Do you realize how addicted you are to your electronics?

A moment please! So, utility engineers, defense strategists and Cyber experts predict future long term power and internet outages of days..weeks or months in the next years. Effect on electric, water, gas, mobile cell towers,_all eventually will fail due to lack of backup power.

Causes, Cyber attacks, EMP, or state and federal government "clean energy" forcing utilities to become unable to supply load. Then we are back in time to 1880s..1950s.
So à few minutes or hours of internet or mobiles outage is just a taste of the future.

Suggest Préparation with off grid power, water, food, and self defense not simple or cheap!
..."preppers".

From an optimist in the nuclear age

Jon
 

A moment please! So, utility engineers, defense strategists and Cyber experts predict future long term power and internet outages of days..weeks or months in the next years. Effect on electric, water, gas, mobile cell towers,_all eventually will fail due to lack of backup power.

Causes, Cyber attacks, EMP, or state and federal government "clean energy" forcing utilities to become unable to supply load. Then we are back in time to 1880s..1950s.
So à few minutes or hours of internet or mobiles outage is just a taste of the future.

Suggest Préparation with off grid power, water, food, and self defense not simple or cheap!
..."preppers".

From an optimist in the nuclear age

Jon
I have a good start, with 26 acres of standing timber for heat and cooking, if needed. Also full of deer, turkey and squirrel. I can grow a lot of veggies here too. Working on a pond for water and fish. Not a "prepper" really, but not stupid either.
 
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I do understand how lives of many in the nascent telecom era, revolve around such appliances. But it doesn't given balance need to be so. Though for some in their waning years given limitations, may be most of what is possible.

2017 image from my Silicon Valley workplace, the week I retired at age 68 where I tested and repaired telephony media gateway switches for my final 8 years, mostly looking through stereo microscopes at pcbs. So was up to my neck in electronics over 5 decades, mostly in test engineering support rolls. When the Internet rose, I worked 6 years in router engineering at its 800 pound gorilla. All that said, I've never been narrowly addicted to electronics but rather have lived a balanced life. Yes I've always used more electronic gadgets than most others because they are useful tools. I can understand what they do often at advanced levels as I can readily read and get at technical information that others don't.

In this telecom era out in public, most of the time I don't even carry my smartphone. Don't watch much tv and have not even had cable tv for over 2 decades. Am not a member of any post-smartphone social media sites. Instead, I have very much been into natural sciences often outdoors in our natural world. And that is where I enjoy my existence most, not in front of my devices. Also very much enjoy music and participatory sports, that at its essence is not electronic and direct interpersonal relationships with actual live people.
No wonder you retired from that job....you didn't even have a desk for your keyboard, just a cardboard box. Something just isnt right among all that technology. ;)
 
I've held an amateur radio license since 1959. Back then, electronics involved vacuum tubes, wired in resistors and capacitors, and lots of individual switches, meters, dials and knobs. In those days you could get inside the cabinet and see what you were working on.

Now everything is microscopic mounted on a chip or two and for the average person, impossible to work on. To me, electronic gadgets are no longer fun. I don't have a TV, have the bare minimum flip phone, and rarely activate my ham station.

I use my PC mostly for research and for the little bit of on line shopping I am forced into doing. When out and about I seldom carry my phone and never my tablet.
 
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At 8:45 PM, the cable TV went out, the phones went out -both land and cell, and the internet went out. They just came back after 13 hours. We, seniors, are great talking about the fabulous past. The hell with nostalgia, I need my electronics. I have this app where if I don't click in by 11 AM, they notify my relatives and call the cops to do a welfare check. I used to laugh at all those people with their noses in a phone, and now, I'm one of them. Take my phone away is like taking the sun away. No phone, no TV, no internet- a fate worse than death. :) Seriously, you don't realize how addicted you are to your electronics.
I'm far from being addicted to my electronics. I have a smartphone that I turn on when I leave the house for my dog walk or shopping, as soon as I get home, it gets shut down. Of course I like some form of communication in emergencies, like access to my landline. If power goes out, I have battery operated radios until everything is back to normal. Never felt attached or even comfortable with the smartphone, but can appreciate its convenience and value. For me or my husband, addicted, no.
 
I love computers; have since we bought our first home computer in 1984. We have a couple of smart phones, only one of which we use when needed.

I've enjoyed the Internet since early on. My first purchase at Amazon.com was in 1999. And I can use the Internet to visit any number of websites to read, communicate, order online, etc.

I prefer to read on my computer monitor, as it's brighter (and my monitor is large) and I can enlarge text as I see fit.

That said, anyone who has actually been addicted to something will tell you that this ain't it.

Back in the 1950's, when one needed a car to get to and from work and a phone for the home, were they "addicted"? LOL. No.

Century(s) earlier, when travel by horse and stagecoach and even train for distances was the norm, were those people "addicted"? Nope.

One uses, if one wishes and can, the tools available at the time. That's all.
 
If I'm addicted to my electronics So Be It. I don't really look at it as addiction though--just useful gadgets we all seem to want and need now a days. I was behind the times for a good long time without a computer or cellphone. I'm glad to be able to afford reasonably priced ones now. I have a Kindle, too, but haven't started reading any books lately. When I do I'll fire it up happily.
 
If I'm addicted to my electronics So Be It. I don't really look at it as addiction though--just useful gadgets we all seem to want and need now a days. I was behind the times for a good long time without a computer or cellphone. I'm glad to be able to afford reasonably priced ones now. I have a Kindle, too, but haven't started reading any books lately. When I do I'll fire it up happily.
Agreed. Read my post just above yours.
 
I love computers; have since we bought our first home computer in 1984. We have a couple of smart phones, only one of which we use when needed.

I've enjoyed the Internet since early on. My first purchase at Amazon.com was in 1999. And I can use the Internet to visit any number of websites to read, communicate, order online, etc.

I prefer to read on my computer monitor, as it's brighter (and my monitor is large) and I can enlarge text as I see fit.

That said, anyone who has actually been addicted to something will tell you that this ain't it.

Back in the 1950's, when one needed a car to get to and from work and a phone for the home, were they "addicted"? LOL. No.

Century(s) earlier, when travel by horse and stagecoach and even train for distances was the norm, were those people "addicted"? Nope.

One uses, if one wishes and can, the tools available at the time. That's all.
100 percent agree ^^^^^
 
Is this addiction. Probably:
A couple of months ago I set out in my car to do a number of errands. At a stop light I looked into my purse quickly to check something on my phone.
The phone wasn’t there!!!
I had forgotten to put it in! Panic set in! What would I do it someone crashed into me? or my car got stolen while I was in a store? Or I got sick suddenly?
I tried to think about all the years I had driven everywhere with no phone to fall back on. Didn’t help. Made it through the errands with heart racing, and since then check my purse for the phone right when I pick up the keys.
 
Our TV died on the afternoon of the 23rd. I’m not going to say Dave panicked, but pretty close. Of course, with TV’s these days, you can’t fix it, so you get a new one. So he calls Best Buy, ascertains the price and availability, and before I knew what hit me I was struggling to hold the new TV whilst he affixed it to the stand. Addicted? Ya think? Thank God we got it installed before the Dallas game. 😜😂😂😂
 
Your area still has some??
More than a year ago, the lousy phone I had quit.. naturally at the same time my internet company had a major power outage.. and I found there wasn't one single pay phone left in the entire city..
New York City began free public phone service awhile back

LinkNYC is a first-of-its-kind communications network that has replaced pay phones across the five boroughs. Each LinkNYC structure provides super-fast, free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, and a tablet for access to city services, maps, and directions. Also 911. Learn more about our second generation kiosk Link5G .

https://www.link.nyc/

My town has one or two of the old pay phones the last I noticed. Maybe gone too, by now.
 
I'm addicted to watching YouTube videos. I just wasted about an hour-and-a-half watching videos and adding videos from my feed to my watch later list so I don't miss out on anything important! :cool:
 
Interesting how some like OP @fuzzybuddy expected we seniors and many others to have like himself electronic gadget psychological addictions that this thread shows is not at all the case though would be for say most twentysomethings. And such does not correspond to how much individuals have been exposed to electronic devices or their level of skill. As to the nature of such addictions, that is especially the case for those that spend lots of time playing video games. As such, the thread would have been more enlightening by also asking if one plays such games. Note, I do not. Not because I would not be entertained or enjoy such but in balance, rather would spend my life living my life than playing games or say watching others on tv and movies.
 
Causes, Cyber attacks, EMP, or state and federal government "clean energy" forcing utilities to become unable to supply load. Then we are back in time to 1880s..1950s.
So à few minutes or hours of internet or mobiles outage is just a taste of the future.
Jon
WARNING, GOING OFF TRACK HERE WARNING

If you lose power due to an EMP, wait 5 minutes. Then you are gone, along with your worries, family, money, house everything!!!!!

That's what a first strike does. Watch "The Day After" my family watched it. Needless to say we were impressed with the movie as low budget as it was.

It wasn't "Cutesy" in any form. Young boy looking into the blast (eyes fried, brain damaged) four year old child, mother, father all wiped out.

What could happen was spelled out and it was terrifying.
 
I think that addiction is more a matter of degree than a simple yes/no proposition. We are probably all at least to some degree mildly addicted to something; I suffer caffeine withdrawal symptoms if deprived of coffee. Electronics addictions are more subtle and pervasive. I like computers and the interactive entertainment that they provide as well as the intellectual and social stimulation. My cell phone, however, is a cheap basic model used for the rare on-the-road or emergency call when pay phones became unavailable.

To me, electronic addiction is more manifested in the people (kids, mostly) who send and receive hundreds of texts daily, can’t go an hour without checking e-mail, and who you see jabbering on high-end cell phones wherever they are... 📱
 
When my Access A Ride FINALLY shows up and I get in the car the only thing that soothes me and calms me down and makes time fly is my ❤️phone❤️
 
Your area still has some??
More than a year ago, the lousy phone I had quit.. naturally at the same time my internet company had a major power outage.. and I found there wasn't one single pay phone left in the entire city..
I keep an old 1980's Princess phone that still works on the landline when power goes out. They draw their power through the telephone line. You can even still buy them new at Walmart. Its been a lifesaver several times. Power can go out here for DAYS at a time.
 
i would be totally lost without my Iphone , or Ipads....
being as i cant get out ,as im a shadow carer , so all my shopping has to be ordered and delivered online
all my phone numbers, directions ,sat nav etc etc are all on my Iphone

we have a TV , which we never watch...as we prefer to watch the small amount of tv on our ipads
and we have a landline , which isnt used very much only for incoming calls from sons speaking to their father, as he can only use that being one handed....
so yes i would go mad without these....
i am on all the priority lists for power cuts etc etc ....
 


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