We have some pretty amazing technology at our disposal now.
Essentially all the world's information is available in our pockets, at
any time. And if we want to see that world naked, the same device can
help. And if we want to discuss our findings with someone on the other
side of the planet -- "Lolwut. Your weiner is bent?" -- that's also
pretty straightforward. Any one of these feats is an everyday occurrence
to us, and yet the same stunts would have gotten you burned as a witch
as little as 20 years ago.
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1992. The Whitewater scandal, I think. That's Hillary Clinton up front.
And yet despite all the marvels our technology can perform, for some reason we still use it to do some crazily primitive things. Whether it's because of limits the technology itself has or our own stupid caveman brains struggling to keep up with the modern world, not a day goes by without one of us massively underutilizing something incredibly powerful.
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This woman is seconds away from banging these together to start a fire.
Here, then, are five examples of ways we revert back to the poo-flinging monkeys we're just barely not.
But instead I'm going to focus not on an app, but a feature that almost all of us have on our phones now, the self-facing camera. Self-facing cameras that we (I at least) basically never use for the video chatting they were designed for, instead more commonly using them for checking if there's something in our teeth.
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"Is that turkey? I haven't had turkey in months."
I mean, don't get me wrong, this is actually a pretty useful trick
for a smartphone to have, because, you know, I've always got one with
me, unlike a mirror. (I'm comfortable with how good I look.) (Also,
Gorgons are rare in my area.) And yes, every now and then, like most
people, I get an entire onion ring stuck in my headgear and need to fish
it out. But the fact that I do this with the help of a supercomputer is
both hilarious and insane.
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"Hi, uhm, it's ... Mark and ..." -explodes into one thousand zits and elbows-
Meanwhile, receiving a voice mail is essentially a war
crime. Depending on which voice mail system you have, this can take up
to a minute of button pressing and pauses and timestamps before you even
hear the message someone left, at which point you're blessed with the
opportunity to hear a co-worker painfully discover the limits of their
oratorical skills. All for a message that essentially means: "Derp. Call
me when you get a chance."
Which is why every civilized human being, upon calling someone and getting their voice mail, hangs the fuck up and sends them an email. Emails or text messages are faster to access, are faster to read, and provide their own written record, which minimizes the need for everyone involved to scribble down addresses and phone numbers.
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And what everyone is wearing.
And although voice mail might not be the most advanced technology on
this list, it is still something that would have made our ... great ...
grandparents' ... pets envious, that we're either bludgeoning outright
or ignoring completely.
Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Take some DVDs with you.
But why is this the single piece of computing advice that
everyone knows? Why is it so universally effective? Why do our various
things need to shut off all the goddamned time? Why can't they recover
themselves?
Yes, I understand that our devices are tremendously complicated and exist themselves in tremendously complicated environments. Which means that, yes, there's an exponential number of combinations of states they can be in and stimuli they can experience, not all of which are predictable or recoverable. I get that no matter what we do, our devices will eventually barf and freeze up.
But why isn't there a separate device whose only job is watching the first device and rebooting it when it freezes? Honestly, this is an idiot's job. That's exactly the kind of thing technology is good at doing for us.
Sean Justice/Stockbyte/Getty Images
This man now spends 90 percent less time exploring his own body, thanks to technology.
Also! What about the multiple times a week our machines ask us
to reboot them? Software updates regularly pull this stunt, even when
they're not very important pieces of software. Or to put it another way,
as I explained to my computer the other night, "WHO THE FUCK IS ADOBE
AIR AND WHY ARE ITS UPDATES STANDING BETWEEN ME AND THE REST OF MY DAY?"
"Who are you? Who invited you to this party? What are you doing in the fridge?"
The explanation for this nonsense -- that software updates need to
replace core files that cannot be touched while the computer is running
-- is itself only a half-response. Why don't they just, you know, change
the part of the operating system that can't update itself without being
turned off? Other operating systems, like Linux and other Unix
derivatives, require far less reboots.
I don't know. I get annoyed just thinking about it. We've all just accepted reboots as part of our lives, without questioning why, all the time steadily moving toward a world where we treat technology as an almost mystical thing, not understanding how it works, only knowing the rituals it demands of us.
Photos.com/Getty Images1992. The Whitewater scandal, I think. That's Hillary Clinton up front.
And yet despite all the marvels our technology can perform, for some reason we still use it to do some crazily primitive things. Whether it's because of limits the technology itself has or our own stupid caveman brains struggling to keep up with the modern world, not a day goes by without one of us massively underutilizing something incredibly powerful.
Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty ImagesThis woman is seconds away from banging these together to start a fire.
#5. Mobile Mirrors
Obviously I could fill an entire article with ridiculous smartphone apps. There are apps that make fart noises, or turn your $600 smartphone into a $10 mouse, or simulate popping bubble wrap. Also, because the world is too dumb to deserve nice things, apps that turn your phone into a hand warmer.But instead I'm going to focus not on an app, but a feature that almost all of us have on our phones now, the self-facing camera. Self-facing cameras that we (I at least) basically never use for the video chatting they were designed for, instead more commonly using them for checking if there's something in our teeth.
Brand X Pictures/Getty Images"Is that turkey? I haven't had turkey in months."
#4. Everything We Do With Voice Mail
Voice mail is categorically the worst. Leaving a voice mail is a hideously awkward experience, as the sender struggles to reconfigure the conversation they were planning on having into a single coherent message, all while self-consciously aware of how stupid their own voice must sound. It's the conversational equivalent of puberty.Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images"Hi, uhm, it's ... Mark and ..." -explodes into one thousand zits and elbows-
Which is why every civilized human being, upon calling someone and getting their voice mail, hangs the fuck up and sends them an email. Emails or text messages are faster to access, are faster to read, and provide their own written record, which minimizes the need for everyone involved to scribble down addresses and phone numbers.
Digital Vision/Getty ImagesAnd what everyone is wearing.
#3. Rebooting Things
Pop quiz, Modern Citizen! What's the very first thing you try when you want to fix something that possesses a power switch? If you answered anything other than "Press the power switch," please report to the nearest ice floe being swept out to sea, because you no longer have a place in this world.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty ImagesTake some DVDs with you.
Yes, I understand that our devices are tremendously complicated and exist themselves in tremendously complicated environments. Which means that, yes, there's an exponential number of combinations of states they can be in and stimuli they can experience, not all of which are predictable or recoverable. I get that no matter what we do, our devices will eventually barf and freeze up.
But why isn't there a separate device whose only job is watching the first device and rebooting it when it freezes? Honestly, this is an idiot's job. That's exactly the kind of thing technology is good at doing for us.
Sean Justice/Stockbyte/Getty ImagesThis man now spends 90 percent less time exploring his own body, thanks to technology.
"Who are you? Who invited you to this party? What are you doing in the fridge?"
I don't know. I get annoyed just thinking about it. We've all just accepted reboots as part of our lives, without questioning why, all the time steadily moving toward a world where we treat technology as an almost mystical thing, not understanding how it works, only knowing the rituals it demands of us.
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