Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I succumbed to peer pressure

Smart phones are amazingly useful for those who have kept up with technology over the years in general, but for those who haven't, they're pretty mind boggling. My mom, seeing all the diverse uses I make of my smart phones, always wants to get the same phone (first the Droid, then the iPhone), despite the fact that I inform her that she'll never be able to make any use of it. When she goes ahead and gets one anyway (first the Droid, then the iPhone) I do my best to instruct her, but it's always in one ear and out the other, completely forgotten within days. They end up being very expensive, and hard to use, Jitterbugs, i.e., just used as phones, and not very efficiently as those. There's a reason they make Jitterbugs.

I'm an old timer and for years resisted getting a cell phone. Finally a couple of years ago family talked me into getting a simple phone. Used it for about a year (either 24 or 26 minutes worth) then lost it. Due to my limited usage I didn't bother replacing it for maybe a year. The replacement was programmed with a limited amount of talk time but included texting. Because it is slow the texting keeps communication times short. My s-I-l likes to send me pictures of his time in the field. Right now there are pictures of he and a buddy with the four turkeys they took in two trips afield.

On the weekend my s-I-l mentioned that on his smart phone he has about 1450 photos. The capacity of these tools is amazing!

Jim

Well, i have a cell phone[mostly because of my job], but it's a dumb one.....flip phone, that I use for talking. If you get more than a yes or no answer, from me, that's the extent of my texting.


Reminds me of a something that happened a couple summers ago. I was at my local AMVETS, one Sat. pm, having a beer with a buddy. This gal I know, walked in, and was talking to her new "smart" phone. We got to talking, and I told her the only thing I could operate was a dumb phone. This went on for a little while, and I asked her..."if that phone is so smart, ask it if you are going to have sex tonight". She did, and it locked up the damn thing and she had to shut it down, after 20 minutes! I saw her the following week, and asked her what the phone finally told her....she said shut up, I'm not talking to you.[with a grin on her face]


maddog

I have an old flip phone. Its usually off unless I need to make a call. I dont use it very much. I think I sent one text with it a while back. Never much cared for phones.

I'll never own any such 'smart' phone IN MY LIFE!! If the standard, cheapo cell phones go away it'll be the day I'll be cell phone-free...

All these newfangled 'smart' phones do is captivate the owners into poking the screen for hours on end while ignoring all people and surroundings.

No thank yew...

I love my i-phone. That thing gots apps!

Navatronic maps of all the lakes including the good fishing holes.

Also has a wifi fish finder / sonar app. My pucking phone's a fish finder! (try saying that five times real fast.)

Prior to my retirement I was a Park Ranger, they called me a District Supervisor, and wanted to provide a so called cell phone, fortunately those didn't work at my remote location. But I was permitted to drive the patrol SUV home as I was on call. That SUV had a fantastic communications radio, and I carried a portable, that hooked me into every emergency service from CalFire to County Communications Center, the parks administration headquarters, the sheriff, every city and district fire department, ambulance service and medi-vac helicopter to guide rescues. Even my little portable handheld could communicate from San Jose standing in the uniform store to crews working near Half Moon Bay, I was connected.

Then I retired. So I bought a cell phone for myself, just for emergencies, I had already equipped my wife with one. I wanted something simple, but simple still did more than I wanted. They kept getting more and more complex with useless features I didn't need as time went on. The final straw was a smart phone from the crappy generation that preceded 3G, or maybe it was 3G. It had a screen you touch, slide a finger up and down on, and generally can do everything but make a call. It also locked the screen before I could make a selection, a safety feature so I didn't butt-dial the Pentagon and release a missile strike on Poughkeepsie, New York.

The final straw was when I was sage rat hunting in Oregon. What convenience to be in the middle of a alfalfa field and have my wife call from California to tell me my new barrel arrived. But my phone died two days into the hunt. No matter, I went to the AT&T store in Redmond and bought a new phone. I carefully explained that we had two phones, and this one was connected to that phone number - pointing to the label stuck on the phone. Next thing I know my phone rings and its my hunting partner's wife trying to call my wife in California. The AT&T guy programmed my phone with the wrong number and killed my wife's phone. Her SIM card was toast and had to be replaced, and my phone no longer worked to dial out. So back to the AT&T butcher shop and they got my phone working so I'd have it for the drive home. When I arrived home it took a couple of hours and a trip to the AT&T store to get the mess straightened out. So off these not worth a crap phones went along with the AT&T contract, and we got two TracFones. Flip phones at that. Then I had everything annoying shut off, voice mail, messaging, service messages, all of it. Especially service messages and alerts - I was leaving the house one day when my breast pocket made a loud obnoxious screeching beep! I almost tripped on the porch step, not being used to hearing my chest beeping. It was a message that some kid had been "kidnapped" by her father. Oh yeah, I needed to know that, and that he was driving a gray Honda SUV. How many gray Honda's are there?

Now I got the phone configured to a short phonebook of people I may need to call, my wife, my home, GMC Roadside Service, AAA Emergency Roadside Service, and Roundtable Pizza. I press a button and call home, advising the wife that I have killed a hundred or so ground squirrels and now I'm on the way home. Life is good.

yup, got an Iphone 5. Glad I have students to show me how to use it..

I got an s3 a year ago and its still smarter than I am, but it does do some nice things

I have conquered 20th Century technology! Fortunately, I have gone kicking and screaming into the 21st. As a rule it seems I stay a generation behind the latest cutting edge stuff. I figure they've fixed the bugs and I avoid evolutionary dead ends (Palm Pilots, anyone?)

This stuff changes so quickly, you have to stay up on it. I just traded my Iphone 3s that is 5 years old for a Iphone 5s. The 6s will be out in the Fall, but I'll let them sort out all the bugs without me.

I don't think it's a good idea not to try to keep up with some of the technological advances, least we fall so far behind the curve that you can't catch up, as some describe aboove.

But.....some of us don't want to catch up!.....just sayin.....



maddog

Along the same lines, as a father of a soon to be college grad and a middle schooler, I've walked the oldest through this tech revolution and now engage in debates with parents of other middle schoolers about smart phones. Some refuse to consider it and others give their kids unrestricted use. Neither is a good idea in my opinion.

Those who refuse to let their kids have one, are putting them at a disadvantage. More and more will be done with handheld devices, more Apps will be used in school, and at some point they need to practice and play with these things to gain some competency.

Those that give the kids unrestricted use have no idea what they are surfing around on. They also don't realize that too much of this phone stuff stunts the development of normal socialization and interpersonal skills, because the kids choose to communicate with each other via text exclusively and not face to face.

There is a healthy balance.

You understand this thing was invented by a woman,as a tracking device ! The first thing my wife says is "where are you and what are you doing"

AMEN!



maddog

Mickey,

I feel your pain!

This high tec crap passed me by many years ago.

Had a fellow geezer in the gunshop a while back, trying to work his phone.

He says "ohhh CRAP!" I think I just took a picture of my ear!

He had a phone just like mine.(GRIN!)

Virgil B.

Been looking for one of them, ideal IMHO.

I hear ya Mickey but it is the mechanical/electronic stuff I can't stand.

My BIL bought one of those old, heavy black phones that sit on the counter and have the rotary dial. It has a long enough cord on the handset that you can walk around in the kitchen and no farther. He figures when his daughter is talking on the phone, she'll do it in plain sight and earshot of the family. No cell phones allowed.

My oldest is only 6 but I'm already thinking about how or what I should do to keep my kids from becoming techno zombies.

Here's the user manual.........won't get you into a lot the trick & more sophisticated stuff, but it will get you through all the basic usage elements.

Verizon Galaxy S5 User Manual

I have an S4, if you need something specific, let me know.......may be able to help depending on the issue.

MM

Exactly. BTDT. It's like having the NASA Mission Control Center at your beck and call for technical questions.