Pluggers by Rick McKee for June 08, 2024

Many of us still think that.

“As the Internet becomes available everywhere, via Starlink for now, old primitive cultures will be destroyed. When Mwanandeke gets a taste of the soccer matches on his phone and then the naughty sites, the fields will not be tended and the hunts will not happen. Who’s to build the new huts? Who will learn the old rituals?” -Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo

It is truly amazing how often you see people walking down the street, staring at their phone. But, worst of all, being stopped at a traffic light, looking back and seeing the driver behind me staring at their phone. I don’t want a distracted driver behind me. As soon as the light turns green I try to find a place to turn into in order to get out of their way.

A black rotatory dial….yeah you lost your mind all right!!!

It’s not just the kids who have lost their minds.

We didn’t have phones to look at. Not like that.

They was aptly calls TV idiot box. The irony they calls these little theengs smart phones.

My phone is for talking … period ;-)

Since my wife passed away 9 years ago, the only texts I receive now are the 6-digit codes I need to log into certain websites (medical, financial, and the like).

Back in time there were classic country songs about spurned lovers sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring.

Ever see two people talking to each other on the phone in the same room? I thought it was a joke till I saw it myself…

Yeah, just sittin’ there staring at the wall.

Notice-No Loitering On Your Phone.

They weren’t that interesting then! Tethered to a wall with just a voice coming through, nothing to look at! Still, I remember stretching the cord out as much as I could to get privacy on the floor of my parent’s bedroom…privacy was hard to come by with six kids and parents too!

Social Media… the vehicle and method for uniform conditioning and propaganda for the masses. When everyone is ‘like think’… so much easier to control.

It’s still a sign of insanity but the acceptance bar has been lowered.

Never thought of spending my time looking at a rotary wall phone when there was a stack of books handy.

Despite using and enjoying all the modern technology, I still think spending all day on any of them is a sign of a problem.

I just – last evening in fact – returned from our latest adventure…we spent a bit shy of a month in Tanzania. Most of the time was spent bumping over dirt tracks in the national parks Serengeti, Tarangire, Arusha, the Ngorongoro crater and so on….and it was simply amazing…seeing lions and cheetahs and rhinos and a couple score of other critters up close and personal is literally life- changing.

As well, and not to be discounted, was the time spent learning about the Maasai and other tribes that live there…and again…awesome…

Watching the people live life as they have for centuries, dress and diet and lifestyle virtually unchanged for centureis…very humbling. But it is a bit discombobulating to watch a couple Maasai women collecting wood for their cook fires – again, exactly as they have for hundreds of years – chatting on her smart phone…

Our Safari guide was a local guy, a Maasai who lives in a small village near Arusha, and his lament is much the same as the quote above, as he admits that his own career choices are indeed very much part of the change he is decrying….

I grew up in northern BC in cowboy country…any transport on the farms and on the range was by horse…communications meant listening for rifle shots. Now it’s ATVs and smartphones….