September chitchat

[agate]

I had a scary experience with my little button once when somehow or other the dispatching system started calling my contact person (my son) and I had to get on the phone fast with them to stop the ambulance or fire department from showing up when there was nothing wrong.

It wasn't because I had accidentally pressed that button. It was some other mixup and wasn't my doing but theirs. When I realized how easily that kind of thing could happen, I wasn't so enthusiastic about the system any more.

I believe many cellphones/smartphones now have ways of summoning help in an emergency?

[Prot]

Mine has gone off accidentally quite a few times. 'Better safe than sorry ' is my thinking about them.

[agate]

People don't seem to mind that their phones are often going off when they're carrying on a conversation with a real person or in a group where everyone is trying to hear the speaker who went to the trouble of coming to that group. They also don't mind picking up their phone and taking calls when they're (a) driving, (b) sitting with a group of friends in a restaurant or anywhere else, or (c) doing just about anything else.

I don't get this zeal for being available every single minute--and for assuming that anyone real who is in your presence can just wait and understand that your concerns are so important that they have priority over anything that person might be trying to say or do.

I try to remember to turn my phone ringer off whenever I'm among people, and I hardly ever even have the phone on me but I seem to be in a rapidly dwindling minority.

[jingle]

I agree!! I guess I'm just too sensitive or touchy or something but sure don't like it when someone wants to "go to lunch". And then you sit looking into space while they talk on the phone.

[Prot]

I can't use a smartphone. I have a senior phone,which is mainly to receive texts, including codes to log into websites. I make very few calls with it,and send even less texts. The latter because I don't know how to do certain things.When I do text I'm ham-fisted , and very slow - even slower than the 16 wpm using the laptop.

Dysgraphia and slow typing are part of the reason I didn't pursue further education. That, and moderately severe executive dysfunction.

[agate]

I'm slow too, and that is a big problem with computers and especially smartphones, I've been noticing. You have to be fast or whatever is on the screen goes away or changes.

It's especially annoying when some Website like a bank or a medical patient portal that is trying really hard to be security-conscious logs a person out in a ridiculously short time.

Even our "digitized" laundry room here has a speed obsession. You load your laundry into a washer with the soap, you walk over to the "kiosk" where you swipe your card, and if you're lucky, you're told that you can use whatever washer number you have entered. Then you feel as if you have to sprint back over to the washer to start it up before that kiosk decides to move on to other activities--because meanwhile the washer is sending out frequent beeps that are loud enough to be heard by the residents living nearby. I often want to scream, "Hey! I'm just not that fast!"