Other points of view are fine - but like much of the "modern" world, I simply refuse to participate in things that either have no value/meaning to me, or that waste my money and time. Smartphones are, of course, exhibit A, but car bullshit is a close second. It burns my hide that I cannot buy a new vehicle the way *I* want it. Between CarCo greed, government bullshit regulations, and effete Americans that go along with this crap there just isn't anything I'm interested in. I was an early - and enthusiastic - subscriber/reader of the now defunct "Automobile" magazine. I really enjoyed that mag - but in April 2016, I wrote them a nice letter explaining why I wasn't renewing. Wasn't their fault - but I wasn't interested in the rolling iPhones that cars were rapidly becoming. Totally coincidentally, 2016 was also the year I had the concept of "smartphone expectation" rudely brought to my attention.
I only speak for myself - and others like me (there are more than you'd think). Even at my age, I do tend to be somewhat of an idealist - couple that with old age and little patience for things that waste my money or time - and there are an increasing number of things that I just won't participate in - and Goddess help the asshole who expects me to because "everyone else is doing it." And that's OK, I didn't need "it" in 1978, and I don't need it now, so why should I pay for it? I'm very fortunate to be in a position that i *can* ignore this bullshit, many people don't have the knowledge, resources, nor desire to keep a 40 year old car running. Even that one has too much bullshit on it, which is causing many/most of the "old car problems" it has. But I do encounter people VERY frequently who don't want modern car bullshit anymore than I do - but they have no choice. As for smartphones, I'm now (finally) starting to encounter more people who wish they could get rid of theirs, but mistakenly believe that they can not. And a smaller number who actually have done so (cue
@Chris ), and even the occasional individual, like myself, who never had one to begin with. But I've found that smartphones - and so-called "social media" - engender a kind of technological fundamentalism. Abstain or critique and the apologists come out of the wood work - often vehemently!
I'm "unique" because I avoid bullshit and make up my own mind about things, not what society expects/wants me to do. Above all else, I avoid people and situations that waste my money and/or time - and modern tech is mostly in that category. As I've said before many times, I've been using, programming, designing, and building (at the component level) computational hardware since long before most people had ever seen any of it, or knew what it was. Badly implemented, needless, expensive, useless, and especially poorly programmed tech is something I have no truck with whatsoever. Most of this code was written by code grinders who never saw the inside of a CS-101 class, much less passed one - and a lot of them work for the biggest names in the industry. There are times when I can tell you pretty much what is causing buggy behavior from an embedded system just by watching how it works and fails. Never mind latency, latency, latency EVERYWHERE. You show me latency in an embedded system, I'll show you poor design and/or bad code. As I also have said before - the crap coding I see everywhere these days would have had my ass getting FIRED FOR CAUSE. I could write code that outperforms a lot of the crap I see - using the crude microprocessors of the late 1970s. Because I was properly trained, and worked for a company that emphasized good design and correct software methodology. I'm not a particular fan of "C", and other ALGOL descendant languages because they enable writing buggy code very quickly. Don't get me wrong, a GOOD programmer and a GOOD C compiler can accomplish wonderful things, despite the horrid syntax, but those code grinders who didn't bother taking a CS-101 class will only generate undecipherable and poorly documented code full of bugs. GIGO always applies...
Now sometimes, I'll run into something that is actually well designed and well implemented - the automated kiosks at the med lab I went to this AM were fantastic. Worked really slick - I was quite impressed. Their touchscreens even worked well. Now if I could get them to install a shelf to hold my crap while I'm checking in instead of having to put most of it on the floor... (!!)
That's why I get grumpy when someone tells me that line item ordering would be "impossible" or expensive to implement. I was doing THAT before most had ever heard of it or knew what it was - I know better. I didn't write it, but I worked with those who did and I interfaced my code with theirs. It was as pretty slick setup for its day, and we were certainly "early adopters" of the tech.
Interior color option of gray, tan, black.
