[onlooker]

Pops just forgot one. Boomers getting increasingly sick.

[Rod_Cloutier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') thought the post was about kids on phones and internet access, lol

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Rod_Cloutier', '
')
The millennial's coming of age is the next big thing after the baby boomer retirement wave starts to break and wash away on the shores of time.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') thought the post was about kids on phones and internet access, lol

Boomers quitting work, quitting buying, taking their money out of investments, selling the big house, expecting Soc Sec and medicare, etc, is a big deal.

Phones not so much I think.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'G')ary,

Thanks for that summary. I sorta "know" all that you said, but could not have described it so concisely. Well done.

For all that these devices are incredibly useful. I've been using my iPad for navigation, I can buy a tablet with the nav software and charts (US) for well under $1,000. A dedicated chart plotter will cost me several thousand. There are other differences so it's not a direct comparison. But now my iPhone, which I'm honing to buy anyway, becomes a backup chart plotter, for under $100 additional investment. Backups are good.

[Newfie]

My holy grail is waterproof while recharging!

See that black line below, that was my actual track. These charts were made with an old datum that doesn't match the GPS datum, uh, and they don't what datum it was. Real fun in pea soup fog.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Rod_Cloutier', 'I') just bought my daughter a new cell phone today. As a Millennial, she was born near the turn of the Millennium (1998) and she has an unholy obsession with her cell phone.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'M')y holy grail is waterproof while recharging!

[Ibon]

Try to step back a minute and look from a fresh perspective like you were time travelling from the past and observing 21st century millennials. A crowded urban landscape where 98% of the young generation are tethered to these personal digital devices where their cyber social interactions eclipse physical and organic space. We are now all habituated to seeing this every day and it is normal.

The times are so absurd that If you lose your personal digital device and are standing there on the street in the crowds you feel naked and disconnected, lost and alone. As the minutes and hours pass you begin to wonder what am I missing. You start to panic and feel like a digital refugee, in exile from the world. You will do everything to replace your device as soon as possible to feel once again reconnected to your tribe so that you can get back to innane activities that are much ado about nothing. Interactions that are superficial and devoid of depth.

The irony is that when you were disconnected you thought you were missing out on something. You couldn't see the obvious truth right in front of your eyes that having lost your digital device was the first opportunity you had in a long time to free yourself.

Remember that what you were sold on was a device that would enhance your organic social network. You didn't really fully grasp that these devices didn't succeed on the promise but actually eclipsed your organic social interactions.

Words from an obsolete old baby boomer, born before the digital age, who in the eyes of the millennials obviously just doesn't get it.

[onlooker]

i wonder though how superficial these digital relations really are. I tend to think that any connections between humans is better than no connections. Look at Desumaiden a poster who was quite active for awhile here and sought to be heard in his/her disjointed and disoriented ramblings. The fact that he/she was allowed to be heard, the fact that even though some of us may have criticized Desu does not negate that we were a audience for him/her acknowledging Desu's postings. We all wish to be heard and acknowledged, the modern age allows all just that. To be heard is to be acknowledged. Not only that when people communicate particularly negative thoughts they are signaled out for doing just that. The Internet, mobile phones etc. are ways that the mass of humanity are weighing emotions and ideas and arriving at opinions. The hope is that these interactions will shed light that we all are grappling even us older persons with this world we live in and all can have mistaken,myopic or biased views. Occasionally, though we all agree on some key aspects of the world we live in and our mutual interactions. That to me is a good thing.

[Cog]

Thinking back on the days before cell phones. I've made cross country trips, drove up into the mountains, across deserts, all without a phone to contact anyone if I broke down. With the disappearance of the pay phone and people's reluctance to get involved with other's drama, the thought of doing that nowadays without a cell phone, would fill me with a certain amount of dread.

But up until about six months ago, I didn't have a smart phone and had never texted anyone. I didn't feel I missed out on anything. Yeah the texting is convenient at times but its not an essential. Important things can wait for a phone call.

My millennial daughter had to buy her own smart phone with money she had saved and she pays her own bills. I bought her a dumb phone when she started driving at 16 for emergencies. Had 250 minutes/month on it. When she started working, she upgraded on her own dime. She lives on the thing now.

For me, I don't have to be in contact 24/7 with anyone. Lot of people in my universe, family types, that I care not in the least about how things are going for them and don't want to know their facebook or twitter page. If they have a problem, they can call me. I have my life, they have theirs. I don't mix the two. I have worked hard on me becoming a curmudgeon and don't intend to abandon it now.

[Newfie]

LOL, the reason I have a sat phone is because I went missing for about a week. The Wife go nervous and called the Coast Guard. I was so far up a fjord that I could not hear the Pan Pan messages of them looking for me. I finally went into a small town where they had the postmaster on the lookout for me. I was a wanted man!

[Ibon]

One of my big mentors was a college professor who I became great friends with. We traveled together in his dodge van from central Ohio all the way down to Guatemala in 1981.

In his home he never had a phone. He said the only folks he really wanted to talk to where those that felt comfortable coming to his home uninvited.

Looking back I think he was really ahead of his time in recognizing the empty noise of phone conversation and to what dysfunctional extreme it would eventually head to.

[Newfie]

I can see that. I not leave phone message, I don't want to talk to the damn machine. Mane I don't encourage people to leave me messages, my greeting is, well, not a greeting. I hate it when people leave me long and tedious and ill thought out messages. I don't listen to them, I just call back and say "I see you called." "did you liter to my message?" "No."

We had a real problem with our daughter texting until the weeeeeee hours of the morning. I could not get my Wife to agree to take the damn thing away. Sigh. But it is in her nature, she wants to rescue people, so she ends up talking to a bunch of losers all night long. Hopefully someday she will tire of it. I see. The glimmering of a hard ass in her, at times. There may be hope yet.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Ibon your best post ever- I was enthralled:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')ry to step back a minute and look from a fresh perspective like you were time travelling from the past and observing 21st century millennials. A crowded urban landscape where 98% of the young generation are tethered to these personal digital devices where their cyber social interactions eclipse physical and organic space. We are now all habituated to seeing this every day and it is normal.

[fleance]

Technology caters people particularly youth. I have nothing against cell phones. I believe it still depend on the person. I couldn't understand why people mostly teens can't live without cell phone. Maybe, I'm old fashion.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '.').. Privacy is an illusion today.

[onlooker]

Yep all these connected communication devises allow for eavesdropping.

[SeaGypsy]

Of course, KJ built the internet & is a very practical man

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'O')f course, KJ built the internet & is a very practical man