Good grief. What a faff. Put all your personal information into a hand held device, then have it snatched out of your hand. People are addicted to their phones. They cannot function without them.
You see it everywhere. People walk around the streets with their face glued to their screens, oblivious to what is going on around them.
This addiction is planned. How do you control millions of people, to get them to do what you want them to do? Easy. Promise them how their life can be miraculously changed for the better if they have their handy little friend by their side day and night.
Anybody walking around in a built up area like a town or city, tapping into a miniature keyboard, or swiping their screen, is at risk of having their whole life snatched away from them in an instant. It is folly to become so immersed in the virtual world that they forget to keep track of the real world.
I was threequarters through my walk yesterday and was flagging a bit. I had started out late and was beginning to think about the lovely meal I was going to make when I got back. There was a bus stop in the village where I was walking through. Let's have a look at the timetable on the bus shelter wall. Oooh, that looks promising, there is one coming along in fifteen minutes. Perfect, just the job. It was five minutes late but that is understandable considering he has come from town. Always going to be traffic holdups when people leave work.
Ten minutes on the bus and I was home. That's a lot better than the forty minutes it would have taken if I had carried on walking.
Nowadays you cannot get a printed bus time table, which is a shame. I shall have to start making notes on the local buses, times and routes, in a little note pad. Or look for time tables at bus shelters.
Be careful out there. Keep your valuable personal information safe in a zipped pocket, or zipped cross body bag. Better still, hidden underneath your jacket or coat. Do not take it out without checking your surroundings. Boys on bikes appear from nowhere, and in an instant your whole life is gone.
Thanks for popping in. See ya soon. Toodle pip. ilona
That’s so crazy. Not everyone, including yourself, have smart phones. When I worked at the hospital many patients had to use the landline to contact a person to pick them up. I suppose the plan is to handicap those people. But you don’t miss what you never had. I don’t know. The world is going to hell in a handcart.
ReplyDeleteTesco keep telling me I should upgrade my phone. I won't. I will deal with the consequences of not being permanently online.
DeleteWe have a lot of boys on bikes where I live but they are working for the local dealers. They cycle around delivering to the locals. I walk my dog along a lot of paths away from the roads. They boys used to follow me thinking I was a customer, but I just used to smile and say hello. Once they realised I wasnt a customer they stopped following me. I always carry my photos when I'm out, but in my pocket, not in my hand.
ReplyDeleteBoys on bikes are usually working in the black economy when they can't get a proper job. Keep your phone out of sight when walking about.
DeleteI recently read a comment by someone (can't remember who) saying "Would you walk down the street holding £1,000 in your hand? No? Then why does anyone think it is safe to hold an expensive phone loaded with information about them?"
ReplyDeleteI was recently on a train with a friend who was horrified to find that I had left my phone at home. "But what would you do if I was taken ill?" I told her to look around the carriage. EVERY other person was staring glassy eyed at their phones. I think I might just have been able to find someone to ring for help!
My friend tells me I should get a smartphone because it has a GPS and people would be able to locate me if I fell. I told her I am very careful not to take risks on rough terrain.
DeleteHi Ilona, have a look at this video on YouTube, a song from 1985, likely didnt make much sense back then but you can see where things are going today: https://youtu.be/47TZ9MHI1qg?si=IDUoQ_ufg0c27Rwj - worth a watch - hopefully the link works, if not you can search 'Cathy don't go to the supermarket today' and it will come up. They plan these things decades in advance.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link. So, forty years ago they predicted this. People had better start waking up before it's too late.
DeleteCripes! Those lyrics are bang on. H
DeleteI was surprised Helen. I'd heard that the planning of this started some time ago, and when I talked about I became a conspiracy theorist. Now we are right in the middle of it and it is happening.
DeleteWe'd all be better off as a society if we could wake up and see the damage we are doing to ourselves. This digital world is going to break down one day and then we'll really be screwed. I get so flabbergasted when I'm out to enjoy a walk, and see whole families - parents and children - all with their faces in their personal digital devices and not seeing the wonder of the real world. With AI and the preferences for artificial screen time, our brains are being fried. Margaret from Canada
ReplyDeleteSome valid points you make there, Margaret. I believe our brains are being fried.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think people realise how quickly this is moving towards towards a dystopian nightmare. It is scary when you think AI will be taking the jobs away from thousands of people. Human to human and face to face interaction will die out in years to come. You are allowed to go off topic here Rachel. I trust your judgement.
DeleteLet’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. I went to my GP because I had a mark in my face that had changed. The nurse took photos and it was sent off for AI to look at it. A couple of days later I heard it was all fine. AI had cleared it and then a doctor looked at it and cleared it. My other half went a few months later, he got a message (on his smart phone) 10 mins after he left the doctors saying he needed to be seen. AI flagged it and it was cancerous.
Deletelet’s not be Luddites and say all AI is bad.
For my particular episode I would have preferred a GP human input and believe it warranted it. I am not prepared to be put on to pills for the rest of my life without words from a doctor and kindly support. I believe a text message on a phone giving me an algorithm link is callous and cold without humanity.
DeleteI agree Rachel. It's over a year since I last saw a doctor. After explaining what the problem was, a stiff neck and shoulder, I was not allowed to ask him any more questions about any other concerns I had. I was shunted out the door. We are treated worse than cattle now.
DeleteJanie, no one is saying all AI is bad. If it works for you then carry on checking your smartphone.
DeleteThe Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids.
The Luddite movement began in Nottingham, England, and spread to the North West and Yorkshire between 1811 and 1816. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed by legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of accused and convicted Luddites
Maybe they will resort to shooting those of us who refuse to go along with their AI digital identity plan.
I think most people know the meaning of the term Luddite….dystopian nightmare sounds pretty bad to me.
DeleteMy experience with the medical profession seems very different to yours and Rachel’s…perhaps you should both try a different surgery.
I have no need to visit a surgery, any surgery. I look after my own health and will not hand that responsibility over to anyone else. If I should fall ill at any time, is is rather worrying that a doctor in person will not be available and I will be expected to tap a few keys on a keyboard or speak to a robot on the phone. You do it your way and I will do it my way.
DeleteSounds like a good plan. I was merely pointing out my surgery is excellent. I needed a doctors appointment a couple of weeks ago. Phoned at 12:00 had an appointment at 4:50 that day. I was treated with professionalism and compassion.
DeleteI felt misunderstood by your comment person so I took it down. My surgery has its failings but this messaging is new to me.
DeleteConversations on line can easily be misunderstood. That's why I do not want to spend ages going back and forth, round and round in circles, going nowhere, and ending up back at the beginning. Nothing will ever get solved by wandering around in an echo chamber. Face to face is always best in my opinion.
DeleteThey seem to have become essential and are useful, but people forget to use the off button. DH’s chimes at every notification and he has loud conversations on it which I am forced to hear. I miss the telephone in the hall.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand why people feel they need to have their notifications turned on. I never do this as the constant pinging would really irritate me.
DeleteI have a smartphone although if things continue in the direction they're heading, it will be my last. I mothballed it during the plandemic as I didn't want to be caught out by hack and trace. The phone has been useful in some respects but I don't download apps and wouldn't even consider the NHS one. Why would I want my personal information on a device I could lose or have nicked.
ReplyDeleteI need to go and have words with them at Tesco phone shop in the big Tesco. They are trying to push me onto a different tariff.
DeleteI have an old fashioned flip phone that I can make and receive calls and texts, that's enough for me. I have signed the petition against digital ID cards because I don't want my details getting into the wrong hands. My son who is a computer expect told me years ago this was coming and he was called a conspiracy theorist. He believes people should wake up before its too late.
ReplyDeleteEve