to plug a gap with either endless words or mindless electronic distraction.

   1. Fantastic comment. My best friend from high school and I still meet up on occasion and after we catch up and shoot the shit for a while, we generally tend to drift to quiet games and Scotch.

      1. Nothing like a well aged single malt and a few friends to share it with.

   2. One of the last few remaining male spaces is the poker room. Apart from a few female dealers and guys wives, it’s 99% male. Some of the best conversations I’ve had were playing poker, whether it’s talking to doctors, lawyers, WW2 vets, or professional gamblers, it’s always interesting.

   3. Outstanding! Still recall and treasure sitting silently in the milk barn with my uncle waiting for the next change of milkers. Hunting is another one of those things, particularly if you are sitting in a blind out in the boonies.

      1. Yes. Fishing too. Sun just below the horizon about to come up and everything is quiet and still. When I tell people that the point of fishing is not actually to catch fish, they generally don’t understand.

         1. I remember when I was about 6, my dad took me fishing for the first time…. I truly felt alive, happy and content. I vividly recall saying, “This is the life.”

   4. You’re preaching to the choir here – try convincing WOMEN of that … !

   5. I play chess with my friend occasionally, sometimes one game will last over an hour and we dont speak one word while playing. Just patiently thinking about a move or waiting for the other person to make a move

      1. Board games are a good litmus test for people. Not this Apples to Apples/Cards Against Humanity bull crap but a thinking game like chess or European style games that require concentration and strategy.

         1. risk. if it has you eventually contemplating murdering at least one of the other players…well, that means you’re human.

         2. A game of risk always leads to anger and violence

         3. DO you include in the category of ‘thinking game’ historical military simulations, both board game and miniatures?

         4. I was paid 104000 bucks previous 12 months by doing an internet based job as well as I was able to do it by w­orking in my own time f­o­r quite a few hours each day. I used work opportunity I stumbled upon on the web and so I am delighted that I was in a position to earn such decent cash. It’s undoubtedly newbie-friendly and I’m so pleased that I discovered out about it. Look into exactly what I do… http://b1z.org/37W

   6. the young’uns all think any kind of silence is “creepy” and “awkward” now

   7. “gazing up at the swaying treetops with your girl curled against you. If you’re talking all the time a lot of it will have to be filler. There’s no need to plug a gap with either endless words or mindless electronic distraction.”
      I respectfully disagree somewhat. Today’s females are complete babies that cannot stand silent moments. If there is a gap inbetween telling ‘cupcake’ the retarded shit she wants to hear and you are at a loss of something to say, then offer her a line of coke or something.

   8. that’s one thing my wife doesn’t get. we go camping and while I’m trying to settle with book and put my feet up whilst sipping at my beer, the silence seems to overwhelm her. figure on going camping at least once this year by myself.

2. Technology is the epitome of deatching yourself from reality. It is the very reason as to why the human cognitive mechanisms have been rewired and rengineered resulting in the numerous behavioural traits to be seen in the average person which is despised by many including myself, such as narcissism and instant gratification.
   Yesterday morning, I went out for a jog and just by experiencing the breeze across my face while I was sweating helped me to feel reinvigorated and in touch with nature. It was a refreshing feeling and while I was making the commitment to work hard in maintaining my health, I was at the same time thinking about the numerous people who instead of undertaking a more healthy activity, would rather choose to stay at home infront of a television playing their video games or stare all day into their smartphones.
   While technology is indeed, an important element that plays a significant role in our day to day lives such as helping us to build an income or being able to learn a new skillset or reconnecting with our friends and loved ones, the most essential point to learn and understand, is that we us individuals must not allow technology to consume our entire lives in every single way. It is actually quite frightening to witness people struggling to handwrite or become absolutely frustrated and behave in an agitated manner from being away from their smartphones for even a couple of minutes.
   The conveniences of modern technology can without a shadow of a doubt, be considered an advantage and disadvantage. But what should be taken into account is how much you choose to use it. As I have mentioned, even going out for a jog or simply a walk, will help you to feel refreshed while reminding you as to what is real and what is not. Making friends online, is not the same as actually going out and making the effort to meet people face to face. It really is astounding as to why people no longer make eye contact and are always clutching onto their smartphones with a tight grip and staring more into their screens rather that what is infront of them.
   This is why I believe that while life is a struggle, it should also be seen from an individual perspective, as a never ending cycle of constant improvement and making yourself a better person. Therefore, use your time in the most constructive way possible such as going out, communicating with people face to face and finding alternative ways to benefit from and improving your lifestyle such as reading an actual book or going out and exercising. You would be amazed as to how much these simple activities alone, can substantially improve your life.

   1. Your second paragraph reminded me of a similar incident from Friday. I was leaving work and as soon as I stepped outside, it was instant bliss. The sun was out. It was a warm day with a cool, light breeze. I felt immediately rejuvenated and I could feel my mood begin to improve. It’s amazing how such a seemingly minute thing can improve your outlook if you’re simply present in the moment to experience it.

      1. I enjoy stopping for a moment and wonder in awe at nature. Watching a hummingbird just hovering in mid air with its wings flapping so fast that all you see is a blur, yet it remains in a static position.

         1. About once a week, after the kids are down, I try to sit outside on the porch swing and just smoke my pipe and enjoy the little nature I have in my neighborhood.

      2. Songs that just popped into my head:
         My God is the Sun- Queens of the Stone Age
         Summer Breeze- Seals and Croft
         Dock of the Bay- Otis Redding
         Nature- just do it

   2. That’s the fault of the education system rather than the technology.
      I mean come on writing, attention span? The work of formal education

   3. ” improving your lifestyle such as reading an actual book”
      I assume kindle book would not count; better to use a in-real-life physical book.

3. 2. You often lose track of your time on the internet
   Yes, I’m guilty of that one. But that’s mostly because of ROK articles.

   1. That’s time invested; well usually anyway. You can’t spend more than 30 minutes a day on ROK unless you’re a newbie or you want to write an article.
      Props to the author !

      1. I can spend a lot of time reading the comments, which are often very interesting too.

         1. Nailed it. I spend much more time conversing in the comments section than I ever do on the article.

         2. Your two comments describe me to a T. I’m the first to admit I spend WAY too much time on ROK and the forum, but like you I often spend a lot of time reading the comments. Anyway, I guess it’s better than spending time on social media, right? …Right?

         3. Ah, but this is one of the *legitimate* and positive uses of technology… facilitating communication beyond your immediate circle.
            And, I think, what has brought about the resurgence of ‘tribes’… the very earliest, and perhaps the best, form of social organisation!

         4. yeah of course – we all learn from each other, and theres a good flow of ideas

   2. This site is the only on the internet I waste time on. I also recently bought the division so I’ve been playing that instead of reading but once the new smell wears off on it I’ll go back to reading again

      1. That game(and all other post-apocalypse game) are starting to freak me out

         1. Right after I posted about it I tried to play and was already bored . John s mosbys life is more interesting

      2. As i hear, all novelty wears off once you reach the current level cap. The only thing left after that is PvP.

         1. Only game I ever played longer than the cap was wow

         2. I dumped a LOT of hours into WoW. That was before they dumbed it down to accommodate 2nd graders and added more bullshit to the storyline than what is in a cow pasture.

         3. Dumbed it down, heh. WoW even at Vanilla was soundly mocked as being so easy as to be lame. That they’ve had to “dumb it down” really says volumes about society.

         4. I was pretty serious up until the end of burning crusade . I have to say at least back then games actually challenged you . Not some mindless grind fest

         5. Although WoW was never INCREDIBLY difficult, at least in vanilla if a quest said you needed a group to complete it, it was serious. I remember around the time I stopped, I was completing group quests that were above my level by myself.
            The hardest parts were the raids and that was usually due to the fact that half the group didn’t have a clue to what they were doing.

         6. Post the old Leeeeeeroy Jenkins! clip for the uninitiated

         7. Leeroy Jenkins: The first (and best) WoW troll in existence.

         8. I would if I knew how to copy /paste from my phone . My personal favorite was the “50 dkp minus” onyxia raid wipe. Or the pre bc exploration videos . Wow is the reason I love corny techno haha

         9. For your viewing pleasure:
            
            And:
            

         10. 11 yrs old- fuck me.
             Gameplans are for sissies
             

         11. Leroy, man, that’s hilarious shit. “At least I ain’t chicken!”

         12. I still remember when Leeroy Jenkins was an answer to a Jeopardy question. Ah, good times.

         13. I feel the need to make a Magic deck around the whole Leeroy Jenkins philosophy; pure, unadulterated aggression with no semblance of a plan.

         14. You play MtG too? I’ve been a long-time player myself. Don’t actively buy cards anymore, but I do enjoy sitting down and playing for a couple hours with buddies.

         15. Same. I got out of it after high school simply because there was no one to play with anymore. A few guys at my church play, so I got back into it. Will spend a few bucks a week on cards just to slowly beef up my pile of cards, but I don’t go overboard.
             It sure has changed over the years. My unstoppable deck from high school would be laughable by today’s standards.

         16. Yeah some of the rules/combos are insane nowadays. Some decks are touted as being “3rd turn win” which is ridiculous. My old Sliver deck still holds its own though. I also got out of it after High School too.

         17. Slivers are still around and even more brutal. Was thinking of making a sliver deck down the road.
             Yeah, I only play casually with friends, but they will sometimes go play at local tournaments and 3rd-5th turn win decks are almost obligatory if you want to stand your own. Some guys will have 20/20 trample creatures out by 3rd turn; absolutely insane.

         18. “My unstoppable deck from high school would be laughable by today’s standards.”
             Mine wouldn’t. 🙂 I got in really early and have a full set of the power 9 (actually more than 1 of a few of them; when we started, there was no limit on the number of these cards; I played with a guy who had replaced ALL his non-special lands with Moxen). I’ve considered selling them, but appear to have missed the peak, so I keep them sitting around; perhaps there will be a resurgence in interest in the legacy format play.
             There’s a store right down the street from me where they play regularly. I’ve always been tempted to go in, not say anything and start a game with my old deck. I have a feeling the first moxen or lotus that hit the table would cause a “holy fuck” moment for the younger players which would be fun. Especially if I got really lucky and pulled the first turn kill; I doubt a kid would ever forget that game, which makes me think I probably should do it one of these days! 😉

         19. Shit dude, you got a black lotus?!
             My old deck was all elves, so by turn 3-4, I was producing around 20-30 mana, typically due to elves that produced mana in relation to how many elves were in play. I’d then just cast the one red spell in my deck, of which I had four copies; Fireball.

         20. Page 1, Section 1: Skip to Section 5

         21. Have you heard about Twitch? Watching other people play games is huge now.
             https://www.twitch.tv/p/about
             106 minutes watched per person per day
             Strange Days…

         22. I had a black lotus in the 1990’s … bought it for 75$, sold it a year later for $300…at the time I thought I made a killing…silly me. Then again I thought in 25 years Magic : The Gathering would be a fad that was long past (like pet rocks)

         23. I do, and I have 7 moxen (2 jets and 2 rubys) to keep them it company.
             I was way into it back in 95 or so and collected the hell out of them; all the power 9 and a bunch of other stuff that’s all restricted now. Thing is, its so expensive to break into today, there’s nobody to play with. So my cards have become nothing more than objects of interest for the younger generation. I’d play them if someone wanted to, and, frankly, I might get my ass handed to me looking at some of the newer cards and desk construction methods.
             But, hey, there’s always the turn 0 win to brag about. 😉

         24. I’m stunned by the prices the power 9 still command today, especially when you can’t really do much with them except for impressing new players. Nobody plays that format (at least not by me) anymore, so, great; you have the power 9. Now, take them out (and most of your other cards) to make a legal deck. 😉
             It’s a really good game though, good for WotC for making something with such staying power. I disagreed with them taking out the power 9 so long ago (it was always a bit of problem playing either with or without them), but, hey, what do I know. They have a great game that people enjoy 20+ years later, not many other companies can say that!

         25. Build a deck with nothing but forks and fireballs in it. No land. That’s the “Leeroy deck”. 😉

         26. Let me know if you’d ever be interested in selling some of those cards (lotus and moxen). I’d love to have them for my collection. I also wouldn’t turn down a friendly donation, heh.

         27. I wish I had gotten into it back in Alpha and Beta. I believe I came in around Ice Age. The game has certainly evolved since then and requires even more nuanced strategies as they have an ability for just about everything you can imagine.

      3. How is the division by the way?

         1. It’s a fun time killer like most games nowadays but nothing worth writing home about

         2. why cant you just enjoy the game instead of trying so hard to make it seem like a waste of time compared to reading “which is so much better”. in that case everything on earth is a waste of time and there is no point to enjoy anything. Why eat a nice steak? waste of money when you can just eat cheap meat and protein supplements. Why wash in a warm shower? when you can wash in the rain. what a waste of time and it wont improve yourself.
            why not eat shit? it will improve your immune system, and whats the point of enjoying a meal? waste of time. why live at all? might as well hang yourself since living is just a time sink.

         3. He asked for my opinion , I gave it . It didn’t need a long , drawn out , philosophical evaluation.

4. I never actually imagined something like tl;dr. But I’ve seen it now from some of our lesser trolls a few times. The idea that somehow a point is invalidated because it took longer than a tweet to express is about as alien to my mind as paid protests, but apparently those are a real thing too.
   Like I say in my profile: “Mankind is self-defeating, it’s what separates us from the animals.”

   1. Shorthand them right back: yr;fo. You’re Retarded; Fuck Off.

5. All true, and #1 is extremely stupid in my opinion. First, no smartphone is going to take in the whole experience the way your five senses can. But second, and more important, how often are you going to watch that stupid recording anyway? I’ll tell you – zero times. So you’re left with a shortchanged memory of staring at a screen, that you only relive by staring at that screen, instead of an immersive experience that you can draw on for the rest of your life in various situations. Put the fucking phone down and live your life.

   1. Completely agree, but I think that the point of it is to pretend to other people what a glamorous, sexy, adventurous and interesting life you lead…
      Of course the reality is quite the opposite, they are not leading any kind of life merely recording a strange little diary like every one of the other 3 billion strange little diaries that only a handful of people occasionally glance at looking for an opportunity to butt in and share their own strange little diary…

6. All very true, but the question is “who is the master?”.
   I’m the CEO of a technology company, so I get to see the upside of it when used appropriately (for instance we are building a system for a major healthcare provider that uses ‘big data’ and analytics techniques to improve clinical outcomes).
   As the article’s title suggests, majority of technology users are slaves to it (and by extension the designs of the producers of the technology they are enslaved by).
   The solution is quite simple – “grow a pair, exercise your willpower, and turn the damn thing OFF”.
   Ironically, given my day job, I have very little tech in my home and, as another poster said, my main internet usage is browsing RoK and other ‘manosphere’ sites, which has upped my home usage dramatically these past few months 🙂
   I’m going to lose the, oxymoronically named, ‘Smart’ phone with my next ‘upgrade’ and go back to the dumbest phone I can find…

   1. Amen to that. I’m a software engineer and my only internet usage is similar. My “smart” phone is basically for family calls and makes a great paperweight. I’m not certain how people have developed the compulsion to answer everything that comes through that device ASAP; I don’t understand it.
      You advice to unplug is on the money.

      1. That’s another thing! Just because the damn thing rings doesn’t mean you have to answer it!
         Glad it’s not just me that keeps tech to their day-job… Even more impressed you’re a dev and have the same approach.

         1. I’m in design and tech and it disgusts me that everyone has a smartphone up to their face all day.

         2. If you’ll indulge me, I have a short tale. I worked at an engineering firm doing most of their payroll and project management software. As such, I was in the usual “cubicle farm”.
            I’m in my fifties and I have twenty and thirty somethings about me. IM goes off on screen and it is from a young lady that sits six feet away from me, so I turn and ask “What do you want?” The sheer look of panic on her face told me how dependent folks are upon tech to avoid human contact.
            There’s this weird thing in dev that you have to live and breathe tech or you’re not really one. I got into it to solve problems and hopefully make work life LESS tedious. If I had REALLY known twenty years ago, I’d have taken up plumbing.

         3. Now I’m wondering if our approach is tech guy thing, or the intersection of tech and RoK/manosphere kind of thing…
            A lot of my people seem quite happy to be as deeply plugged in as the article describes, but in a short space I’ve seen several of us, nominally, ‘tech guys’ say we don’t fall into the patterns described in the article… interesting!

         4. Consider me indulged! (er, indulging?)… I have had absolutely similar experiences! And I’m in my fifties too btw… so maybe that’s one reason we have escaped the articles level of submergence in tech?
            There is a part of me that wishes I’d chosen more physical work, yes, but I make that part happy with time in the gym and the dojo. I still enjoy tech because I set the agenda in my company, and I choose to work on projects that I think have meaning…

         5. I used to work with a woman like that- her underling literally sat next to her, and she would IM him EVERYTHING- drove him nuts

         6. it’s fascinating, isn’t it? There are even geeky comic sites that parody this behaviour, but it is *real*…

         7. One of the things I would consider looking into if you are thinking of how tech has affecting the psychology of people:
            Age, I believe, is a factor. I started working with software when Windows for Workgroups (3.11) was just coming out. I’ve been around long enough to see a lot of things develop.
            Secondly, I would suggest that there are more people today who are consumers of tech rather than wanting to know what makes it tick. I am in the latter camp. I don’t meet a lot of devs who are; they take on whatever pays well and hope that it is not phased out.
            MS Dynamics CRM, SharePoint, Dependency Injection containers are those types of things, but I have the time in the field to remember Outlook Team Folders in the early 2000’s and having to bake your own ORM.

         8. Im a fan of whistling at people to get their attention, the occasional paper airplane, etcc

         9. Makes sense to me…
            I’m an Open Source guy (as is my company) so we are deep in the ‘what makes software tick’ camp rather than consumers.

         10. Tech man here too, and agreed. I’ll leave the house many days with no cell phone at all. Screw that noise.

         11. yup, don’t give a toss if I forget to bring my phone out with me, and have been known to regularly leave it at home when going on holiday…

         12. My wife gripes about it now and then, but I just smile, shrug and say “Yeah, well, whatcanyado” and that’s that. If I want people to be able to contact me, it will be on my terms. Sometimes I simply value a quiet day in the park reading a book in the sun more than any inane chatter on that horrid device.

         13. I figure if I stick with C based languages, I’m good. C++, C#, Java. It seems to have some legs to it thus far.

         14. My lady is similar. Her: “Do you have your phone?” Me: “No.” Her: “Why not?” Me: “You’re standing right here, what did you want to talk about?”

         15. “What if I need to contact you? What if you get in an accident? What if….”
             All questions that seem critical of the state all of humanity was in just twenty years ago.
             Need to contact me? Great, catch me when I get home. If I get in an accident, the cops will be there, there’s no need for me to phone every person I know or post it on Facebook. Geesh.

         16. I was hit by a car while riding my motorcycle last June. I know from experience that texting your significant other can be detrimental in those “What if you get in an accident?” scenarios.
             Land line and an answering machine; if you can find one.
             It’s another factor that perfectly serviceable things become outdated and good luck repairing or replacing them.

         17. The most technically astute people I know (CCIE level network folks, high level virtualization/storage guys) are all “phone idiots” (as am I). I know how to get it to dial, have a few apps on there (Uber and Google Maps are huge). But, and I think this pretty universally, people who are really into computers aren’t generally that interested in phones. A phone (Android or IOS) is just a nerfed computer with no keyboard and a slow ass processor. Most of these guys are much more interested in an array of 4K monitors and the newest desktop/server chips than they are in the latest ARM (phone) processors.
             Phones make tech accessible. But they are also boring for people who really understand tech. They can’t do that much; what they can do is incredibly valuable, but, when it comes time for “real work”, a rocket fast desktop/laptop trumps a phone every time.
             Every 6-12 months, our executives will decide we should be using tablets and distribute them to the tech guys. Who all “LOVE THEM” for the first month, and then quickly migrate back to their huge/heavy but massively powerful and feature rich laptops.
             It’s sad that “tech” has become about buying a new phone rather than figuring out what motherboard/CPU you want to put together with a video card to make an awesome workstation for yourself. And the younger generation have no idea how most tech actually works. My head would fucking explode if a kid could tell me how many usable IPs are in a /24, and yet, that same kid could probably download 100 apps before I figured out how to load the store. Problem is, people will pay you a lot of money if you understand TCP/IP, and about 0 dollars for knowing how to Snapchat something.

         18. Agree completely.
             Pretty sure most people don’t even think of it as “tech” but rather just as gossip. To really understand computer science however, which I admittedly do not, is to understand something truly profound about the world.

         19. Yeah, when iphones first became popular, everyone was shocked I didn’t have one, because I am a techy “gadget” guy, and they figured I’d be the first in line for the next big thing… Years later and I still don’t have a smart phone. I do have a 4 year old ipod touch that does pretty much all a smartphone does, as long as I’m within wifi range, which is almost everywhere. And I’ve found myself using even this device too much (whipping it out at a restaurant, for example).
             I usually leave the phone at home, or at least in the car. Who do I really need to talk to that badly?

         20. What really bugs me is when people answer their phone, only to tell you “can’t talk right now! I will have to call you back later!” That’s what caller Id, and voicemail, invented decades ago, are for. It’s like they cannot resist the urge to answer the call, even if they are on the other line or otherwise occupied. It’s sick.

         21. That’s exactly it. Tech has become “gossip”. It’s just a new way to gossip to more people at the same time. Which is why women are now interested in “tech”. Which really means they want to work for Facebook so they can gossip all day. They have no idea what actually makes it all work and no interest in learning it or developing the next thing to make it better/faster/more resilient.
             If anyone reading this is getting into tech (real tech) today, focus on SDN (software defined networking). It’s the new big thing, no doubt about it. And networking is a “core” skill that MANY people in tech are missing. A lot of the very high level guys I work couldn’t tell you if 10.1/15 and 10.2/15 are on different subnets. It’s just so fundamental to everything in the tech world (and it’s hard, so most people don’t get it) to understand TCP/IP, L2 and L3, switching and routing that if you’re good at it, you’ll always have a job. Add onto that some real SDN skills (VMware NSX in particular) and you’re going to be into the 200+/hr range as a consultant (if you can speak English well and present ideas reasonably well).

         22. Re: tech as gossip. It drives girls batshit when they can’t find any info on me on social media. I don’t have any of those accounts. Well I never deactivated facebook because I don’t trust them to delete anything anyway.

         23. I think it’s a tech guy thing. A lot of the guys I work with are so fucking blue pill it makes my nuts hurt. But almost all of us quickly unplug as soon as we can. When you’re using this tech for “real work” and not to play, it quickly becomes another tool in the shop.
             Now, that’s not to say that I don’t play as well, tech is my life and I really enjoy some aspects of it. I have a full lab in my house with all kinds of things that I’m playing with and testing (pretty much a necessity to stay current in the IT field). But I’m never playing on my phone, ever. If I have my phone in my hand, it’s because I’m trying to make money with it. I honestly hate the phone, I try to avoid calls as much as possible because, many times, they are just an endless time sink. And, when I’m the cause of calls, I try to get people off as fast as possible so they can go back to actually making us money.
             But, as stated above, phones are “boring” if you’re into tech. They just don’t do very much compared to a server running ESX with 100 VMs of various OSes cranking away showing off new tech. Right now I’m working on SDNs (NSX), software defined storage and clustered filesystems in my lab. That’s a hell of a lot more interesting to me than “Words with friends” or Facebook on my phone, that’s for goddamn sure.

         24. I almost exclusively vacation to places with no cell phone and no-WiFi coverage. Getting harder and harder to find though. If you find “white” on the Verizon coverage map, there’s a good chance that’s a place I’ve been on vacation. 😉

         25. Really interesting reply…
             I know what you mean about blue pill… probably goes with the lack of testosterone in the really nerdy geeks (and I work in Open Source!), I’m lucky to be in charge so don’t have to put up with or even listen to that sh*te.
             What I really get is what you’re saying about the level of interest… when you see behind the scenes so to speak, and architect massive systems and the code that runs on them, the commercialised drivel, ‘smart’ phones and (anti)social media looks like baby toys… which is what they are really!
             Thanks for the insight…

         26. It’s why I’m out in Wyoming and South Dakota a lot for vacation. Every single cell map has this big blurp of “no coverage” conveniently over those states and parts of Montana and Colorado. My kinda place.

         27. I got over “smart phones” back when they were called PDA’s and didn’t actually have a phone in them. They can be useful, I’m not denying that, but the need to have one glued into my hand doesn’t exist with me.

   2. going back to simple “dumbphones” is a trend . I swear the smartphone /iphones are like “my precious “(the ring) was to Gollum. i’m reading this book about CIA tradecraft. The author is ex CIA clandestine spy operator. He doesn’t use a smartphone because it is a security risk. The smartphone is a hand held computer with a phone attached and it can get hacked and all your personal info stolen…

      1. I’m really thinking about going back to a dumbphone after my current contract expires. They also aren’t nearly as expensive to replace if they break.

         1. Exactly! Only problem is finding one… based on my initial research they are very few and far between these days!
            Might have to break out one of my old Nokias from a dusty drawer somewhere and see if I can get it working again…

         2. I’m sure Wal-Mart has some cheap ones…

         3. Battery life is also like a bajillion times longer with a “dumb” phone as well.

         4. They are incredibly difficult to find. I have to mail order them. Picked up a nice unlocked Nokia that I charge once or twice a week, I think from Amazon. It can take and even sometimes receive picture messages, if they aren’t too large!

         5. So very true. My “dumb” flip-phone battery lasted about 10 days (no joke). The best I can get out of my Blackberry is 2.5 days on average (with battery saver mode on).

      2. Yeah, and I think this is one reason why tech-aware people are going back to them – we know just how flaky and insecure the software is!!

      3. Remember Hank Paulson? Former co-CEO of Goldman and then the Treasury Secretary?
         He never used email.

         1. Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow his kids to use the iphone.. There are lot of these types that avoid the technology, but push it on us.

         2. Yup. I read an article, think it was about Hooli execs, and they only let their little kids play with lincoln logs, cars, and so on

         3. I don’t think they push it on us anymore than crack dealers push crack on crackheads. They are just supplying the demand.

         4. Doesn’t bring up the fact that Bill Gates banned the use of apple products but let’s kids use tech from his company. ..

   3. Kyocera makes a shock proof, water proof, construction site proof flip phone that is pretty stupid. You do have to turn off the GPS functions manually. Unfortunately, it does have text capability. The carriers quit servicing my ancient dumb as a hammer flip phone and I was forced into this “upgrade”. Good luck.

      1. Thanks for the tip! Will look into it…

   4. Hey, Marc ! How to contact you ?

7. I think we should adopt a teenagers approach to tech . As soon as it becomes popular amongst the older generation we dispose of it , I see alot of men around my age and older trying to stay relevant by using emojis and hashtags. I personally think all those things make you come off as a child or gay . I don’t even send the old style smiley faces to women . I find tech going the same way as tattoos did for me , as soon as soccer moms and dads started to get them and try talking to you about them it’s time to ditch it .

   1. I use the occasional emoji when I’m being goofy, but never hashtags. Don’t understand that craze nor do I care to.

      1. I only use a hashtag to make fun of it. The funniest one I saw was where someone posted #TouchMyPenis on that fake story about Roosh where he is suing her for slander.

         1. Pretty much. Using it to mock stupidity is acceptable.

         2. Ironic, mocking, usage of this stuff is definitely the only acceptable usage!

         3. How the fuck can you base a business on hashtags. I’m going to start a business selling pictures of paintings made in human shit, I think it’ll be about as useful for society. Actually, I have found one use for hashtags. “Tag the sponsor”, girls going to Dubai to get shit on. That’s kind of fun. Useful? Perhaps, should a shit-eating Dubai whore try to work her way into your life. Worth 100’s of M or billions of dollars? Not so sure about that.

      2. For sarcasm purpose or something like that , fine . But imagine if the declaration of independence or Shakespeare was written today
         Romeo : yo Juliet wyd ? 🙂
         Juliet : Nm chillin u ?

         1. Oh geez…don’t give them ideas. That sounds even worse than the modernized Romeo and Juliet movie that Leonardo DiCaprio was in.

         2. “Like, totally, Romeo, like, for sure, sup?”
            “Yo”

         3. Yo Romeo, don’t like stab yourself and all…the poison was totally fake like mah tits. Ah, fml!

   2. #stophating
      🙂
      Oh, wait…

      1. LOL
         🙂
         #LudditesSux

      2. I couldn’t hate you just on the fact that people make multiple accounts on here just to try and troll you .

         1. I seem to really attract the fruits and nuts for some reason.

         2. They’re jealous of your massive upvotes.

         3. I hadn’t looked at my count in a long time, holy shit, almost 82k upvotes? Fickedy frack!
            Don’t know what I can do with them, I still haven’t found an upvote-to-currency exchange booth yet.

         4. Take it as a compliment, you have so much sex appeal even your anonymous profile drives them nuts

         5. Welcome to Disqus where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter!

         6. You know what else bugs me? Tit for tat. What is tat? Where can I get it? Where do I exchange it for the former?
            So many questions.

         7. I always loved the props game myself.

         8. That has to be the reason, now that you mention it.

   3. They’ll just target a new and cooler gadget for the young! “Are you tired of mon and dad and untie Janice disrupting your LGBQ chat group on the Iphoons seex? Why no try Samseeng and with this inbuilt VIP microphone you can sing like ……(favourite whnging female singer based on the data collected by “3rd” parties from you interwebz brawzah)!”

8. The electronics revolution will go down in history, assuming scribes will still exist to to write it, as the worst thing ever to befall mankind. Why, you ask? Mankind will become the slaves of the controllers of the technology. It is already happening. Freedom will be relegated to the ash heap of history.
   Not to begin a religious debate, but the Bible predicted this. Revelation 13:17 predicts that no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. Governments and banks are pushing for a cashless society. No cash = no freedom. Can anyone say Apple Pay, boys and girls?
   Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

   1. I saw a video the other day where one company was letting employees install a chip into their hand which allowed them to access the building merely by sweeping their hand across the scanner. They were going on and on saying, “isn’t this great?!”
      To us Christians (or anyone remotely cynical of big, daddy government), it’s downright terrifying because we know where this is headed.

      1. The Nazis tattooed identification numbers on concentration (work) camp victims. There was no need at the death camps. What you have noticed is barely different from the work camps. And let us not forget the work camps were miniature death camps. History is repeating it self. It is so obvious a blind man can see it. But, alas, none are so blind as those that will not see.

      2. Sounds very 1984.

         1. 1984 only had the two way “widescreen” or in our terms your smart phone. We all know that the location of any cell phone is tracked by which tower it is pinging. The GPS on your smart phone tracks your location within yards. And all of this location data is stored.
            The really scary technology is RFID. The devices keep getting smaller and the range of the readers keeps increasing. In fact, Wal-Mart is already putting RFID in clothing.
            If don’t already have an RFID wallet be sure to get one.

         2. I’ll be getting one soon. I’ve luckily never been defrauded by RFID scanners before, but it is definitely worth the small investment, especially in crowded areas.

         3. It is not the thieves you need to worry about. Ever notice the approximately 4′ tall towers on each side of a retail entrance/exit? They are RFID readers supposedly for loss prevention. Wanna bet they are reading the cards in your wallet also? The technocrats will deny it, but have they lied to us before? Oops, I’m sorry. Edward Snowden proved they lie to us constantly.

         4. If your card doesn’t have an RFID chip in it, they wouldn’t be able to scan them. Different media and such.

         5. I wouldn’t put it past them. I’ll investigate some RFID wallets.

         6. Yeah, the trouble with RFID is not to defraud you, but to track and monitor you. They want to put RFID readers everywhere, by storefronts, entrances to buildings, above roadways, so you can be watched and tracked everywhere and be bombarded with targeted advertising, not to mention virtually stalked by the gummint.

         7. True, but more and more cards are going that way. Why is logically beyond me. Why introduce another way for thieves to access the account? To me it is illogical, so therefore the true reason must be something nefarious. Just a thought.

         8. Here’s an interesting one: I Google flights from X to Y on a work computer with hardly a trace to the email address on my phone. Leave work an hour later and boom, an advertisement for that product on my personal email. How intrusive!

         9. Faraday cage will block that!

         10. Exactly correct and an RFID wallet is in essence a Faraday cage. Congrats on knowing that.

         11. Basic knowledge in this day and age! Men should always be one step ahead of big brother!

         12. Basic knowledge to 2nd and 3rd sigma IQs but we’ll beyond the grasp of the vast majority of the sheeple. And it is getting harder and harder to stay one step ahead of the surveillance state.

      3. Fuck that! THESE are the only chips going anywhere near my hand.

   2. GOVERNMENT not technology

9. I’m offended that you referred to Bruce Jenner as Caitlyn. C’mon, I expected better

   1. Agree

   2. I’m up in the air on this one. If he legally changed his name to Caitlyn, then ok. I could very well change my own name to Wild Bill Hitchcock.
      But never will I call him a her.

      1. “It” is always the proper form or “him” if thats more offensive.

10. “Multitasking” is a joke term. I believe it was coined by those with ADHD to show that their affliction made them superior beings.

    1. Multitasking just leaves me stressed and drained without any real progress to show for it.

    2. We used to say “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

    3. A ADHD is not real wtf

11. ,,Humanity will be subjugated not by guns and prisons, but with electronic screens and entertainment.” – Couldn’t emphasize this enough.
    Humanity is already subjugated by electronic screens and entertainment.
    [ 1445 ] – The Craddle of Orthodox Christianity – Constantinople – was conquered and destroyed by turkish muslims – all red pill europeans know this; blue pill majority keeps feeding off cinemas, movies and McDonalds.
    [ 2013 ] The Craddle of Catholic Christianity has been corrupted – The Vatican was infiltrated by an external jesuit agent- agent trained in all the political and purposes of taking decisions based on higher ( elite ) orders. The so called ,,Pope” declared that gays do not represent a wrong way of life and a wrong example declaring instead something only a politician would say – something not to upset neither his subjects neither the gays – “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”. The Bible says it clear you dumb fuck ! [ ,,So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelations 3” ] There are homosexuals who condemn gays. Homosexuality existed since thousands of years ago, yet still the electronic media keeps bringing them up on our screens until our children believe it’s normal to have gays and to be gays. No one takes a stand against this war on morality.
    Take away the moral value of a society and you open a gateway to all the horrors that man has ever known. If we let the morals go, we can expect, pedophylia, necrophylia.
    Europe is being ruled by it’s women, muslims are invading the countries. Europe is stepping very closely to what happened to Rome.
    People need to read the Bible and to act on this bullshit.

    1. You forgot the source of the problem Government

       1. Government is not the source of the problem. The source of the problem is behind the Government curtains. Government is just a form, a tool for control, problem solving for a populace. The problem is the link between politicians and the elite.

          1. You mean ruling class

          2. I mean the hidden elite.

12. Gents…I highly recommend a book called “Deep Work ” by Cal Newport…talks about how multitasking is bullshit. The best work comes from deep, focused concentration. The internet , smartphones, porn is antithetical against real meaningful work…

    1. I’m interested, but does it have any new information other than telling you to shut off distractions and to schedule work time? Productivity books I’ve read in the past have all been the same for me.

    2. On my ‘to read’ list… recommendation here bumps it up a priority or two!

    3. The Russians were dealing with these concepts decades ago. They called it “Flow” or as athletes would put it, “being in the zone”. You can’t do that without shutting out distractions.

    4. Than how do you make anything that’s computer or internet related

       1. Right he’s not a “get off my lawn” Luddite type and acknowledges the distraction prone technologies of Twitter , FB and social media. He gives data on how real , important , significant “deep” work and discovery is most likely to arise from a focused ,distraction free environment. For instance he thinks these new wall-less ,open office spaces will be worse for productivity and “deep work”…. the book for me was life changing…

          1. *SLAMS HEAD ON KEYBOARD*.
             That’s the corporate model. Why didn’t you mention productivity any sooner? Of course Corporations are counterproductive

13. Makes me glad that I still don’t own a smartphone. I may be the only person I know that doesn’t own one. Maybe that’s why everyone looks so miserable around me.

14. Remove Facebook from your life completely. It’s been said here before, but I think it needs to be drilled into our manosphere. Facebook is for 14 year old girls, you pussy.

15. “You’re more interested in recording the moment than living in it”
    this is one of the worst ones. i once spent a summer in europe back in the 1990s and only took maybe ten pictures, mostly with people i met there who i wanted to remember. i wasn’t interested in pictures of myself in front of famous buildings, and if i wanted pictures of the buildings themselves, i figured professional photographers would do a better job than me, so i just bought postcards.
    another time i was in arches in south utah in the very early morning, watching the sun rise over the desert. one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen. my ex insisted on getting dozens of pictures of herself in the sunrise (she’s russian, what can i say) with our $150 digital camera, ruining the moment and the pictures just look like her standing in the dark with a pissed off look on her face.

    1. So true.
       I briefly had a Facebook account, after sneering at them for soooooo long. It was to keep in touch with a friend from my dojo who moved to Japan to train there for a couple of years.
       I found myself drawn into *precisely this*, then noticed, then immediately shut the damn thing down…
       Back in the TV days vicarious living was endemic, sadly technology ‘advances’ have made peoples *own lives* vicarious! Hows that for a second order differential!

       1. Try sharing where you’ve been and what you’ve done. The new school is “no pic, no experience” and it reeks of superficiality. Farcebook and Twattering is becoming institutionalized, so users of those sites deserve what they have coming.

16. A friend told me that we’ve moved away from an economy of resources to an economy of attention.
    Thought this was a really interesting way to put it.. If you can hold people’s attention with your digital product, then you have the most digital currency.

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised if he read this article: http://markmanson.net/attention

       1. This is exactly what we were talking about.
          It’s not about the quality of content, it’s just about holding someone’s attention.

    2. This maps to another article I read a while back which says that ‘millennials’ or ‘bisexicals’ or ‘GenX/Y/X’ or whatever they call them are also more interested in collecting *experiences* than in collecting *things*…

       1. Sounds more like turning experiences INTO things.

17. 1. You’re more interested in recording the moment than living in it

    Although I’ve not been to a concert in a number of years, I’ve seen concert footage where every 4th or 5th person in the audience is holding up their phones recording it. If I was in that audience I would be pretty annoyed and there are now musicians and concert organisers who are banning the use of smartphones during the show.
    ’10 bands who hate smartphones at shows as much as you’
    http://fasterlouder.junkee.com/10-bands-who-hate-smartphones-at-shows-as-much-as-you/835315

    1. This is so darn true. Every concert I go to, there’s a large handful of people recording the concert even though the quality of video and sound will be god awful afterwards.

       1. They do it to post on social media as proof they were there. I don’t see how you could enjoy the show while recording it?

          1. I’m still flummoxed as to why it’s important to post that kind of thing to the world all the time. What’s the point? Is it some kind of contest?

          2. They do it to show their friends that they are hip and cool still and doing things.
             If you’re confident and know you are cool, you don’t need to show it. You actually prefer not showing it. You don’t need validation.

          3. There is zero charm to me in informing the world of my every single fart and burp. When I watch the sun go down, that’s between me, the sun and God, no need to “post” it somewhere. Meh.

          4. I can’t understand it either. I’m proud of the fact that I never used the check-in function on Facebook. I have zero desire to announce to the world where I am and what I’m doing

          5. Check-in is for women to make other women jealous of where they’ve been. The most common one seems to be Dubai.Hmmm

18. One must look at technology as a tool. Today there are far too many individuals who are wholly dependent upon their devices. I always wonder why the great mouth breathing masses need any more distraction and also what the hell could they possibly use their “tool” to achieve. At least once a week I will be in a deep train of thought and someone will interrupt with complete nonsense. Cognitive dissonance
    Social media is a scourge on humanity. Absolute mindless zombies are everywhere on these sites and oh boy do they have opinions about just about everything. I think this is one of the major problems that has come from technology. People feel informed about something by a google search and a handful of questionable resources.
    Socialization has gone to shit. People tend to be amazed when I walk up to them as if it hasn’t happened in years. Unfortunately many people have no conversational skills whatsoever and lack interests outside of pop culture and technology. Very uninteresting and lonely people everywhere.
    I use technology as a tool and appreciate its constant variety and availability. I am not sure what the solution is to the modern calamity of smart phones. All i see is the sad sacks and idiots who would be better served and much happier going back to landlines. Sad state of affairs

    1. iPhone Zombie Apocalypse…

       1. Perhaps Stephen King was onto something with his book “The Cell.”

19. The “tl;dr” thing is bizarre to me. I get it on one level and like when people include it in a long post of their own, but when people use it as a rhetorical “counter point” as if it was a valid retort it completely baffles me. Yes, my point is invalid because you’re too lazy to read more than 144 characters.

    1. The first time I read it I thought it meant talk later; dinners ready. The whole short hand logic works best for stenographers, not people looking to have complete conversations.

       1. talk later; dinners ready
          Heh, that’s pretty funny. From now on, that’s what it means to me.

    2. tl;dr
       Next time, cut your rant by 80%.

       1. #biteme

          1. Wow. Just wow.

    3. Funny story about tl;dr nonsense. I was working at an engineering company about 5 years ago when they hired around 10 recent grads. They were all given a 300 page manual about the company including exactly how things were to be done and how to not kill machinists or themselves by standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was beautifully written and eliminated 99.9% of questions for these incoming employees.
       The company needed 4 engineers as I recall. So during the probationary period every senior engineer was asked to keep track of the number of questions a new person asked that could be found in this manual. One page in there was completely unrelated and about the history of theme parks in the US. At the bottom of the page was a request to tell so and so where you wanted lunch from on a specific day.
       Out of the 10 people we ended up keeping 3 past the probationary period. 4 people got lunch but one of them was way over on his number of questions. It was actually a great way to sift people out.

       1. Seems kind of an inefficient way to separate the wheat from the chaff, but, whatever.

       2. That manual must have been a life saver. I ask the living shit out of my superiors simply because I take into consideration way too many variables and don’t possess any manual to show me the way.

          1. It was. It covered everything expected of these new hires. The story was that the senior people got tired of holding new grads hands and just put it down on paper. The system worked beautifully. Encouraged common sense as well

    4. Some posters on RoK (not you) like to shovel; toss tons of verbosity into a post either to sound intelligent or just overwhelm someone they disagree with. Some of the articles here are industrial-grade shovelling

20. I have 3 friends that whenever we all go out , we go to a bar , we take our seats and they INSTANTLY pull out their phones , all 3 of them. It really amazes me from the outside to see this. Here we are 4 people coming to a place to socialize and the phones get pulled out as soon as the butt hits the chair.
    I developed an allergic reaction to people that pull out their phones and scroll constantly at mindless stuff in my presence. I find it to be a profound disrespect. If it was 1 friend , i would’ve get rid of him instantly , but the brainwashing capability of the modern era is so big that i’m struggling to find a person that DOESN’T do that.
    Whatever happened to good old fashioned face-to-face socialization ? Everybody is displaying their “”perfect”” lives on facebook , instagram etc. , all the while being bumbling messes that can’t enjoy a night out in a bar without displaying their socially inept skills.

    1. This incessant “checking” of iphones even happens in cinemas these days. I went to see the Revenant the other evening which is an excellent movie on many different levels, however, I was constantly distracted by the phone light from a bored teenage girl who kept texting and checking her facebook account through the entire movie. I think this behavior is so rude and inconsiderate, but I suppose the content and values in the movie were way over her tiny head.

       1. Why are you focused on the phone instead of the movie?

          1. I was distracted by her phone texting while I was trying to watch the movie.

          2. How is thathe even possible a big screen emitting surround sound + picture while a cell phone takes your attention away from it

21. I scored 8. I already spend far too much time online and I’m trying to ween myself off. Habits die hard though, may have to go cold turkey for a week/month to jolt my lifestyle back into increased activity. Has anyone done this before? What were the effects? How did you manage?

    1. Do it bit by bit. Have a new hobby or interest to preoccupy your time. Get rid of social media accounts which require far too much attention. Doesn’t have to be total cold turkey, just more moderation. There are certain Chrome apps (Stay Focused, WasteNoTime) that monitor which sites you use and block you out after a certain period of time.

    2. I can give an example with Facebook. I used to have one, I would only get on it at work (don’t want that shit on my computer, and I’m sure it leaves tracking info everywhere to sell me shit). I cut back to getting on only once a day. Then I soon cut back to once a month. I don’t think I’ve been on in over a year. You start to realize over time how useless it was, even though it was addictive.

       1. I’m thinking of giving an hours allowance in the evenings.

    3. Convince yourself that it is useless until you hate it. I wasted my teens with videogames, now I am uncapable of spending a single second in front of a videogame anymore.

    4. I also have a problem with endless Web browsing. One site leads to another, and before you realize it it’s already 3am

22. All “no’s” except #10. But that’s a low hurdle.

23. Western culture lends itself to such slavery. When I travel abroad, I never, ever have the urge to use a smartphone, connect to social media, or look at porn. After returning from my last trip, I felt a strong sense of depression come over me as I sat at work staring at my blue computer screen, detached from the world. It’s hard to live a masculine life in the west.

    1. Even harder if you live in a city. Move to the country; you’ll find plenty of masculine stuff to do. Even better if you move to a home with a lot of property. There’s a never ending list of stuff that’ll get your testosterone flowing in places like that. Cutting down trees, chopping wood, hunting, fishing, hiking..
       Cities are, IMHO, like a fucking poison to men. If you’re not trying to get laid, there’s almost nothing else to do there. Eat, drink, try to fuck. That’s life in a city for me, and, IMHO, for a lot of other men who live there. The access to top shelf pus is not to be understated, but, once you’ve had your fill, it’s just so fucking emasculating to live in a place where 99% of the activities are really geared for women.

       1. This is true, although I’d say I’m in the city mainly for making money. I don’t even want to get laid by the sewer rats that live here.

          1. not if you’re engineering: mechanical, manufacturing, industrial, materials, Chemical, anything that requires a factory or a large warehouse. They are nowhere near large cities (mostly) and a ton of room for growth.
             Also cheap cost of living.

       2. Oddly enough, if there were bastions of masculinity in the inner cities, it was immigrant neighborhoods. Now they’re being ravaged by two phenomena: second and third generation children of these immigrants becoming too Westernized, and gentrification. I think the second one is worse simply because they take that rustic charm out of inner city neighborhoods and turn them into clean and sterile environments full of hipsters and overpriced “organic” crap.

    2. Apart from a computer, the only other electronic device I have is an i-pod which is pretty old technology at this point. Unlike an i-phone and all the rest it has no connection with the web so it’s quite non-invasive and I use it purely to listen to music and lectures when I’m cycling or walking.
       However, even better is no-ipod at all. I was out cycling in a mountainous area today without it and I really appreciated the sound of spring awakening, the sound of the mountain streams pouring with increased vigor, the new lambs calling out, all the various birds making song, and just the very occasional, but, oddly pleasant vibration from an ancient John Browne tractor I could see on one occasion way off up the side of a valley.
       The sense of well being that a person can acquire from adsorbing the natural rhythms that the majority of city people never hear, is I’m convinced a very powerful elixir for one’s health and well being. The world existed long before iphones and all the distractions it bred, and I think the current malaise that infects some much of humanity is caused by our estrangement from the “natural senses” of the earth and modern technology only causes this estrangement to become even wider and more profound.

       1. “I was out cycling in a mountainous area today without it and I really appreciated the sound of spring awakening, the sound of the mountain streams pouring with increased vigor, the new lambs calling out, all the various birds making song, and just the very occasional, but, oddly pleasant vibration from an ancient John Browne tractor I could see on one occasion way off up the side of a valley.”
          So.. Fucking.. Jealous..
          Hiking and biking are the 2 things that I do that seem to bring me unmatched happiness. The quiet, the time for reflection, and the “away from it all” nature of it makes me think, at least for a few hours, that maybe there’s something worth saving about this world after all. Then, of course, I come back to reality.. 🙁
          I don’t live in the mountains, but, man, a bike, an empty and smooth road and some time to kill. What a joy that is. I so wish I hadn’t blown out my back bodybuilding, I can’t stand more than about 1.5hrs in the saddle without a break, but; it’s what I look forward to more than just about anything else every day. The quiet is heavenly. And the shared effort when riding in a group is also a lot of fun; no talking, just concentrated/focused effort trying to go faster and faster with a group of guys who all share the same goal. It’s pretty awesome.

          1. Well, I guess I’m lucky as I only live about 40 minutes from two different mountains ranges, so usually I just throw the bike in the car and drive to the foothills and start from there. It’s a world away from the city and the suburbs where you become attuned to unfortunately “tuning” out the finer vibes in life.
             I never did bodybuilding so I never suffered from those latent conditions, but, 1.5 hours in the saddle, even for someone without back problems is about the max before I need to take a break and either walk or sit down for a while. Yeah, it’s not just the mechanical exercise, but, the overall quality of wellness you get from heading out to remote and rustic places. The absence of noise, the abundance of natural (not man made) sounds, the smell of really fresh air (which can be salty or sweet depending on the winds and seasons) the vivid shades of colors and the sharpness in definition you can observe in a mountain or perk’s outline as you pass on by upon your bike are profoundly fulfilling experiences. Even watching the change in cloud formations over the landscape which you can do really well when you cycle make you appreciate what we should all be experiencing everyday, but alas we sadly don’t.
             I like solitude, so I rarely cycle with others because either they become obsessed with the competitive process of cycling and miss out the whole mental enjoyment it brings and they are talkers which equally ruins the experience for me. I guess, I’m a bit selfish about these things, but, I think (like Nietzsche said) you have to jealousy guard important experiences against the usual intrusions in this world.

       2. It’s the people not technology

24. I was at an L.A. Kings game recently and several people in the row in front of me were playing solitaire on their phones…tsk, tsk. All of that shit can wait if you’re in public and paid to see an event.
    I’m thankful most of these don’t apply to me; my phone has served me well since 2013 and I don’t bother with apps, games or other gadgets.

    1. I actually downloaded Instagram last week. I wasn’t too impressed. I just don’t see the appeal. All Instagram is, it’s just Facebook with pictures.

       1. Narcissism was part of Facebook’s appeal but Instagram is that narcissism extracted and concentrated and fed to attention whores. You can chew coca leaves and get a buzz but the concentrated white powder is a hell of a drug!

          1. Dig the coca leaf reference.

          2. I was thinking about the time Jeremy Clarkson ate a whole bag and drove a car at high altitude and he’s still in one piece. Given his track record whilst sober I think coca leaves are safe enough. lol

25. #1 reminded me of the last concert I went to last year. Before that, I hadn’t been to one in 5 years. In that time span, human habits have changed quite drastically. The concert I went to in 2010 didn’t have that many people pulling out their phones to take pictures. That was partly, because the technology wasn’t still that advanced. Fast forward to last year. Most people were too busy posing for selfies to actually be enjoying the music.

26. You discover the day you’ve become nothing more than an abstract function of your app and you think that’s cool.

    1. Can you recommend any non-chinese made boxer shorts? Im starting to think youre on to something

       1. Scotland’s finest…and that’s not a scotch,but, it helps!

          1. So I should wear a wool kilt under my cotton khakis?

27. It´s curious how outdorr activities haven been banned in my country…we can´t drink spirits in the street anymore, we can´t set a fire or bbq in the countryside…

28. Most of these don’t apply to me. My job requires me to look at a screen much of the day, so that can’t be helped. And does the government have better toys then me? Of course.

29. What’s so great about interacting with live human beings when there are no “safe subjects”? One cannot even talk about the weather anymore and please don’t even think about consumer or entertainment choices. Besides, I’m depressed and feeling inadequate after reading this article and not having my own accepting, nonjudgmental sexbot.

30. You can blame feminism for #10. Millennial boys are coming out of school too terrified to communicate with girls. Seriously, who would dare talk to a female in any kind social setting, given the Stalinist anti-male atmosphere which is school & college these days?

    1. You’re the only guy around here who’s pointed this out. Girls in my generation are just so brainwashed, it’s too risky to try to get with one, even if they are bangable and remotely relationship-worthy. At any time she can sic the cops on your ass just for talking to her.

    2. I pretty much decided I am probably not going to get married after reading an article about a wife getting NINETY FIVE PERCENT! in a divorce settlement!
       Unless their is significant reform, I think everyone can expect the birth rate and marriage rates to continue to drop.

       1. Iron clad prenup and hide your assets; that’s what I’m doing.

       2. Move to a country that doesn’t do alimony or even split of assets like most of mainland Europe, buy everything in your own name, and import a wife from a non EU country on spouse visa. Done.
          If she dumps you, all she gets is a government notice to leave the country within 3 months ;-).

          1. I don’t want to. I don’t really like non European women.

          2. You didn’t read what I said with much care. I said import a wife from a non EU country…
             My wife is Asian but you can go with whatever tickles your balls, Ukraine is close by, Africa too if you like that sort of thing…
             My point was if its important enough to care about you have ways to not have it be an issue. I’ve lived in several countries before I found one I like enough to make it my base of operations and home. Many would benefit from that a bit I’d think.

    3. Thank you!
       It’s the Government not tools!

31. I have to admit I’m guilty of 2,4,5,9,10 and 13

32. reminds me of “better than life” from red dwarf

33. #21: you type “lol” but you didnt even crack a smile

34. When I clicked on this article and I read “If 15 or more apply to you, you’re definitely a slave,” I thought, pfft, I’ll probably only have 3 or 4 apply to me, but almost all of them do! I’m going outside right now…

35. The problem is integrating technology to help us live our lives instead of distract us. We’ll figure it out with enough time.

36. Me: “Siri, am I a slave to technology?”
    Siri: “NO, Nadia, you most definitely are not.”
    Ha. Me for the win.

    1. You owned Siri 😉

       1. Yep. I sure put her in her place! 😂

37. Unless I have a bona fide business reason to carry a phone, I have stopped doing so on Sundays. If I have to place an actual voice call I will use my phone just for that purpose and turn off all my other notifications. I also try to limit use of my computer. The first few weekends were weird and I had the urge to “cheat”. But, by week 4 it started to become refreshing. I would take long walks, hike when the weather was good, just enjoy the outside, or take time to cook a gourmet style dinner. I even stopped sending work email on a Sunday and, even though my colleagues thought it would get me in trouble, instead what happened was most of my department just also stopped sending emails. My response to them when asked “what if something important happened on a Sunday and you needed to be on email?” my answer was “if something really that important happened you should be calling me anyhow.”
    Give tech free Sunday a try. You won’t regret you did.

38. “10. You prefer porn and virtual girlfriend to a real woman”
    Most, if not all men would prefer the real girlfriend. Men are driven to porn because Westernized females have become unhunan at so many levels by getting fat, have adopted shitty, unfeminine manners of dress and fashion, have mutilated themselves with haggis ugly piercings, dyed their hair with unnatural looking colors. They have absolutely the worst attitudes and have truly forgotten the significance of being a human being.

    1. Precisely. Why buy the cow if the milk is free as the aphorism goes. I would love nothing more than to be surrounded by women but seeing how much they’ve degenerated I would sooner avoid the unruly and loathsome mongrel hordes.

    2. I watch porn because it is cheaper than getting caught and giving my wife 60% of my shit. Marriage is a fucking sham

39. Brain training study needs to be looked at, according to said article too many errors to make a conclusion

40. The only one that really applies to me is a lack of sleep and that is borne of other factors outside of technology. Beyond that it is a necessary evil for me in order to undertake studies and work but otherwise I avoid it like the plague in my personal life and much prefer to read books or play sports; if I do listen to music that is the only concession I make for it.

41. #2 is why I’m a failure in life. When I saw it I was like “Damn… That’s me.”

42. I know I should unplug more. If I am not hunting, fishing, camping, shooting my bow or rifles honestly I want to avoid contact with my spouse and children as much as possible. The reason I am not doing the other things I love is the financial syphoning a family provides.

43. 21. The I phone / selfie stick crowd where someone has to be in every photo this annoys the hell out me. When you travel you make the moments/photos about the people, places and the experiences and not all about yourself, ( Women tend to be worse offenders. )

44. How about premature deafness and degraded eyesight?

45. I was in line a while back, and counted the people on cruising the ‘net in line. It was something like 17 of the 20 people were absorbed in their i-phones. Even the ones that came in with each other. You could have set a bomb off and no one would have noticed.

46. I’m leaving smartphone and normal phone at home whenever I can. Checking social networks, checking is that bitch going to answer, checking for new breaking news..or taking so many pictures that in the end I don’t see anything? Fuck it, life is to short to waste it in such a terrible manner.
    Also I possess no TV, home Internet or any gaming console.
    Any of that, specially smartphone makes me anxious, fucks up my attention span and makes me miss scenery, chicks, people, or simply peaceful present moment.

47. Two definite thumbs up for this article. The best pieces are those that can convict us to grow. I stand guilty of about 2-3 of these and although its much less than ’15,’ its still enough to get me to make some changes.
    I believe technology can be a useful tool, but should not consume us to the point of losing site of being engaged in meaningful living.
    I like to fight back against technology overload by doing the following (give or take those periods of time when I needed a break): Draw a picture, read one or two challenging books per month, hit the gym, take a walk, study martial arts, play a team sport, ‘go to church,’ take photos in nature, do a word search, cook, bake, play an instrument, learn a language, have a fellowship group etc.
    We can win against the onslaught of excessive technology

48. Excellent article. I am only guilty of about 2 or 3, but I certainly see people who damn near LIVE on the web/social media.
    I mostly use the internet to read articles and save socializing for real life

49. #21 You go on your phone when you are in the actual company of other humans.

50. Nothing wrong with taking pictures of a big event. 50 years ago the people in pic 1 would have their brownies, instamatics and Polaroids out, and snapping away. Gotta save those memories somehow.

    1. Not really, a few pictures on a vacation are fine, but do you really need a picture of a funky looking tree or another sunset?

       1. I take photos of booze ….. one I did earlier today.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d3fd27848017d09eba8688763de418174d58c68dcd495d0ff96051a10507f38.jpg
          In the background, router, computer, sound bar ….. I love tech too.

          1. Nice! I like beer bottles in scenic locations…
             http://imageshack.com/a/img22/2921/rh06.jpg
             http://imageshack.com/a/img841/6950/zbnw.jpg

51. Point number 10 is just self preservation for today’s men.
    I have been disgusted for over a decade at most of the points on your list. All of this stuff that is supposed to bring us together is actually driving us apart! Maybe one out of ten people is taking to somebody with them. Everybody else is just on their ‘phone. I find all of it to be rather disgusting.

52. #14 Ha! I do have a little anecdote to tell. The other day I was pulling out of the supermarket parking lot after doing some groceries. As I was backing out of my spot, some old 60 something geezer was pushing his shopping cart while looking at his phone. Had I not honked my horn the bastard would have bumped his cart right into the back door of my car. The saddest part, he looked up, went around and went back to his phone! And maybe 15 years ago, he would have been part of the “damn kids watching porn online all day in their rooms and don’t respect grownups anymore!” crowd. It also shows that for what it’s worth, millennials, though still dumbasses, shouldn’t get all the blame.

53. I can thankfully say that I am aware of all of these and use technology with that knowledge in mind. I started working in tech in 1996 and have watched it become what it is today as both a creator and user. If people are off the deep end on tech, it’s because they don’t posses the character or fortitude to discern how much, when, who benefits, and how to use it with some sense of balance. The same goes for food, booze, drugs, etc. Tech is the ultimate lazy persons vice. The movie Wall-e nailed future humans perfectly as fat assholes riding in personal screen/scooter devices constantly chugging on a giant soda.

    1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6af18dd72a8bf84dc64e78a3b218a65d0b84fe9024d835ee9f996370d3e710c5.jpg

54. I can’t wait to move into a virtual world.

55. The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind is king.
    But he must recognize accept that the people around him are blind
    And he must be a Man.

56. The only thing I think I would really miss about a smart phone is the maps app. I could do without it though because I do still have enough sense to read a road map….I just don’t know where to find one anymore :).

    1. A map isn’t much use in thick Jungle. When I’m running or cycling under canopy it’s a game changer.

       1. A topographical map and a compass would be but, maps app is just too easy. I haven’t been doing much running under jungle canopy lately though. It gets hot enough for me here as it is.

    2. maps/GPS so easy – I can’t imagine using paper on the knee while driving…

       1. You have to stop lol

57. Brilliant article describing what is known at digital dementia.

58. me, me , me , me.
    but at least I know I can quite anytime.
    The number of zombies walking around glued to iPhones seems to be going exponential. Really – in the past 4 months…

59. admittedly guilty of a few of these points. much of what has been listed I didn’t take notice of until I saw how much time my son was spending on his damn I-pad that the elementary school issued (yes, they don’t use pen and paper anymore. I’m ever so pissed about that!!!). got rid of facebook (was far easier than quitting smoking or drinking so not impossible by any means), I try to unplug at night which hasn’t been too difficult, but I still believe I am smart enough to text and drive 😉

60. 1. There is so much you can learn from Napoleon Dynamite.
       “Do you drink 1% because you think you’re fat?, Well you’re not, you can drink whole milk if you want to”

       1. That’s a movie I can watch over and over.

61. Various radiofrequency (RF) radiation guideline recommendations (given as µW/m2*):
    10 000 000 µW/m2 – FCC (USA) OET-65, recommendation
    9 000 000 µW/m2 – ICNIRP 1998; WHO, recommendation
    100 000 µW/m2 – Russia and Italy, recommendation **
    1 000 µW/m2 – the Bioinitiative Report 2007, recommendation
    170 µW/m2 – the Seletun Statement 2010, recommendation
    3 µW/m2 – the Bioinitiative Report 2012, revised recommendation (Precautionary ceiling (top) level for 2013, may be revised at a later date)
    0.1 µW/m2 – contribution from the sun at daytime during big solar storms
    The range 0.000001 – 0.00000000001 µW/m2 is the true natural background level during normal cosmic activities, which is what we have evolved to tolerate, according to Dr. Olle Johansson. In developed nations, according to Dr. Johansson, these levels might only be seen in a cave or specially designed military installation. However, it is instructive to see the great distance between what we evolved to tolerate and the suggested guidelines above. In the USA, the FCC guidelines make it currently legal to allow RF radiation levels at 10 000 000 µW/m2, which is 10,000,000,000,000 (ten trillion) times higher than than the upper natural background levels we evolved to tolerate!

62. Number 10: who can really blame a guy who’d rather beat off than put up with a western woman? They’re worse than tennis elbow from spanking it too hard, pathetic as it may be.

63. Einstein made a perfect prediction. He knew ahead of times.

64. Sometimes I have a dinner with other family members.
    Even my aunt age 60 can’t resist grabbing her phone during dinner. It’s not only sad, It’s freaking disrespectful and a sign of immaturity and bad impulscontrol. I’ll bet she will freak out when I point it out. People stopped questioning their own tech behavior long time ago. It’s one of the reasons why our western societies are shit today.

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