I have decided that a blind reliance on technology is perhaps not the best way to go. Don't get me wrong - we have the usual electronic stuff - tvs, laptops etc., and even (gasp) an iPad. It is the new iphones and androidy things I refuse to be tempted by. I really cannot see myself wandering about glued to a mobile phone. I don't need to be in touch with anyone 24/7, and texting is a bit of a mystery. I realised I was definitely turning into an old reactionary recently when a young chap in a shop asked me for my mobile phone number. I must admit here - I don't know it; I never phone myself and in any event my basic little mobile phone is a pay-as-you-go thing and strictly for emergencies. I certainly would never wander around with it switched on - what the hell for? Anyway, as the young lad's jaw dropped when I said I didn't know, he said "but how can we send you texts to keep you up to date with new offers?" Well, having explained to him that I was not interested in new offers and particularly not by text, he still managed to splutter out that he had to put something down on his form. I gave him our landline number and said to take it or leave it. I was about to really shred the little chap when OH sailed over and ushered me out of the store.
That new advert for "Hive" on tv - you know, control your heating by your phone? - has me going. Do folks not have timers on their boilers? I can time my heating/hot water to 30 minute intervals. Why would I want to play with an app on my phone and pay £9.00 a month for the privilege? Wonder if there is an app that pops in and lights the logburner!.
I really do think that people who become reliant on these gadgets are losing the plot. What on earth is going to happen if the grid goes down?
Sounds like the group that once thought the electricity was too dangerous for use in homes, land line telephones were the work of the devil, automobiles would never catch on, radio was a passing fad, no one would sit in front of a TV set through all that dribble and computers were good for business and government but would never be a household item.
Give it up Mary, the technology is now 30 years old and a whole generation has grown up NOT knowing what it was like to NOT have a cell phone.
Why would you not want to control your boiler by phone, or check the CCTV at your house, or turn on the porch light from your vehicle, or even get notice that something you use constantly is on offer for 1/2 price if that function is available? On top of that you can always ignore features you do not want to use or block services you find irritating.
Using those functions does not make one less of a person, and not using them does not make one a superior person, just one less well prepared. I am constantly using my phone to take pictures when doing repairs, just to remind me of what the device looked like before I ruined it. There are also plant identification apps useful for foraging and medical apps with first aid information.
Texting is not only a survival skill it has become a standard method of general communication world wide with alert notices and emergency reports being sent to every phone in an entire nation on a fraction of a second notice.
One of the most irritating things I have been confronted with lately is one of the members of my small group of close friends refuses to provide himself with a cell phone.
He has a land line but never answers it or checks his messages and he has a computer and never checks his e-mail.
My friends and I are constantly making plans and meeting for different activities and we are also constantly being interrupted by situational changes that prevent us appearing for some of those functions. It is a matter of courtesy.
We communicate by text to alert each other of changes so that one person will not show up half way across town to a no-show meeting. We also use the phones to access the internet, GPS functions and other daily uses that legitimize their existence. We are all old geezers well into our 60s and remember having to hunt for a public phone to make important calls, hope you could catch the person near their phone, then wondering what disease we had just caught from using the device.
With texting one does not have to answer the call immediately, the message will show up the next time the person picks up the phone, even if it is days latter. That is handy since I do not carry my phone around with me daily, it lives on the charging station most of its life. I do check it a couple of times daily. At my age one never knows when a friend or family member will die and I might want to pay my respects.
Texting has a valid function for preppers. In an emergency one can get a text message out when voice service is down and land lines and electric are both down. If my battery goes down after several ours of texting I can move to my vehicle battery and communicate for days.
During our Hurricane Katrina, and during most other regional emergencies, texting was the last comm to fail the average user and people were getting text messages out at the height of those tragedies. We are 12 years down the road now and the systems are even better.
The only people that will be able to communicate longer than your text service will be the ham radio guys and no one wants to talk to them anyway.
BTW, all those people you see walking along with their noses pressed to their phones are not texting, they are playing computer games. And those annoying phone calls that interrupt your dinners and meeting are not real, they are rescue calls planned in advance so the person can leave if they desire. Anyone that really wants to have a conversation across the table will turn their pone off, then check their text massages when the meeting is over.
I'm somewhat with Mary on this one. We have smartphones in this household, but we use them to make our lives easier.
Specifically, what we do not use them for is to make commercial company's lives easier, and nor do we spend our every waking hour glued to them.
You're right Mary, there's a whole segment of the population ( the larger part it seems to me) whos lives are totally dependent on smartphones now. My SIL for example cannot go more than 5 minutes without checking in n some app or other to stay connected to his ever so important virtual lifestyle. When this happens throughout meals with family, I just find it damned rude. After all, as MB wrote, they do have an OFF button and an ability to pick up communications asynchronously.
Recently, I've been much amused by claiming not to have mobile telephone nor understanding what an e-mail address is whenever demanded these by impudent store staff. Met with this unworldly response,it usually takes the dullards a minute or two in a complete "does not compute" state before they grasp the shocking fact that maybe not everyone on the planet was born with a smartphone grafted to the end of their arm.
I recently upgraded my mobile phone ....i can now take pics even....i tend to text more than anything else ...did push the boat out though £34.99 i spent.....with regard to GPS ,news,weather,and turning on the boiler when i am say .....in work or on my way home ....or like my grandson the other day ringing mum ...can you make me a bacon sandwich.....while still upstairs in bed....and i am NOT joking ! is just plain crazy lazy ....sure i like my mobile but its just a end for my means ....would i miss it ...sure i would....should we embrace all new technology to a point yes....but we should embrace the older stuff more ...after all not much can go wrong with it and they we once the forerunners for the new.....at Asda's yesterday at the self checkout one item would not scan the bar code... this assistant walks up (with happy to help) printed all over her shirt ...it will not scan love i say..i was about to drop kick the bag of doughnuts across the store ...YOU need to type in the long number sir.....NO i say YOU need to ensure the bar code can be recognised by the reader dear at this point OH knees me in the bum and says to the girl "men have no patients and mine has even less ) progress Will have your job love and there you are helping along with .....your certain demise .....i was then frog marched out the store by oh....whilst holding one arm behind my back....not pretty .
Ooh, and sat-nav - another bugbear. We have a built-in one on one of our vehicles, but we never use it. In my trusty old Landy I have maps and a compass. OH appears to have an inbuilt sense of direction so we never get lost. I have been in vehicles where the driver has slavishly followed the sat-nav and we have actually ended up in a field. Terrific! And of course we have the endless entertainment of watching the Lithuanian HGV drivers trying to squeeze themselves under low bridges or down tiny lanes with no hope of turning round. Mind, I don't think the entire collective intelligence of the Lithuanian HGV drivers actually barely equals that of one of my hens, so no surprises there.
And of course the latest little fad is the smart meter for your electricity/gas supplies. Why would I want one? It is supposed to make me "aware" of the units I am using, but it would not change anything. My fridge, freezers, cooker etc will still be on, regardles. So what is the point. I could claim paranoia - Big Brother, and all that - but quite honestly one of those gadgets will not be entering my house while I am alive in it.
I could rant for hourse.
Don't mind using high tech to make my life easier now but my preps are geared around low tech when I won't be able to get repairs etc.
Depends what you call high tech though as I'm still struggling to understand how they make pencils.
Mary, I'm with you. I don't know my cell number either. I have a $9.99 LG non-smart phone from Amazon with a $100/year plan. I can text the kids, call someone when I'm away from the house, play solitaire, and use the calculator and calender function. That's it.
Well the thing is the more advances that are made usually means the more complex items become and the more the working man/woman becomes dependant of some one else to maintain any given item...try servicing your own vehicle ? fix your own computer ....? usually this maintenance requires a PHD these days .....my grandsons can work any controller operate apps ......but can not make a fire or cook a meal if it does not involve a dinger .....jeez they do not even want to take a walk up the mountain or do any chores at ALL.
As i eluded too earlier basic elementary stuff ...day to day stuff is beyond the comprehension of most young folk....woodworking,metalwork and gardening were taught when i was a lad ....girls were taught to cook,needlework,and turn materials into a nice dress ....life skills....i know this was fifty odd years ago but IS still ALL good ....skills to have today ...i expect Mary,s been repairing fences around the grounds ...Hard work never hurt anyone ....nobody likes to do a bit of graft these days....people would rather pay others to do the jobs they can't be bothered to do themselves Not that they can not or are incapable ...just bone idle is all THESE will fall first wtshtf ......embrace new modern stuff is fine ....but wrap yours arms around the past and hug shit out of it ...........have no doubt it will be your salvation !
My take on this is that as preppers it helps to learn all areas of communications. I'm fairly IT hardware/software/internet/smart phone savvy, but I agree I would not want it to run my life entirely, and anything that I don't specifically want or request I take as intrusive interference in my life.
The problem is the more people there are who who just adopt every aspect of internet/smart technology the more it will start to take and eventually everyone will either have to use it or be excluded from areas of society, unless one is 100% independent of it of course, however I have heard stories that in the United States some off grid homes are being forced by the City (the US equivalent of our Local Councils/Authorities) to connect to the grid or risk prosecution. I assume then that even if the homes forced to connect were to not to use the grid electric, then some sort of standard charge would be levied by the electric company? Are any of our US members are able to confirm this?
One area where I have very little knowledge though is in the area of ham radio, and is one of the many things I have on my list of things to investigate/learn. I’ve had a look through some of the materials in the files section which were informative and interesting, but so many other priorities at the moment.