It will be a sad day when we no longer need to venture outside, work from home, order food and everything online whilst becoming even more distanced from our natural surroundings and losing our social interactions. Don't forget technology works both ways, paying for things by waving a credit card might be easy but it is also as easy for the criminals. I personally do not trust a lot of this new technology, it might be good for indicative purposes or looking for trends in data but it has it's limitations. My doctor still uses the old pump and stethoscope simply because it gives her more accurate results, nothing wrong with my digital machine at home for relative readings though.
Some good points there.
'Social Media' is an oxymoron for 'Antisocial Media' where people should calm down a bit and lower their voices an octave or two, as often as not replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. (‘Going for the player – not the ball’). It's the force of the argument that carries the day - not the force with which it is put.
So many troubled and angry people out there who have yet to learn the lesson to not feed trolls. If you haven't read it - they haven't said it. It puzzles me why some invite others onto their computer screen who they wouldn't invite into their homes.
As to social interaction, during lockdown we were forced to find ways of getting by which didn't involve close personal contact - ordering shopping on line, used Zoom or Facetime to keep in touch with friends and family, some watched keep-fit videos on TV, used Whats App etc. But what I soon realised is that I don't go to a coffee shop because I'm thirsty and I don't go to a restaurant because I'm hungry - I could have a coffee or meal at home.
And I don't go to my woodturning Club (closed for 2 years due to Covid), just to watch a demonstrator who I could watch online anyway. We're social animals - I do all of those things to be among kindred spirits and to socialise. It makes me feel good. What lockdown did was to take away the choice.
Zoom is great for conferencing with people who may be at different locations far apart, but for social interaction with friends and family, it falls far short. Last weekend My wife and I drove 500 miles down to London and back to celebrate our twin granddaughters 22nd birthday, and both gaining Firsts at Oxford. Zoom can't compete with a hug and a kiss.
They spent their first year at Uni in their tiny rooms, with a bed, desk, chair laptop and kettle, doing 'online learning', with lecturers hiding in corners somewhere. Couldn't even share their own birthdays together, let alone with other family members, being told by the government 'don't hug your granny - you could kill her'.
No children were taken out of school in the last century through two world wars. Pointless trying to 'put the frighteners' on octogenarians like us - the Grim Reaper has us in his sights. We've had our time - we spent our early childhood in and out of air raid shelters, and walked to school with our gas masks, doing air-raid drill at play-time.
Thought for the day:
'The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it'.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 11thC.
(He was clever).
Sorry, waffling and dribbling again.
David
