The True Cost of Politics in the Fast Lane. . . .

Diana Hignutt said:

Not for filling government coffers...

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Fine then, fine them, THEN shun them

Double whammy!

Bird of Prey said:

I could never understand text messaging. It's like we're going backwards. Instead of just calling somebody and leaving a message, there's a preference to the old telegraph mode. I guess I see it as a waste of time and effort.

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Cause some people like it more.

I suck with verbal arguments or debates. If you this forum was, for example, a verbal one, my posts and arguments would be, "Um, well, I, uh...er...that is, I...uh..."

But with a keyboard, I can be semi-eloquent. ALso, I have time to research all the reasons why the hippies are wrong.

Romantic Heretic said:

I doubt banning will do much good. People will run the risk of getting caught. Unless the fine is huge or there's a jail sentence involved.

But our jails are already too crowded and building more will take money the government doesn't have.

I think the best way is to treat it like smoking. Make the people who do it pariahs with government education campaigns.

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People buckle their seat belts at a higher rate after the law required it, and also after enforcement was ramped up. Just making it a law helped, though I recently ranted about that.

But I hesitate to have all these "Government Education Campaigns" ... a year ago it was "We shouldn't pull out until we Achieve Victory!" [the mind reels], now it's "We need more tax on the rich to make sure YOU have the world's best health care." (Literally, right now, he's on the radio answering questions - do we have a thread on it yet?)

Zoombie said:

Obviously, its not perfect, but I think shame works better than fines sometimes.

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Diana Hignutt said:

Not for filling government coffers...

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You beat me to it.

Bird of Prey said:

I could never understand text messaging. It's like we're going backwards. Instead of just calling somebody and leaving a message, there's a preference to the old telegraph mode. I guess I see it as a waste of time and effort.

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It's apparently great for high school and college students, as they can do it in class, and 'chat' without actually talking. I've heard of girls (it's always girls, they seem to have a much greater need to chat/communicate/gossip with one another) being able to send a text message with their hand and phone inside their purse - they don't even have to look at the phone.

And I've several times seen high-school girls at the supermarket checkout counter sneaking in a few button-pushes while I was approaching with my basket.

It's also interesting to note that text messaging is THE MOST EXPENSIVE method of data transmission available. Look at the cost per character. It's cheaper to send data to and receive it from the Mars Rover than it is to send the same amount of data over text messaging.

Zoombie said:

Fine then, fine them, THEN shun them

Double whammy!

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And make them pay for the bumper sticker.

But f they discover that shunning really works and cuts down on repeat offendors, they just might start "letting people off that awful punishment" (or the local judge will conveniently declare it Unconstitutional) so they can keep up the income from fines. They won't ever let lives stand in the way of the good things the police department can do with all that income.

Uh, BOP, I only debate poorly with verbal comunication. Everything else is fine.

Also, um, thus far, technology has done nothing but enhance my ability to interact and connect with others, creating a far more well rounded and intelligent person than I would have been if I only knew my horizon.

Bird of Prey said:

Regardless, Zoom, text messaging also afford you an arm's length that voids you of eye contact, touch, scent etc. and thus isolates you. And that is not a good thing for a bright young man like you, because the ultimate comfort zone imo particularly for the young is not at arm's length. It's the acceptance of all that embodies a person and that includes awkwardness and mistakes and shyness, smell, a look, a burp, a sob, a fear in the night and regardless, still manages love. That's my greatest terror of technology, that we are so capable of escaping vulnerability that we are inescapably lonely. . . .

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QFT

Zoombie said:

Uh, BOP, I only debate poorly with verbal comunication. Everything else is fine.

Also, um, thus far, technology has done nothing but enhance my ability to interact and connect with others, creating a far more well rounded and intelligent person than I would have been if I only knew my horizon.

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But you're not fully interacting. What you have is the illusion of well-roundedness. Better than nothing I suppose.

Zoombie said:

Fine then, fine them, THEN shun them

Double whammy!

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Just to be clear, I am not for punitive public safety measure fines. It corrupts the system.

Diana Hignutt said:

In New Jersey use of non-hands free cell phones is illegal while driving.

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yeah, it is illegal in NY, and while I was there, my friends and family were used to hearing me say "Hold on! Cop" and put the phone down to wait for them to go away.

Now in VA texting is illegal, but it's only a secondary offense, and I think the fine is $20 the first time. I still text while driving with my knees.

Alpha Echo said:

Now in VA texting is illegal, but it's only a secondary offense, and I think the fine is $20 the first time. I still text while driving with my knees.

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just be safe when you're doing that

Diana Hignutt said:

just be safe when you're doing that

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Thanks. I'm pretty careful and don't do it if I'm in a particularly busy place.

Diana Hignutt said:

But you're not fully interacting. What you have is the illusion of well-roundedness. Better than nothing I suppose.

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I don't believe that.

Interaction is interaction is interaction, no matter what or how. You should use every angle you got or else you're not well rounded at all.

I'd say if you only used vocal communication, you'd have the illusion of well-roundedness.

Get this: I use BOTH. I talk with friends, teachers, parents, acquaintances. Heck, I even talk to the people who work the registers at my local fast food joint, so much that they actually recognize me when I walk in. My guiding principle has been and always will be "Treat those around you as if they were people. You never know when one of them will actually be one"

I've said only one thing: That I don't argue well in person. I argue better through text.

YOU GUYS have taken that and extrapolated me to be some kind of...pasty shut in with no human contact, only sitting in front of my computer.

I find that really insulting!

Zoombie, For what it's worth, I'm on the outside of this conversation, and I didn't take it that they thought you were a shut in. (ETA: Or as an insult.) (Pasty? see Reps.)

This is an interesting discussion, for me, (thanks folks), because normally, working in education, I would hear these two sides coming from across an age gap.

I do believe the numbers out there that show the dangers of operating a phone while driving. Note the "operating a phone", whether that is talking or texting, your attention is off the road for significant splinters of time.

This is merely a debate between one generation and the next. Zoombie embraces the new technologies, BoP and Hignutty don't.

Move along.

Awww, but I wanted to take off my shoe and bang it on the table and shout, "WE WILL BURY YOU!"

Cause we're younger.

Get it!

Get it!

If Zoombie is channelling Krushev, the world is doomed.

I actually got to do that last week in my galactic empire. The Universities of Jol-Nar kept harassing the Rigel boarder and I was like, "hey! I have colonization rights there!" but they kept going, "but we need breathing room"

Guh.

IN the end, I just dropped a few nukes on the place!

dclary said:

This is merely a debate between one generation and the next. Zoombie embraces the new technologies, BoP and Hignutty don't.

Move along.

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That's what I thought, too, until I looked at their profiles. Turns out, it really isn't. Which makes me wonder what backgrounds do bring these different points of few regarding hands on technology.

And yeah, that's a discussion for another three or four threads.

ETA: I should say looking at profiles and remembering age mentions from other threads. (sorry)

I'll start the thread!

Williebee said:

That's what I thought, too, until I looked at their profiles. Turns out, it really isn't. Which makes me wonder what backgrounds do bring these different points of few regarding hands on technology.

And yeah, that's a discussion for another three or four threads.

ETA: I should say looking at profiles and remembering age mentions from other threads. (sorry)

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Ok, then it's a battle between luddites and technocrats.

Technocrat?

Heck no!

I'm a transhumanist bioliberal!

Zoombie said:

Technocrat?

Heck no!

I'm a transhumanist bioliberal!

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We need to reallocate our political parties into future human offshoots now.

Bions
Gennies
Hybers
and
Natros

Bions, of course, believe in the mechanical augmentation of humanity, through computer interface and robotic implants.

Gennies believe in the manipulation of the genetic code, and performance-enhancement through chemical methods.

Hybers think both robotics and genetic manipulations must be done.

Natros feel humans should not be modified in these ways, and are against the others.

Where are the Moronos? Both parties would fall under that group now.

I'm totally a hyber

Bird of Prey said:

Regardless, Zoom, text messaging also afford you an arm's length that voids you of eye contact, touch, scent etc. and thus isolates you. And that is not a good thing for a bright young man like you, because the ultimate comfort zone imo particularly for the young is not at arm's length. It's the acceptance of all that embodies a person and that includes awkwardness and mistakes and shyness, smell, a look, a burp, a sob, a fear in the night and regardless, still manages love. That's my greatest terror of technology, that we are so capable of escaping vulnerability that we are inescapably lonely. . . .

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This (spending a lot of time online in general) may well be true for a lot of people, but speficifally about those who use text messaging (which I see as mostly high school and college age), I think THEY interact a lot with each other in person, and texting is just a way for them to "extend the conversation" during the times they can't physically talk (while in class or at work - no doubt kids next to each other in class secretly text each other because they aren't allowed to talk in class). In that sense texting doesn't change face-to-face socializing at all, but rather it changes what people do when they're NOT face to face. It's sort of like older times when people wrote love (snail-mail) letters to each other when they were far away, except the "far away" distance and time is much shorter nowadays, as are the letters (such as "143").