A friend of mine works in customer service for a cable company. Pretty much the first thing he hears from clients in summer is that they have arrived at their beach house and the cable is not working. But the beach…what about the beach? These people are more upset than if it were happening in the middle of a play off of some kind. Yes, TV goes on vacation.
And now, Movies are easily watched from your smart phone. Miss HBO? There is now “HBO to go” for your smart phone that is available to customers who subscribe. No more sitting under a tree reading a book, eh? Of course you can read a book on your smart phone, Kindle or tablet PC, but it’s best with a movie on it. You and your pals can have dinner and a movie anytime and you can all watch different movies. No need to talk. Just eat and watch like you do at home.
This summer, Android will be making video conferencing a reality for your smart phone. No need to go to the office as much. You can extend your vacation. Why? Your office is with you. Work from home? Heck, you can work from the top of Mt. Everest if you can get there.
Yes, more and more of home and our home mindset is traveling with us today. There are refrigerators for your car and all manner of other gadgets that run from what used to be your lighter. Chairs and tents easily compress. Plastic storage units make your cupboards mobile. And in this economy, people do live in or from their cars. We are a nomad nation on wheels. We used to look down upon desert nomads. No longer. We have evolved into them. Imagine having an accident with a vehicle that is really a home on wheels? “Stuff” everywhere and people sobbing that their connectivity has been cut.
Aren’t we in a depression? And aren’t a lot of us out of work? It looks as if unemployment insurance now goes for food, clothes and entertainment devices. Old cell phones used to be donated to charity. Now they will get smart phones. And people who have not enough money for a cell phone will now move heaven and earth to get an old smart phone to work so they can watch movies. To heck with calling anyone.
A new smart phone will be coming out with 3-D. Their first phone was a resounding success. But the follow-up phone did not do well. Why? The screen was smaller. [CNN]
In SamHenry’s dotage, misplacing eye glasses is not as critical as misplacing her smart phone. She is just not that interesting to talk with anymore she is so obsessed with her AndroidX. We have now evolved or rather devolved into blithering idiots. This post is dedicated to all of us in this boat.
loopyloo305
June 24, 2011
I hardly ever even turn on the TV anymore. My husbands will sometimes watch an hour or so in the evening, but that is about the only time it is even turned on. Most of the time I have the radio on on the internet or listen to music, but that is it. Now if I have to do without the internet, that would be harder!
samhenry
June 25, 2011
I have enforced less TV because I love being out during the day and I work nights, Loopyloo.
Freedom, by the way
June 24, 2011
We are slaves indeed. We are taking a family vaca soon, sans computer and sans cell phones except for emergencies (roaming will cost too much where we’re going). I am looking forward to it, actually! Especially pulling our son away from texting and x-box. He’ll have to converse with mom & dad–what a concept! (JK–he’s a great kid, but loves his electronic devices!) I hope we all return with a fresh perspective–on everything!
samhenry
June 25, 2011
Ah, a like-minded soul. Around 1958, my parents decided to take us all to England, France and Spain. In England, we went down to the Isle of Wight. Before we got there Mom said: “I want you children to see how others live without television. They have fun playing ball on a beach. You need to get back to that. Well that was post WWII Britain and it was true then but not so much now I would suspect. But imagine 50 years ago my mother was saying that!
The Morb
June 25, 2011
Good luck with that FBTW !!! ..