So Are We Guilty?

[F, Calla & Luca]

I like this fellow's career advice columns although I am surely not looking for a career. This week he talks about something that really bothers me in others and yet to some degree I too suffer from technology obsession. Is DK included I wonder? Anyway here is a link to an article to ponder.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/jobs/career-coach/commentary-part-3-ob...

His Commentary II was on communication skills in young folks, another bugaboo for me.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/jobs/career-coach/commentary-part-2-ho...d

The first commentary was on Gen V, as in virtual:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/jobs/career-coach/commentary-part-1-ge...

All in all I wonder what people are becoming. Are they losing the ability to connect without devices? Losing the ability to speak in sentences? Where is all this leading us? Yet, this follows Cheryl's blog about our DK community and the friendships we've made and all we have learned from being here. Something to think about anyway. And yes, like the author I risk coming off as an old curmudgeon. My sister sent me this cartoon a while back after I had a spat with a  cousin, one generation after me, who was checking out not one, but two phones, as we waited for dinner. It made me laugh and is apropos for this blog and for dog owners I think.

[DJ & Chance]

F, I am not even going to touch wearing a vibrating e-collar and prong collar :) 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Aside from the cone idea, well said DJ. actually, wearing a cone might give us an idea of what a doodle goes through on occasion. It would drive me battier than I am. I did try the e-collar which is why I only use vibrate and I also tries the prong collar.

[DJ & Chance]

Great cartoon.  All doodle addicts (and I am one) should probably wear the cone at least one day a week!

I think technology can actually open us up to new mode of wondering.  It opens up a rich world of digital images, 3-D archeological sites that most of us could never visit in person, simulations that help us to “see” nanoparticles and understand their behavior, etc.  The problem comes when people substitute interactions on social media for interactions with real people, and when images and simulated environments displace familiarity with (and a desire for familiarity with) the wonders of the natural and human worlds.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Donna, I love phone stacking. I love the cartoon.

I loved the cartoon so much I was tempted to send it to the cousin I mentioned. but we mostly buried the hatchet although we no longer go out to dinner just the two of us, and it truly is a relief.

Laurie, my kids know what I think of all this and generally we have phone free dinners.

Lonnie, I hate going to a concert and seeing people texting--arrgh.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Cell phones had actually become a problem at work before I retired, the young uns always checking phones and texting while working even though it was against policy. I did actually call a couple of them on it but it made no difference it is so rude and unprofessional.  During coffee break there was little conversation as they all had their face buried in their phones.

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

F, I love the cartoon!  Need a few for our "adult" children:)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I just threw a hissy fit this morning before we went out on the boat and forbid cell phones :) I am so sick of my family checking their phones out.

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Doris,  our children are in their thirties and forties and most of them cannot do a thing without their phone in their hands.  On Christmas morning I had a basket by the front door and made each one put their phone in the basket and they could not get the phone until they left!  Believe me, they were in shock and withdrawals during the day.  Christmas no less!! It is really sad how technology has taken over.  At a wedding reception not too long ago I looked around at the reception and I would say 80 percent of the people attending were looking down at their phone.  How embarrassing!

[Donna K & Quincy]

I am so far behind in the technology dept I still have a dumb phone. F, this is the answer for your phone-dinner issue, it's a new game called phone stacking. During dinner all phones are stacked face down in the middle of the table and while they all may buzz and beep, the first one that reaches for their phone has to pick up the bill for everyone. :>)

[Doris, Knox & Flash]

I love the cartoon, btw!  May need to get my DD one!