This grumpy Gen X’er, who grew up before computers insinuated themselves into everything – even toothbrushes – has a question for the younger set regarding something that happened – or rather didn’t – the other day. I’d like to get your thoughts.
I got a request to do an interview but not via phone – which is how I’m used to doing them. It seems to me to be the best way to do them because what could be simpler than calling someone – or them calling me? The phone rings, I pick it up – and we converse. I like simple things over complicated things, especially when there doesn’t appear to be any advantage to the complicated thing.
For example, swiping or pecking at a touchscreen to get a car’s temperature control to go from warmer to cooler or to increase or decrease the fan speed – vs. turning a knob to achieve the same ends. I see no functional advantage to the former – and so regard the former as a kind of Rube Goldberg maze; a gimmick. A way to show cleverness that is arguably stupid as far as I am concerned. Stupidity defined as making something easy harder.
In the same vein, I got this request to do the interview and gave the requestor my phone number; at the appointed time, I was ready to ramble – but the phone didn’t ring. So I emailed the contact and asked whether they needed to reschedule or was there a technical problem?
A reply came that asked me to click on a link to something called Zencaster, which I’d never heard of before. And didn’t want to hear of.
Here comes the get off my lawn,you damned kids part.
I was ready to talk about cars and political philosophy – not learn a new computer skill, which interests me almost as much as the latest saaaaaaaaaaafety features of the ’21 Kia Seltos I’m driving right now.
Sigh.
I asked the guy to just call me. I had my notes; I was prepared to discuss the stuff he said he wanted to ask me about. Instead, I clicked on the link and a screen came up. Now, I dislike Big Tech as much as I dislike Big Brother, the two being brothers from the same mother – so more than a year ago, I had my young apprentice, the teenage kid I help with cars in exchange for him helping me with these blankety-blank computers – turn off/disable and otherwise gimp the camera/microphone on my Mac, so that I could be reasonably sure BB and BT weren’t watching or listening to me.
Well, the screen shows the guy is on and he starts talking. I can hear him – a Great Leap Forward over picking up the phone, eh? But he cannot hear me. A Great Leap Backward. I am now shouting, practically, at the screen.
Muteness – and aggravation – reigns.
So I email him. Again. Meanwhile, we might have been doing the interview – for the past 10 minutes.
I ask him to please just call me. Is it that backward – or just not the Hipster Way nowadays?
He doesn’t.
We continue the one-way non-conversation for another several minutes. I hear him saying “hello?” over and over. He continues to hear nothing. The interview continues to not happen.
One call would have done it all. Fifteen minutes ago.
But since he wouldn’t call, the interview never happened, which means I wasted my time and he got no interview. A lose-lose.
So I’m wondering – my question is – why do people (it seems to be the 20-somethings) insist on using computers to do what a phone does – as far as I can see – better? Is there something objective, tangible that can be adduced to show that “logging on” and staring at the Telescreen (maybe even talking to it) makes more sense than making a call?
I hit the bottle shortly after this debacle.
I didn’t need to log in to unscrew the cap, either.
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like an ear tag – custom made! – just ask and it will be delivered.
My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy directly!
I don’t enjoy verbal communication for some reason. If somebody needs to get in touch with me, they know they can always shoot an e-mail.
I find texting to be uncivilized and child-like (emojis). I must be weird for liking complete sentences.
Don’t get me started with the overly complex, buggy, glitchy mess that is zoom……..
Hi Rich,
Have you noticed these things invariably have goofy names – e.g., “zoom” – as if conjured by a 14-year-old? Hmmmmm….
People probably think they are so clever with these names too………….
A year or so before convid, I was asked to be on a “zoom” call. Since it sounded completely ridiculous, I declined.
I’ve always disliked phone calls so I understand not using the phone and meeting in person. But voice or voice and video over the computer is often worse than the phone. That’s what I don’t get except for one thing, precious precious phone minutes. But I thought that was only for people with the cheapest cell phone plans available like me. On the company dime I’ll call the other side of the planet if needed.
I’ve had to do a fair amount of stuff via computer screen sharing for a long time so I became comfortable with the phone-computer combination to a degree. That seems to work pretty good. When you’re doing a lot of CAD work, technical presentations, stress analysis and so on with someone far away screen sharing saves a lot of effort. But we still used the phone for voice and no video. Then again engineers powerful desktops don’t have mics and cameras generally. Sure they could be added but companies don’t spring for that. They come standard on the laptops though.
These days in the U.S. for the most part phone minutes are not a consideration when using a real telephone (“land line”), even for domestic long distance.
My mother turns 87 this year. My sister and I gave her a PAYGO cell phone years ago, just a simple featureless phone, to have in her car in case of emergency, or to retrieve on the (too frequent) cases where she loses electricity and phone service due to storms.
She never used it once. Never even kept it charged. We stopped paying for the minutes after the phone turned obsolete.
She lives in a small town where calling her church (four miles away) is long distance. Calling any of her neighbors who are cell-only is long distance, thanks to the local telco monopoly.
She was so proud about five years ago when she overcame her reluctance to upgrade to unlimited long distance. I haven’t paid for a long distance call in 20 years, but… we’re proud of you, Mom!
Mom has to call her satellite TV provider to help re-program her remote every time the power goes out. Maybe I should give her Eric’s number at Luddites-R-Us. 😉
Kevin, doesn’t your mother have a corded landline? They work even when the ‘lectricity is out.
Yes, but she’s devoted to her cordless phone.
She will always have one corded landline phone, but never where she will hear it or have quick access to it.
No caller ID, no voicemail.
She is a (literal) child of the Great Depression who always looks for the lowest price, and doesn’t do a cost-benefit analysis.
I know how it is, Kevin- my mother is 95- only she now thinks she is “rich”, living on $1300 a month Socialist Security and her only expenses being groceries and <$200 a month utility bills, living in a singlewide on my land…. I love her stories of growing up during the Depression!
Great story, Kevin!
And hey, I’m not A Luddite! I like machines; I appreciate electricity and running hot and cold water. I dislike the computerization of literally everything, for reasons that seem to me gratuitous. No increase in efficiency; often an increase in pointless hassles. For example the serial “updates” that (from what I can tell) do not make whatever it is work better – just differently. Forcing you to “learn more” about some make-work protocol that will itself be “updated” and rendered useless in its turn with the year.
Was 1985 backward in relation to now?
I feel your pain Eric! My own kids (daughter 40, son 36 for reference purposes) hardly ever answer my phone calls, but will respond almost immediately to a text. Drives me nuts! I can talk a helluva lot faster than type those tiny letters; I usually end up texting them asking them to call me.
I embrace my old fartitude 😆.
I hate texting. I hate touch screens. The touch points on my phone’s virtual keyboard are smaller than my fingers and I have a phone with pretty big screen. It takes concentration to get the right letters and then the switching between number and symbol screens. It’s almost as bad as a damn GL data logger. Maybe worse because the GL has real buttons except I have to arrow over to the letter/number/symbol I want.
Interfaces have really sh*t the bed in the last decade. Just garbage. I think the software is written deliberately to make everything take longer.
I rarely answer the phone. As my 22 year old son points out: on the phone, YOU get to control the conversation. With text, I get to have a lot of control. (I’m 48 by the way)..
I typically only answer the phone for my wife or kids.
Hi Jim,
I keep meaning to try an experiment: Leave the phone at home and spend the day as I did as recently as five years ago – before I got my first sail fawn. People would leave me messages on the answering machine and, when I got back, I’d check and call them back as I had the time and depending on the urgency. But for the majority of the day, I was incommunicado. Unless I really needed to communicado – in which case I (back in the day) found a pay phone. I made perhaps 1-2 calls per day and often none.
Granted, there were times back then when I would have been grateful to have had phone. But this was an occasional thing whereas the much more relaxed pace of life was an everyday thing.
I now – god help me – get (and send) a dozen-plus texts each day; I use my sail fawn more in a typical day than I used a corded land line in a week.
It is addictive – and probably not in a good way (like coffee).
I still do it the way I always have- no caller ID or anything- The phone rings; if I’m around to hear it and answer it, I do, not knowing who may be calling. If it’s someone I don’t want to deal with, it’s easy enough (and fun!) to tell them to get lost and or hang up.
I really don’t understand why people will tolerate the constant interruptions and destruction of privacy which cell phones enable….yet act like it’s a big deal to pick up a ringing phone without knowing in advance who is calling! What’s the worst that could happen? You have to listen to someone’s voice for a few seconds before hanging up?
That’s the beauty of old-style land-lines: They offered a degree of anonymity, randomness, and privacy. They forced you to give up nothing- vs. cell phones, which invade your privacy on so many levels- from tracking your location, your contacts, your activity, etc. and which is monitored by various corporations and can be freely shared with Uncle.
And I don’t know how people can tolerate the constant interruptions ALL DAY LONG! My neighbor comes over to talk for 10 minutes…and he gets a call or two, a few texts, etc. all within that 10 minutes- Doersn’t seem to bother him….but I nicely let him know that if he’s coming over just to play with his phone, why bother?
I like the old way. I don’t want to be reachable at every minute of the day- There have been very few situations in my entire 58 years where a call was so urgent that it couldn’t wait. Cell phones (and especially smart phones) are degrading life.
Nunzio,
I’m with you. What I can’t comprehend for the life of me is people who take their cell phone on VACATION! Usually, it’s at the behest of their employer, but why would they want to do work on vacation? Why would they want to be in touch with the office on vacation? Isn’t the point of vacation to-gasp-GET AWAY from all that?
While I have a cell, it’s a 4G flip phone. What’s more, I keep it in my car. My car can use the phone to dial 911 if the airbag goes off; I like that safety feature because, if the airbag goes off, I’m not likely to be in the condition to do much of anything, let alone summon help. But I don’t take the damn thing with me everywhere.
The main reasons I got one was: 1) so I could get help in an emergency; and 2) so my family could get a hold of me if my late grandmother had an emergency when she was still alive. I only gave the number out to a few people who I’d WANT to talk to, no matter what; I didn’t give it out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I didn’t want to be bothered every 30-60 seconds. IOW, I used it sensibly, I think.
What I can’t get is the obsession with texting. WTF do that? Even if you have a smart phone and a real “keyboard” to work with, it still takes longer to send a text than it does to pick up the phone, call, and actually SAY it vs. sending it. That’s especially true if you have a flip phone! Texting on those things is a PITA. Where do you think all the text shorthand came from? If I carry my phone with me (say to visit my brother), I’ll text him a brief message, like “at the gate” or something like that. If it’s going to require more than three or four words though, I’ll just pick up the phone and call you; after all, the spoken word is so much quicker, and it conveys so much more. I just don’t get the texting thing…
Same here, Mark. I have a $20 Tracfone- I have to add airtime once a year to keep it active- so I have THOUSANDS of minutes built up ($64 a year) as I only actually use the darn thing maybe 2 or three times a year…like you say, if needed for a situation with my 95 year-old mother…or if she wants me to bring her a pizza when I go shopping- I’ll use it to call the pizza place when I’m loading the truck at the grocery store, so I can just pick up the pizza on the way out of town…or in case I break down- like when I blew my tranny a couple of years ago in the middle of nowhere. If it weren’t for that, I’d take a hammer to the damn thing. I think maybe 3 people have my number- but it’s pointless, as I don’t turn the phone on unless I need to make a call or am expecting a pre-arranged call.
The idea of being reachable all the time, everywhere, is just unthinkable to me. And don’t even get me started on texting!
And vacations! Traveling thousands of miles to stay in some cookie-cutter hotel room for a few days and sit on a beach or look at some spectacle that the local minimum-wage workers put on for you…. Seems most people are in need of a vacation when they get back from their vacation! A good vacation would be sitting around the house and reading a book or binge watching All In The Fambly DVDs!
My mother has said to me on a few occasions: “You should take a vacation; go somewhere”. I reply: “My life is a vacation. Mowing the grass or bush-hogging is my idea of fun. When I go to town to go shopping or run errands, I’m always instantly made happy when on the way home I see the sign that alerts me to the fact that I’m back in my county- and I’m downright euphoric when I pull into my drive and get out to open the gate! I can’t think of anywhere I could go that wouldn’t make me cringe.
Ya gotta get with the times, pops. Technology enables us to access a vast array of knowledge. Then we get to apply it to life. Because the technology exists is why you should use it.
Personally, I like to see the face behind the voice. Seems like more of the information sinks in that way.
eric, no doubt you could reach more ears with brains in between, if you starred in your own vids. I challenge you to turn your camera toward your face and speak your piece. Let’s see how many views that gets. I’ll bet my next paycheck it will be measurably more views.
Hi Anon,
Not I!
Because I’m not narcissistic enough, I suppose. Or just too tired. Or just not “into” what the kids are – not being a kid anymore. I won’t “upgrade” my TA to computer-controlled EFI, either. Gibs me a carburetor; gibs me mechanical things. A battleship rather than an aircraft carrier; a 707 over and Airbus (the name is accurate – and accurately depressing).
The thought of going full analog is actually very appealing. To never see another Face Diapered moron again.
I dig! Analog is good. I still hand write and mail letters. Phones/computers are an easier way to get thoughts from my brain to the brain of another person at dizzying speed, but it might not be necessary for everything.
You have a killer voice, and a way with words. It would be fun to watch your thoughts leave your head.
Yeah, too bad that the media is so controlling and corrupt….Eric definitely has what it takes to be a “personality”.
Mordeth13 was THE number-one moto-vlogger on Youtube for a long time, and never showed himself on camera…..
Who just sits and stares at a video anyway…unless it’s something you need to see (Like how to physically do some task)? I almost always multi-task while “watching” videos
In Eric’s defense, the everyone using a different website/app is friggin’ annoying.
Where I work it’s MS Teams which works well enough and wasn’t too painful to get going. Probably because the company pays MS so (most) stuff just works. A couple weeks ago I had to do a video conference with people at companies in Japan and Taiwan. They had to use skype. But I couldn’t use a work email for skype. I had to use a personal email. But I didn’t want to use a personal email so I had make a new email. Thankfully skype was already on my work assigned laptop so at least I didn’t have to fight that battle of trying to make something work without admin privileges to install it. Oh and another thing I had to use something, maybe it was webex and install a plugin into teams that was amusing. Not.
But here’s my other defense for Eric. I have been messing around with computers since nineteen eighty two. These days most everything pisses me off. I learn a piece of software and then they change it for no good reason in an “update” to where I have to relearn the whole damn thing again. Between home and work I probably easily use 25 different programs regularly. I can’t be relearning interfaces and such all the damn time. Also functionality I use gets canceled (looking at you firefox as the worst offender) so then I have to spend time figuring how to restore what was lost or come up with a workaround or a new way of doing things. At least the CAD software lets me save my set up so with each update I load it back in and things are where they have been since 2006.
Today things are changed with no benefit and often made worse. Sometime I fight to do things that just worked in 1995.
Hi Brent,
What you said – times 50. Thank you and amen. Change for the sake of change – not because the change results in a meaningful improvement – defined as easier/time-saving. Often, the opposite. The automotive example of using a cell phone-style swipe/tap interface to change climate control settings rather than rotary knobs comes to mind. I understand it helps packaging to bundle up all these functions into a single electronic interface but does it make it easier – let alone safer- for the driver?
With regard to computers, I’ve seen no meaningful improvement – from the standpoint of an ordinary user like myself – in ten years at least. Just more gimmicks, needless (and almost constant) “updates” and creepy Big Brotherism.
Eric,
Why do you think aircraft still use knobs, switches, and dials (albeit digital dials)? BECAUSE THEY WORK! With a knob or switch, the most you’ll have to do is make a quick glance, then you can do the rest while looking at the road. Analog gauges have been kept because, unlike a numeric digital readout, you can just take a quick glance to know whether or not to know whether or not it’s in the normal range. On my car, the cooling temp should be halfway between H and C; it normally reads 10:30 o’clock. I can discern in an instant whether or not it’s normal.
Even if the gauge is digital (i.e. uses LEDs vs. a needle), it still retains the analog form. If a particular gauge typically points to, say the 11 o’clock position, you can discern that in an instant. With numbers, you actually have to think, is that parameter between X and Y? Not only do you have to look at it longer; you have to think about that vs. the road and traffic situation.
I’m with you. I don’t mind change or advancement IF it makes things easier. This change for the sake of change though pisses me off. The change to using touch screens vs. controls is a classic example. Thankfully, my car doesn’t HAVE a touch screen…
If the police-state were truly concerned with our “safety”, touch screens to control car functions would be illegal. One of the reasons I’ve managed to be an accident-free driver, though I’m 3/4’s blind, is because I NEVER TAKE MY EYE OFF THE ROAD! Touch screens are FAR more distracting than cell phones…because they not only take one’s attention, but they require you to take your eyes off the road.
The absurdity of these times!
People carry a phone wherever they go…but they do everything with it except make calls. Likewise, people do everything in their cars….except actually drive!
I’m a late Boomer (born 1963), and I love technology.
I also hate talking on the telephone, because I have had to do it too much (and still do, for my job).
My preferences for any interview would be: 1) Email; 2) Chat format; 3) Recorded audio; 4) Recorded video.
A live podcast is not an interview. Three hour podcasts are what happen when you’re too lazy to edit the content down to 10 minutes.
Hi Kevin!
I love mechanical technology! Electronics – specifically, computers – not so much. Why? Because a machine I can get my hands on; it does what I want it to do. I control it. Computers are controlled by software written by someone else – often a Clover. You do things the computer/Clover’s way.
There seems to be a disconnect between the wise ones with their applied knowledge, and the technology that can reach so many eager learners. Simple IT issues standing between the ones have the knowledge and those that can now apply it seems a shame.
I know collectivity is a naughty word here. But isn’t this the point of the site to get people thinking along the same lines? Collectively?
Why not utilize all the different ways to deliver the message? Besides, computers are easy. If you’re stuck on something, google it. There’s prolly a step by step video on the prob.
Hi Anon,
The answer’s simple! I’m just not interested in dealing with it. There comes a point in every person’s life at which they have a lower tolerance for annoyance; ideally, they are so positioned in life that they can choose to avoid it. That is my choice with regard to “learning more” about computers/apps I have nil interest in “learning more” about.
I dig. This stuff is second nature to the young folk. Almost like an extension of the body. And Like any other tool, is useless if not somewhat mastered by its user.
I’ll tell ya, I have no interest in learning slide rule even though it is an effective tool.
I get what you’re saying. It is informative and entertaining here. It ain’t broke. But it would be cool to have different delivery methods. I suck at reading, and get way more out of listening and watching. But I haven’t sent a thin dime in support either. Just my millennial opinion.. and you know what they say about opinions?
Hi Anon,
Me also!
And – while I need to earn a living (like most people) I dislike the tendency to “monetize” everything. That’s not what I’m about. It’s why you won’t find “sponsored posts” here or pushy product pitches at every turn. Just not my thing.
You’re right.. your site is a little screwy while viewing from a mobile device. There are some annoying pop up things, and ads for things (no lie) like face diapers. Sometimes when choosing an article, the whole browser screen is a timed add that won’t turn loose.
This isn’t an issue with computer browsers. The ads are there, but they’re not obtrusive like they are when using a mobile device. Fyi.
Eric/others, I totally agree. Stupid, complicated, unnecessary technology… they’re just toys, but since they’re complicated then guess what? THEY DON’T WORK. But their idiot users apparently don’t care. Land lines RULE. The stupid cell phones are always scratchy and bad reception, yet the dumb morons keep using them. Sometimes makes me wonder if wiping out the human species isn’t such a bad idea afterall … although maybe the reason the morons are dumb is because they’re being warred upon so I shouldn’t be so quick to throw the morons under a bus.
At this rate, it’ll be full idiocracy soon whereby computers run everything and noone knows how to do anything… except the the computers will all be broken, written with garbage software code too since the people will all be full-blown certified retarded, and nothing will work. We can’t just talk or do something normal, noooo, you gotta use a computer for everything, and everything you do will be computer controlled by computer permission, “the computer says this”, “the computer says that”, even though the dang databases/info may be wrong. All these overcomplicated computers and databases and fragile systems are a total disaster for civilization/survival.
Taking a quick look at the zencastr.com site it looks like this was an interview for a podcast, not AM radio. Audio over phone lines is 4Khz at best and pretty lousy in comparison to what’s possible these days.
If the interview was for a blog post, if the interviewer is working for someone else it is likely that his employer is requiring the interview be conducted over Zencastr, or maybe he wanted a decent recording since it’s unlikely he has a microcassette recorder with a phone tap at his disposal (since Radio Shack went out of business years ago).
Hi RK,
Yup; but too much hassle for me to bother with – so I didn’t. I have nil/zero/zip interest in “learning more” about computers, apps and related bothers.
Hey Eric!
Next time someone pulls that crap on ya, just say “I use a Linux operating system….does it work with Linux?” (It probably does…but they likely won’t know, and will be quite flustered by the question…and may just decide to have ya “call it in” rather than delve into the issue!).
Or better yet…actually start using a Linux OS, and get Bill Gates or Tim C(r)ook off your ‘puter!
Not only do I love people’s reaction when I say “I don’t have a smart phone/use Windows”, but it has saved me so much needless trouble, and made for much smoother sailing- They can’t try to convince you to use an “app” or download some .exe if ya tell ’em from the git-go that ya physically can’t!
Good stuff, Nunz!
My usual policy is to Just Say No. I did that in this case, too – or so I thought. When the guy contacted me, I gave him my cell and land lines; told him to call at the agreed time. So I assumed that’s what it was gonna be. My mistake was to attempt to deal with the computer-interface or whatever it was. I should have just emailed and said call me or let’s forget it. Which I will do henceforth.
Addendum: I also dislike talking while sitting and staring at a screen. I prefer to walk around my place with my phone while doing the interviews; I can watch the critters outside and it helps me think. Plus it keeps the blood from congealing in my ass cheeks!
To paraphrase the late Senator Fritz Hollings, “there’s a whole lot of Zoomin’ and Zencastin goin’ on awt thar.”
Eric, has nothing to do with ‘better’. They do this because they can. You got this technology. Now you have to come up with reasons for using it. Common sense need not apply. You force kids in school to use it. Okay children,,, go to http://www.youranidiot.gov for your next lesson. Wonder why US high school grads have a 4th grade edumacation? Then the “teacher” goes to the break room for 40 minutes.
As a boomer we used to travel to see Granny. Today she is video conferenced. No close face to face social contact. Seeing Grandma is like watching a cartoon on your Idiotphone.
Today most hiring applications and interviews are done “online”. So now the potential employee simply makes her face and does the interview in her pajamas in bed. No personnel Dept needed,,, no face to face requiring a person to be well dressed and clean. They’re hired online and fired online. No pesky face to face problems there.
Some poor out of luck person that cannot afford this technology is screwed even for low end employment. Used to walk in a business and ask for work,,, not now,,, gotta use digital.
Watching movies? I have several hundred movies on tape and DVD. The new thing is Digital Download requiring a high speed internet connection ($$) and ($) to watch the movie. Or you can have a streaming service and watch the same movies for a month for only ($$) per month with 2 year contract. So much better than a $49 DVD player that will last years!
You cannot stop stupid, can’t even slow it down. The “virus” is an example. This idiocy was/is only possible because of digital. Digital will also enable those hundreds of thousands contact tracers monitor you and your health.
So better have that kid come in and show you how to enable your mic because like it or not, better or not, sensible or not, stupid or not,,, this is the way it will be.
Hi Ken,
All (sadly) true. The good news – for me, I suppose – is that I am in a position to not give a flip. I have my little corner of the net, for me and you and the rest of us – and here, our rules rule. If the day ever comes when I cannot do what I do simply, reasonably and effectively – as defined by me and agreeable to all of you – then Elvis will leave the building and tend my chickens and ducks (first year for these!)
Texting, too! Why does everyone want to text, when they have a PHONE in their hand, and it would be easier to just make a 5-second call and say it?! One can accomplish 100 times with a quick verbal back and forth, than they can with an hour of tedious texting! Maybe they can’t handle real-time interaction….
A journalist contacted me once because she had seen on a forum that I had been involved in “the shellfish industry” back in the day. Gave her my phone number; she did a 5-minute interview….and my quotes appeared in her article. Easy-peasy! And, it took so little time and did not inconvenience me….
We’ve reached the point where reliance on technology is actually causing us to go backward. It’s hindering communication and convenience; removing the humanity from everything, and diverting people from physical real-world and reducing everything to digits and electrons. 🙁
And to think I had to learn Morse Code to get my Amateur Ham License! At least it was fun! And it required .– — .-. -.- .-.-.- (work.)
Hi Eric for video chats zoom works reasonably well and is what all the cool kids use. If your device has more than one microphone make sure the right one is selected.
Hi Mark,
Yes, but I’m not a cool kid! I’m a grown-up and grumpy man. It’s why even the names – Tweeting, for instance – make me want to reach for my baseball bat…
I’m a Gen X’er like you (born ’67), but there are advantages to having video as well as audio – primarily, it’s more like talking to a person versus just hearing their voice. You see reactions, which are harder to fake than a voice. And using an application is also often low to zero cost if you’re already paying for Internet or glomming onto someone else’s – it’s possible the interviewer may not have a phone.
The interviewer should’ve consulted you first, though. And on the first hint of difficulty or hesitancy on your part, the interviewer should’ve found a phone and called you – that’s just common courtesy.
Absolutely. I had a job interview over skype. It was nothing but techical difficulties, so just wasted about an hour. I didn’t get the job and have told anyone that it’s face to face, phone or nothing. We will see how that works out post corona.
A thought I had after I posted was kids now a days are so visually oriented and are not trained in auditory cues when on the phone like we had to learn. We had to really listen to what was said and it’s inflection and syntax. Now the kids want to watch your face and it isn’t as reliable.
I not only disabled my camera and microphones, I put black electrical tape on them 10 years ago and they are still on. If they do want to listen and disable my settings, all they will get is a black screen and garbled voice.
Haven’t you heard? All social contact is now required to be made by internet service providers and cell phone companies. The general population, and that includes a number of old geezers like me, seep to prefer and/or insist on viewing the world on a HD screen. Hell, they would prefer to see wildlife on such a screen to looking out their window, or taking a walk.
They want to make sure that all of their new 5G infrastructure is put to good use!
Yep,,, all 42,000 satellites bathing us in 6 – 100gig radiation. No where to run, no where to hide. But hey,,, you can send your cute kitty picture to grandma almost instantly.