They want to text and call and stream and email. You don't. They can. You don't have to. I get what you're saying. But lamenting advances on account of some folks' poor impulse control is neither here nor there.
This is valid. That said, if you're close enough to hear a cell phone ping, you've chosen proximity. You're close enough to hear a lot of other sounds. You retain the option to move away.
> "sorry I didn't have network" is no longer a convenient excuse when you are on these trips
To whom are you giving this excuse? Because if you were previously saying you were going somewhere without connectivity, you can still say you're going to reject connectivity.
Is it? Honestly, global trade/capitalism has ravaged our planet - we have a fire season nearly everywhere now, ocean acidification/plastic gyre. The same engine that can give us global wireless broadband has polluted our planet beyond restoration.
Yes, medicine and technology is arguably better for most but increasing income inequality is making everything less available to all.
I would urge you to confirm your priors on whether the concept of "ongoing progress" is a state of nature, or a belief system.
Life quality in cities is still improving, assuming one can afford it. In more rural areas, often simultaneously subject to all kinds of attacks on nature and a lack of opportunities and essential services, I'm not so convinced...
Yes, nature and the planet are in a worse state but the humanity is in a much better one. And I am confident with time and technology we will improve them both. The engine of progress has already solved much harder problems than the current ones.
I suspect the harder problems you're thinking of are all technological. The current ones we are facing are social and political more than anything, so I don't share your optimism...
Humanity is huge and diverse - if a group of people decides to stop evolving and stagnate, another will gladly steal their place.
What you call "progress" is what led us here. Remains to be seen if "here" is a trap. You seem to think that everything is fine since everything will be fine, but that opinion doesn't have a consensus right now. I prefer to remain more doubtful.
If there are other people around you at all, you're not really in the backcountry.
The number of projectors I have seen in use at campgrounds in the last couple of years is just profoundly irritating.
100% agree.
If something becomes the norm, it creates social pressure to do the same. Sometimes you can opt out, but not always and usually with a cost.
One of the biggest lessons in life is learning that you don't have to care what the fuck others think about you.
Your life is short, and less than 1% of 1% of all the people you would ever meet will be of any consequence to you, let alone the rest of humanity whom you will never even know existed.
So if you want to disconnect: Go for it. Pedal to the metal. Afterburners blazing. Who the fuck cares? It's your life, not their's. They can leave a voicemail and wait for you to get back at your leisure.
No, but there are still consequences.
"and catching up on work emails"
If everyone is doing this, there will be a expectation of you to do it. And if you don't - you will have to really shine somewhere else, to not get serious disadvantages.
Also I already had various big drama in my life for not being reachable (I still have a phone where I can put out the battery) - so yes, I know how to disconnect and I do. But there is an increasing pressure to be always reachable and when you don't live totally on your own - it is a real struggle to get away from it.
Most people don't go to low- and no-connectivity areas to recreate. If you're bucking the trend by doing that now, it isn't much different to turn your phone off (or leave it at home).
Well, those who do, are unfortunately often those who do it, so they don't catch Corona via the 5G waves ...
But my point was more that right now, it is still an acceptible excuse (in some areas) to not be reachable, to say you just had no reception. That is going away soon - and then it seems I will have to defend every time I turn off my phone and someone wanted to reach me with something "important". So yes, the problem is not the technology in my eyes, but the social expection. The result is still the same.
Can you name them?
Seriously? Have you ever worked where the expectation is you'll be on-call, even on your vacation?
If we're talking just socially, that will impact how the people you interact with perceive you. It's the same thing, as work, but with different stakes in terms of your ability to move among social groups that use texting constantly.
>If we're talking just socially, that will impact how the people you interact with perceive you.
I reiterate for emphasis: Stop caring what the fuck others think about you.
>Have you ever worked where the expectation is you'll be on-call, even on your vacation?
You are working at your choice of employment out of your own free will; you chose to work that job that demands you be on call even on vacation. If you don't like it, you have a right to quit and find other arrangements better suited to your lifestyle.
I suppose you do not have a family or other ties? When you are young and unbound, the possibilities are a big bigger, than when you are settled down and don't want to uproot everyone to get a new job.
No, because that would be illegal in my country, as it is in many. One call to the relevant government department would launch an investigation and at minimum lead to hefty company fines and the practice stopping.
If that's normal to you, you should fix it or leave whatever country you live in. That would be laughable to most of us if it weren't so sad.