I recently saw a short clip of a speech by a well known medical practitioner about his experiences with patients with Covid. Mind you, this was at a gathering of a club whose members encourage humour and all speeches are in that genre.
The doctor, a second generation medical practitioner, was light-heartedly suggesting that if he prescribed some simple medicine and treatment to a patient, the patient was dissatisfied and reeled off a list of names of high power antibiotics that should be prescribed.
Though this was said in humour, the message could not be more descriptive of today’s internet addicted humans who consult the internet before going to a doctor. Since the advent of Covid, the number of messages that I get about it on social media is simply mind boggling. Although I simply delete them or skip them, the sheer number takes up time.
Similarly, I get messages about temples, religion, self improvement, politics, crime and so many other topics that if I were to read them all carefully I am sure that my brain will explode as its memory capacity will reach its limit all too soon.
Here is the latest one that two different friends have sent to me. Please click on the image for a larger resolution.
Of what interest could this information be to me? Or for that matter, the friends who sent them to me? Am I or they, ever likely to walk this road, even partly?
A very dear friend of around my age, has solved this intrusion by junking his smart phone and switching to a primitive one that can be used only to make and receive phone calls; and send / receive SMS messages. He has been urging me to follow suit. I am seriously tempted to.
Should I?
Yes, you should [junk the lot]. I haven’t even cranked up to the most basic of mobile phones yet. One of the Angel’s friends plus one of my many nephews tell me that if I don’t convert I’ll be left in the desert. Sounds great. I won’t see for dust. However, they are right. By way of example: I still haven’t applied for permanent residency in these Brexshite ridden times. Tentatively I went onto gov.uk website only to find that, in the unlikely (?!) event of me not having a smartphone I need to find someone who does. To start the process. Cue eyeroll. Mine. Obviously I do have a resident smart phone owner. Do I want to involve him in my affairs when he has his own life to live? Seriously, Ramana. Being nailed to the cross is nothing compared to how we are coerced into “modern” life and “saving time”. Never was more time wasted than these times. Before good all Conrad disagrees and I fall totally in love with this subject and get carried away let me return to your post.
I shall pass on your walk to the Angel. He is given to serious walking. Outer Mongolia has been mentioned. I am close to taking up praying. Let’s hope there is a [phone] signal.
U
Spam, spam and more spam it sounds like, along with phishing and other fraud and annoying junk.
Fortunately, almost all of that that I see is just on Facebook. I get very few junk messages and not much email spam. I use my smartphone these days more for playing games and tracking my walking (I keep it in my pocket as I walk and an app actually counts steps) than anything else. It’s a handy little portable computer, though a tad small to be practical for extended periods.
Sadly, I saw a news article yesterday that included a teen whose distance learning was being done solely via a smartphone.
Mike recently posted..Tulsa Victorian Conservancy
Online education now here too is by and large on Smart Phones and Tablets. There is a vibrant movement to collect old ones to donate to the less affluent children.
I do not have a smart phone. Do not want a smart phone.
Wonderful. Very sensible. I am likely to emulate you soon.
TMI.
too much information.
TMC.
too much crap.
JTM.
just TOO MUCH of everything.
they’re advertising here a new device that takes your own EKG.
monitors your heart. similar to the little thing that monitors your blood sugar. soon we will be walking monitors of everything.
and as a person with AFIB and COPD I suppose I should be glad or at least impressed.
instead… more and more… “just leave me alone.”
I vote you do what makes YOU feel better and good. XO
and COOKIES drives me nuts!!! it blocks the screen of course.
if you don’t accept or use cookies you can just leave. and I do.
it’s all about money of course. always.
I am glad that you had a good rant and let off some steam. Please be assured that you are not alone.
My email is well managed. The spam is never looked at and slides past my inbox into the spam folder which disinfects itself every month or so.
I block stupid messengers in my PM box with their promises of whatevers or ridiculous prayers. I love that globe. mainly because I love trivia.
My online life is manageable. And I’m rarely bothered by nonsense.
XO
WWW
I think that I should take some professional help to manage my online life.
LOL! You’re killing me! It’s better to keep what you have & just ignore the stuff you don’t care about. I probably send out as much goofiness as I receive, but in the end I know that some of it will be consumed and some ignored, just like I do with what comes my way. 🙂
Mitch Mitchell recently posted..Is It Harassment If Your Stupidity Was Shared With The Public?
I am more the delete type. I rarely forward.
I would love to take that “long walk” – an amazing journey that I’d never even imagined existed – that’s why I love the Net and all it has on offer. I can easily delete what I don’t need to see, scroll past others like I would be (real time/shoe leather to pavement) if I was in the high street and didn’t need to visit/view 15 of the 20 shops in the street.
Yes, I have a smart phone, but not a terribly great one, but one that I can open the little book cover it has and see what the time is? why the weather is cold like in “right now it feels like xyx”. Who posted on Instagram or f/b and do I want to look? And then what’s happening some place in the world? Did one of my blog friends post something?
Without having to get out the laptop because actually it’s 3am in the morning and I can’t get back to sleep!
Catherine de Seton recently posted..Food and Flowers
The smart phone has its advantages Catherine. My problem is the mindless forwards that people keep sending me trying to either change me or keep me informed.
Yes, probably you should. I don’t have a smartphone and have no need for one. As you say, you just get a constant stream of messages and posts, 90 per cent of which are of no interest and are simply a waste of time. We’re certainly living in a period of information overload, with every Tom Dick and Harriet feeling the urge to inform the rest of us of every trivial thing that catches their attention.
I am coming to the same conclusion and may just ditch the smart phone sooner than later.