#gadgets

Ich würde den erhöhten Gebrauch von Smartphones nicht direkt als kausale Ursache der zurückgehenden Beliebtheit von Festnetzverbindungen einstufen, aber eine gewisse Korrelation spiegelt sich (im privaten Gebrauch) zumindest in einigen Teilen der modernen Industriestaaten wider.

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Seitdem es durch das WLAN und Smartphones möglich ist, flexibel erreichbar zu sein, sind - zuweilen - vordergründig private, aber oft auch geschäftliche Anrufe mit dem Festnetz unüblicher geworden, zumindest in der Kohorte der Menschen zwischen 14-50+, die tendenziell über diese Möglichkeiten verfügen. (Das wäre meine intuitive Einschätzung, die keiner statistischen Richtigkeit entspricht.)

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In einigen Punkten ist die Verbindung via Festnetz jedoch relevant, nämlich bei ärztlichen und anderweitig öffentlichen Einrichtungen sowie Dienstleistungen. Tatsächlich assoziiere ich das Festnetz mittlerweile nur noch als Mittel, um diese entsprechenden Dienstleistungen wahrzunehmen und selbst ist man nicht einmal mehr darauf angewiesen, sie über das Festnetz selbst erreichen zu müssen.

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Als Millennial bin ich mir persönlich noch sehr stark über eine Zeit bewusst, in der das noch nicht so selbstverständlich gewesen ist. Da war das stundenlange Belegen des Telefons, wenn man keine andere Möglichkeit hatte, mit Freunden zu plaudern, nicht so begrüßt von Seiten der Eltern. Heutzutage kosten private Anrufe über das eigene Handy nicht einmal ausgesprochen viel, da mobile Daten oder das WLAN einen großen Teil davon abdecken.

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Die mannigfachen Auswirkungen des Smartphones allein könnte man in zahlreichen Romanen zum Ausdruck bringen, angefangen bei der schieren Revolutionierung unserer Gesellschaft, was Erreichbarkeit und permanente Verfügbarkeit anbelangt, die die räumliche Begrenzung der eigenen vier Wände erfolgreich aufgelöst hat. Im Hinblick auf diese Erreichbarkeit ist man - üblicherweise - sehr stark an das eigene Handy gebunden; auf eine Art und Weise, die bei uns sogar Entzugserscheinungen auszulösen fähig ist, wenn es einmal nicht in unmittelbarer Reichweite sein oder gar abhandenkommen sollte.

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Gleichzeitig wird von vielen modernen Menschen förmlich erwartet, dass Smartphones zum alltäglichen Gebrauch dazugehören. Das fing bei mir schon recht früh an, jedoch besaß ich mein erstes Smartphone mit achtzehn Jahren; zu einer Zeit, wo bereits WhatsApp-Gruppen selbstverständlich in Klassen gewesen sind und man in den Pausen stundenlang irgendwelche Apps bediente. Ich fühlte mich dahingehend relativ ausgeschlossen und seltsam; mittlerweile zähle ich selbst zu dieser "Smombie"-Fraktion (auch, wenn ich es einzudämmen versuche).

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Wenn diese alltägliche Nutzung immer omnipräsenter wird, selbst bei sozialen Gatherings, kann es durchaus passieren, dass man zu stark in die Meta-Ebene des Handys abdriftet und die Außenwelt als solche nur noch marginal wahrnimmt. Und wenn das Smartphone bald von intelligenteren Gadgets abgelöst wird, vermute ich eine Zunahme dessen.

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..Is that so? You mean..your a REAL demon? We have a AU where demons walk around but I haven't been able to get anyone from there.. but you say you aren't even from our multiverse..I. MUST. GET. YA. AS. MY. NEW. EXPERIMENT! Let me see here!! *Her halos suddenly change shape into a weird shaped exclamation mark that looks more like a balloon above her head as she searches her lab coat and tosses out various gadgets before locating another switch* Aha!! Perfect!! I can use them!! Presenting, my newest, most recent creation!
*once pressed, you spot a cage being lowered down from a hatch on the cieling..containing a ..very odd looking creature, it was a amalgamate but made up of 3 dog monsters* HAHA!! Let's see if you won't get melted with them! SICK HIM DOG FACE! *the amalgamated dog then charges with a pair of axes in its mouth, it was smaller than Endogamy but still bigger than her and Shadow*

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Most certainly, all of the above options could be considered as great feelings. However, the ones I would like to highlight are as below:

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1. When someone appreciates beyond bodies and genuinely compliments things other than just appearance.

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2. Able to sleep a tad extra on an off-day when you worked hard the entire week to achieve your goals.

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3. Taking off your shoes after a long hectic day or that first gulp of water after walking home on a hot day. Sometimes, moments of relaxation are the moments of happiness.

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4. Peeling the plastic sticker off electronic gadgets which you just bought. With own money? More sweet.

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5. Successfully moving on from toxic relationship and feeling the freedom within.

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6. Reading your favourite novel on a rainy day, while sitting in the balcony and holding a cup of tea/coffee.

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7. Unexpectedly meeting old friends and end up living your childhood once more.

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8. Witnessing your parents smile and talk about you with pride in their eyes.

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9. From being a part of the crowd to being the reason for a good crowd.

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10. And sometimes, even the tiniest of things like "Cashback" and "Out for delivery".

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No. I believe that humans are created in God's image and as such our minds and bodies should be considered a temple that we honor and care for in it's natural state as defined at birth. An exception to this might be if you were born without the use of arms or perhaps you were involved in an accident and robotics and surgery could be utilized to improve your quality of life, then I would accept that because God also gave humans the capacity to reason and therefore this ability should be used to solve problems and improve our quality of life whenever possible.

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Here is my problem with merging robotics within our physical bodies: why? What is the purpose? Is it to make us stronger, faster or more intelligent? And once we attain those characteristics, what next? War? Destruction? Will these new capabilities be used for good or evil, or to create or to destroy?

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Human nature being as corrupt as it is, I think we can all imagine an army consisting of half man and half machine used to attack and destroy those who we disagree with or those who have minerals, technology or something else that we want and are willing to kill, rape, plunder and conquer in order to steal it for ourselves and our own tribal group.

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I do see some useful and honorable applications for this type of integration, but I also see grave dangers and I do fear that in the end, when this technology is applied, evil will prevail over the good because politics is more pervasive than common sense, honor, human dignity and ethics.

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Puh, ich weiß nicht so recht, welches mehrheitliche Kollektiv man adressieren könnte.

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Im Falle von Social Media wäre das vermutlich Tik Tok, wobei ich im Falle einer Mehrheit eher vorsichtig argumentieren würde. Vermutlich nutzen überwiegend jüngere Menschen Tik Tok. Ich bin der Plattform jedoch vollkommen neutral gegenüber eingestellt. Ich war da noch nie, weiß nicht, was genau man da tut und bekomme nur gelegentlich durch Instagram oder YouTube etwas davon mit und was ich mitbekomme, ist für mich jetzt nicht so weltbewegend schrecklich wie es oft dargestellt wird. Kann aber auch daran liegen, dass ich von den anderen Dingen nichts mitbekomme, die viele kritisieren. Ich schnappe da eher Videos mit Tieren, Rezepten oder lustigen Edits auf. Ich finde es auch seltsam, dass viele Tik Tok als cringy bezeichnen, weil die Plattform an sich - genau wie YouTube - zahlreiche Rubriken besitzt. Ich meide auf YouTube auch die Bereiche, die mich nicht interessieren. Ich registriere mich dort schlichtweg nicht, weil ich nicht noch mehr mit Social Media Plattformen in Berührung kommen will. Ich versuche, mich dahingehend zu reglementieren und YouTube hat für mich bereits alles, was eine Video-Plattform bietet und ist nicht bloß auf kurze Clips beschränkt. Facebook nutze ich auch nicht.

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Ich vermute, dass im Falle der geringen Nutzung bei mir noch Smartwatches anfallen, aber auch da ist mir nicht bekannt, ob eine vermeintliche Mehrheit Gebrauch dieser Gadgets macht. Ich besitze schlichtweg keine Smartwatch.

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Mir würden noch diese kabellosen Kopfhörer einfallen, die ich bei vielen Menschen im Zug sehe, ansonsten bin ich bei weiteren Dingen überfragt.

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My daughter. I never wanted kids, even though my parents were amazing (I'm adopted) I always thought I would make a terrible mother. I was on the Depo prevara shot and found out I was pregnant on my 21st birthday. I knew my options and it was a struggle. Obviously I had her and now almost 25 years later I wouldn't change it for anything.
Finishing a tough university grade. It was not a given for me, did grow up in a pretty tough neighborhood. My babies. Everything else pales in comparison. Funny enough my biggest source of pride was to suck it up and stop being proud for a moment to patch things up with my father. Having done so I moved back to the USA in order to finish my undergraduate degree. I've now been living in the US for 5 years and I finally have an actual relationship with him.
Seems a bit silly but I was probably one of the best softball players at my high school. Unfortunately they did a really poor job record keeping so about 4 years after I left they put up a record board and my name wasn't on it. The Athletic Director contacted my dad who had kept the records all four years and newspaper clippings. Everything. So I knocked that girl off the board and hold records that won't be beaten for a long time. Hits in a season. Career batting average and triples. I put a lot of time and effort into softball from the time I was 11. So yeah it feels pretty great and I'm incredibly proud of those accomplishments.
Attended university full time and earned an engineering degree (with no debt) while working full time nights. Wife and two kids were a big help; kept me happy, fed and in clean clothes the whole 5 years.
I take pride in not adding to other people's plates. I will always handle whatever responsibilities I'm given and you will not have to remind me. You won't have to worry I'm going to corner you with some long boring story, and I'll never ask you to help me move. I'm am low-maintenance, low-drama, and quietly balanced. I am not a hassle to anyone in any way. My inlaws, currently in my home on an open-ended stay, are none of these things.
My wife and I are completely debt free (except for the house) and we have a positive net worth. We have much more than enough to pay our house off, but we choose to invest it instead. All the money we have, we earned ourselves. I also drive a 12 year old car (Wife's car is 7 years old), live in a modest house in a modest neighborhood. We don't have a lot of expensive toys, hobbies, or gadgets. We have friends in our social circle who are living much more extravagantly, who have confided how deep in debt they are. They would likely be shocked if they knew how much my wife and I are worth, but we keep it to ourselves.
I take pride in being a teacher. I don't know if I'm any good or not but I wake up every day excited to go to my job and is be lying if I didn't cry when those kids learn how to write their name properly or can do simple math.

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When old technology broke, you could fix yourself. If that failed, you could find a repair shop. With newer products, those options are disappearing.
When old technology broke, you could fix it yourself or get someone down the road to do it for you. If that failed, you could find a repair shop that would get the job done for much less than going straight to the manufacturer. With newer products, those options are disappearing. It is now often impossible to fix our own stuff.
This change was not accidental. Companies deliberately design products to prevent us from finding replacement parts. They don't even make information available to repair shops. Manufacturers have actively undermined our right to repair what we buy, and in doing so, they've called into question whether we truly own our purchases at all. Increasingly, the answer is no.
This change places a financial burden on us, restricts market freedom, and does lasting damage to the environment. In response, a growing number of people are demanding a change. They are insisting that our right to repair be enshrined in law.
Being the only one who can make repairs provides a company with a monopoly, so they can charge as much as they want for replacements. Most people won't want to pay that price and opt to buy a new one instead. Either way, the manufacturer makes more money.

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Avoid the shiny and new.
Look for screws.
Consider free and open source software whenever possible.
Avoid specialized software.
Pressure your representatives to propose and support right to repair bills.

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But sadly, repairing our gadgets is no longer a given. If we want this situation to change, we have to demand as much from companies using our wallets and the law.

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I think that I was a lot more tech-savvy when I was 13 to 15 years old. I loved to meddle with gadgets' system. I remember rooting my phone and tweaking it to change a lot of things including overclocking it. And when it gets into a non-stop restarting when I start my phone (which is called a boot-loop), I knew how to fix that and undo all my system changes.

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Same for my PSP. My PSP was the coolest among my friends'. I could use the joystick and the R trigger button to draw on my XMB menu (home screen), turn the screen dosplay 180° upside down, categorize games into folders, have my own custom boot animation and XMB menu (even looking like an XBox menu), save games at any state I wish to and then able to continue the game any time later, rip the games off the UMD on the PSP itself without the need of a PC and many more. Of course, just like the mobile phones, things could go wrong. I may end up with a boot loop, or totally render my PSP useless. The term for this was 'bricked PSP'. However, I could still fix this by making a 'magic battery'. This magic battery can be made by opening up the battery and soldering the wires in it or, as how I did it, the battery can be programmed via a PC, but we'll need a working PSP for this, since ours is already bricked.

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Man, was I good at it. Ah, good old days.

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