The force-feeding of AI features on an unwilling public

People didn't even want mobile phones. In The Netherlands, there's a famous video of an interviewer asking people on the street ca. 1997 whether they would want a mobile phone. So not even a smartphone, just a mobile phone. The answer was overwhelmingly negative.

I’m at the point where a significant part of me wishes they hadn’t been invented.

We sat yesterday and watched a table of 4 lads drinking beer each just watch their phones. At the slightest gap in conversation, out they came.

They’re ruining human interaction. (The phone, not the beer-drinking lad.)

>there's a famous video of an interviewer asking people on the street ca. 1997 whether they would want a mobile phone. So not even a smartphone, just a mobile phone. The answer was overwhelmingly negative.

So people didn't want to be walking around with a tether that allowed the whole world to call them where ever they were? Le Shock!

Now if they'd asked people if they'd like a small portable computer they could keep in touch with friends and read books, play games, play music and movies on where ever they went which also made phone calls. I suspect the answer might have been different.

Is the problem really the phone, or everything but the actual phoning capability? Mobile phones were a thing twenty years ago and I didn't recall them being pulled out at the slightest gap in the conversation. I feel like the notifications and internet access caused the change, not the phone (or SMS for that matter).

Think like an engineer to solve the problem. You could start by adjusting the beer-to-lad ratio and see where that gets you.

Interesting you should say that. I found a Substack post earlier today along those lines [0].

I almost never take my phone with me, especially when with my wife and son, as they always have theirs with them, although with elderly parents not in the best of health I really should take it more.

But it's something I see a lot these days, in fact, the latest Vodafone ad in the uk has a bunch of lads sitting outside a pub and one is laughing at something on his phone. There's also a betting ad where the guy is making bets on his phone (presumably) while in a restaurant with others!

I find this normalized behaviour somewhat concerning for the future.

[0] - https://abysspostcard.substack.com/p/party-like-it-is-1975

In US colleges there is a game known as “Edward Fortyhands” which would solve the problem quite well.

Yes it's the content delivered by the phone. My first mobile phones could only make calls. Not even text messaging was supported. So pretty obviously you're not going to pull out your phone and call someone during a lag in conversation unless you are just supremely rude or maybe it's a call to invite someone to come over and join the group. You might answer a call if you get one I suppose, but it would be fairly awkward. I do remember the people who always seemed to be on a mobile call, often with a headset of some sort, and thinking they were complete douchebags, but they stood out by being few in number.

As text, email, other messages, websites, Facebook, etc. became available the draw became stronger and so did the addiction and the normalization of looking at your phone every 30 seconds while you were with someone.

Did SNL or anyone ever do a skit of a couple having sex and then "ding" a phone chimes and one of them picks it up and starts reading the message? And then the other one grabs their phone and starts scrolling?

Actually iirc cell phone service was still expensive back in 1997. It was nice but not worth paying that much for the average person on the street.

Yea, the problem is the combination of the form factor and the content.

If only the phone was available, and there was no stream of online content, this wouldn't be a problem. Also, if the online content was available, but no phones to look at it on-the-go, it would also not be a problem. Both of these things existed in the past, too, but only when they were hooked up together did it become the problem we see today.