Friday 1 September 2017

Change - Smartphones - Big Brother -

Some thoughts on 1 September 2017 - I write this as a record of where I am at - maybe a tipping point. 

It is six weeks since I bought my very first Smart Phone.
I know that because I took my first photo on it - 22 July  -of Settle Cricket Club Bar and tea room and pitch.

Three weeks ago I wrote:
It is MI I I I ND    BOGGLING !! 
It is MI I I I ND    BOGGLING !!
And a further three weeks on 
it is still MI I I I ND    BOGGLING !! 
My mind has just been boggled.

I am adding this post as I shall surely look back to 1 September and say "My, wasn't life simple then!"

I  resisted getting a smart phone in the past: "There is poor reception in my house." I used to say.

 And I whilst I am addicted to checking my emails every few hours on the computer, I really do enjoy being away from the machine and away from the phone.

But ... I really would have liked one so that I could record a podcast about the splendours of Craven Speakers Club




What's mind boggling?

The way the phone just got all my details from my laptop.

The way that people could now easily get access to these details.

The way that "Big Brother" can see where I am.  (If I resist using  my plastic bank cards at supermarkets I can remain relatively untraced.. apart from my emails )

The way that if I get dependent on it, losing my phone will be as bad as loosing my laptop. 

The way that there is so much space to store stuff on the "Cloud".. 15GB on Google Drive

The way that I went to buy a microSD memory card for my phone last week. - I discovered you can by 32GB and 64GB SD cards for cameras - 
Four years ago I managed with a 2GB card in may camera - but was pleased to buy an 8Gb card for recording photos and videos --
 Now for the same price one can buy a 32 GB card .. and for a bit more,a 64GB card.

Why - my first computer's hard drive was only 4 GB, and my friend Christine's older computer was only 1 GB.
(I sound like myself  years ago saying "When I was a student I had a holiday job at a Crop Research station doing statistics for them using a mechanical adding machine..).. 
I used to wonder what it was like for my grandparents growing up when there were no or hardly any cars around - what changes they had lived through
I used to wonder what it was like for people in the countryside in Africa coming to the cities..

But we are all (except the very elderly and maybe some of the struggling illiterate who need our awareness and empathy) all going through change now.

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When I first bought it I felt like a London Taxi driver learning all the roads .. my brain must be really swelling.

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I'm learning bit by bit how to use it.
I suspect that by not buying one 8 years ago, I have skipped the stage when mobile phones were more difficult to use
..
I went outside now to look up at the stars and feel rooted on earth.. only to see an aeroplane fly overhead - maybe en route to America.

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I love going outside learning how to identify flowers and lichens..
but how long will it be till we can just put a leaf into a hand held machine and it will recognise the DNA?


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It's exciting seeing these developments -- 
The new generation of children have missed out on this excitement.

I have been taking photos and videos .. and the way they load themselves up into cyberspace and onto https://photos.google.com/
(or not as the case may be) and how to donwload them to my laptop or send them to you tube.. It's amazing - like Alice in Wonderland or down a rabbit hole.
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But they will have other things to learn .. and I still have to learn how to speak more effectively -  to promote Craven Speaker Club

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How long will it be till Artificial intelligence takes over?














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