Quite a few confessions to still having a flip phone. I do as well.
I travel and I've been in remote places-Oregon, Iceland, Alaska, where the smartphones don't work but the flip phone does. My guide in Iceland had both and said only the flip phone was reliable as one climbed into the cliffs and volcanoes. The other advantage of the flip from my point of view is that long texts are a nuisance and it won't download pictures at all. Why are people sending pictures on the phone anyway ? It is a very tiny image. And they have not solved the problem of the angle making everyone look like a newborn puppy-all snout with little eyes. Selfies are the worst-often not flattering no matter how attractive a person actually is. I don't want to spend my day that way. My neighbors have the blue eye on the front door, the smart refrigerator, Alexa...It just makes me feel invaded.
We're all different of course but I find a life without adopting all of these devices is more peaceful. My car is too smart for me and the salesman was careful to say. " We tell everyone to stay away from the infotainment screen. It is too distracting. Let me show you how to use these buttons on the steering wheel-simple toggles which work fine and do not require you to take your eyes off the road. Instructive-the people who have developed and are selling these things warn you not to use them as designed. Now if only I could have not paid for it.
9
I work in software development. One of the developers I work with is an early adopter; one gets "the lowest model iPhone Apple still supports"; one doesn't have a smartphone at all. I didn't get a smartphone until the iPhone 5.
Physical books are themselves a beautiful technology (that I will never give up), and libraries are heaven. I do see how ebooks could help those with poor eyesight, but until my eyesight is so poor that the only thing I can read is an ebook, I'll be leafing through paper pages. I insist my daughter use our actual dictionary, hard though its volumes are to heave from the bookshelf to the coffee table.
I couldn't agree more about calendars. I just recently, joyfully bought a very small, old Filofax on eBay. Fiddling around with digital calendars is a complete PITA.
My watch has hands.
I don't have a TV, and haven't for 20+ years. I occasionally stream things, and use an LED projector to watch them on a scale bigger than my Macbook Pro, though I realize I am sacrificing resolution for scale. Going to the cinema makes me happy.
It's not that I don't love technology; I'm a technologist! Like Pamela Paul, I just don't need it. My favorite piece of technology by far is my dishwasher. Now *that* would be hard for me to give up....
23
I, too, prefer physical books, but nothing beats my Kindle for travel, which I do several months each year.
7
I must be a really weird technological philistine~! Retired now, but I made my living as a software engineer for 42 years. Ditched the TV around 1975. I refer to my phone as a "moron" that is, not-a-smart-phone. It's worth about $10 and I pay $7 a month for access. I can phone with it and text and it has a calculator and some other stuff and a lousy interface; but it's cheap and I don't stare at it all day. I do have a computer, a laptop that stays mostly on the desk. I have no GPS, anywhere, but I still have my collection of paper maps. I do not use ear buds, although I do have a set of headphones for when I want to listen to something late at night without disturbing the household. That's not often. I've given up the watch; I'm retired after all, and the moron knows the time.
13
It is nice to have choices. Make ones that suit your preferences, budget and lifestyle. And avoid criticizing others for being more or less tech than you happen to be.
12
I tried reading a "book" on a tablet. Five minutes. Not a book. Absolute rubbish.
We also have Netflix's DVD service. The list is inadequate for cinephiles. Let me recommend to all lovers of film Kanopy, a free streaming service available w/ a NY Library card. Their collection contain the Criterion/Janus library, and is altogether excellent.
15
A cave, two sticks to rub together, charcoal and loin cloth. What more could we possibly need?
10
What about the ability to quickly search for something in a large document, book or newspaper? Some form of more intelligent, context-sensitive tagging would help with that process.
4
Though I disagree on several points, such as Kindle, electric toothbrushes and DVDs, when you think about it, life in the 1950s was just about as comfortable as it is today. You went to work, drove home in an Oldsmobile 98 that had air-conditioning, power windows, padded dash and a pillow-soft ride, ate dinner and watched TV. And you had better train service. Of course, the TV was garbage and limited, but you get my point.
13
Three minor points: first, you can get a Kindle app on your phone, making books extremely lightweight and easily readable with one hand. And you can adjust not only the brightness, font type and font size but also the page color (best to choose sepia, which simulates real page color). Second, why on earth would anyone consciously downgrade from an electric toothbrush to the old stick-in-the-mouth type? Electric one clean far better, keeping plaque at bay for years. Third, if you're a movie and prestige TV buff, electronic video files, whether downloaded or streaming, provide a better picture and sound.
6
My husband and I have hundreds of vinyl recordings, even some 45s, along with cassette tapes, and don’t have a streaming service. We watch DVDs instead. I still have my flip phone, but recently have reluctantly considered upgrading to a smart phone, but because increasingly people text me, and texting back is really difficult. A smart phone may soon be necessary for other things like getting on the bus and subway. It does my heart good to see there are other people out there holding on to their cell phones, making me reconsider my decision to give up the flip phone. One distinct advantage it has over a smart phone is that because it can do so few things I rarely take it out when I’m not home and never ever have my head in the phone when I’m walking down the street.
9
I also get DVDs in the mail from Netflix. Keeping the postal service alive!
15
@Anne Hajduk
Ha~! I help the USPS by mailing back the business reply envelopes - empty.
12
Reading books on an iPad or a Kindle works for me because as I age my eyes seem to get worse and worse. With an e-reader of some kind all books can become large print editions. I do agree, though, that books are to be preferred if you have good eyes.
8
For me, physical media trumps digital in almost every measure and every source.
Vinyl over CD’s
CD’s over streaming
Books over kindle
On line comments over a first class letter to the editor
Photographs over a digital slide show
3
CDs offer far more depth and frequency response, assuming they haven't messed with the dynamics (the highs and lows) than vinyl ever will. However, streaming music is the worst of all three. Streaming music reduces the file size but getting rid of the dynamics of the music and thus giving you low quality sound. I've started buying CDs again because the quality is just so much better. And as someone who's ruined unintentionally many library books I can say I was hesitant to head to Kindle, but now I can't imagine reading without it, especially for my masters degree. Being able to save text and search for keywords makes life a whole lot easier. But, that's like my opinion man ;)
4
I agree with most of this, except getting your kids CD players.
There is nothing to be gained by reverting to physical digital media like that. Vinyl, sure. But digital music is so much easier to manage and access - at the very least it occupies much less physical space.
3
Dear Ms. Paul -
Ahhhhh, a woman after my own heart. As I type this on my quite old laptop, Mozart violin concertos (Arthur Grumiaux, London Symphony Orchestra) is playing on a twenty year old CD. I also subscribe to Netflix dvds, one arriving at a time and supplemented by various ones loaned from the library. No television, no Netflix streaming, nope. I got a Jitterbug phone (the easiest for seniors, I was told) and use it to text with my daughter and friends - this includes sending them photos from the sea. The CD player in my car is broken, so I listen to the Los Angeles classical station while driving.
And, as to books, I've never even tried to substitute the pleasure of an actual book with a gizmo - why replace the sublime with what to me is the ridiculous?!
14
Yep, and most of this applies to EMRs too
4
Absolutely nothing like a book printed on paper. And for that matter, a paper newspaper.
Unfortunately I had to download my cds onto a flash drive, as my new car doesn’t have a CD player. I never even thought to check, which is my bad. But what’s with that Honda? You couldn’t even add AUX jack so I could hook up a portable CD player to listen to through the audio system. No more Honda’s in my future.
3
Kia Souls, no CD player. Because "everyone" has iphones, and if not, they're losers.
3
@Anne Hajduk My nod to technology I got a thumb drive and use the USB port and listen to tunes I put on it from the 60's, 70's, 80, and 90's in my Kia Soul. True it's not a CD player but no Siris radio and even my high school niece thought it was cool.
1
Paper newspaper? Yet here you are commenting online. The NYT being online is the best thing to happen to journalism in decades. Instant updates, corrections, comments from users and the entire paper delivered always on time wherever you are. I would be out of luck trying to read the NYT in print lving in Japan, but thankfully I have the app and here I am at 10:30AM Friday......in the future all things are possible. See what I did there?
10
There are countless fax machines chittering and beeping away as I write this. And nothing will ever replace my 50-year old veggie peeler. We need to get smarter about what we buy and why. Just because it's new does not mean it's better.
11
@Cody McCall
Just remember to do Safe Fax.
Don't worry about Netflix DVDs. I still get those, too. :-)
7
@Nadia
Ditto!
Tho ... for how much longer will they offer them? And or, how much longer will my seldom-used DVD player oblige and work?
Ugh. Even this (above) can become 'too much.'
2
Not every gadget is necessarily an improvement on what already exists or doesn't exist. They are ways to separate money from your wallet, especially given planned obsolescence and the false "need" created by advertising hype.
10
Pamela Paul is right. I keep downgrading. I am a pen and paper person and love my calendar. I am hoping where I work we do not go to digital master calendar while I work here. I still have cassettes I like to listen to. Nothing new has been invented in a long time, just another version.
9
FINALLY someone expressed my sentiments!! And here I thought I was the only one...
9
Thank you so much Pamela Paul! I am an old computer-design engineer who, way back in undergrad school, was trained on the ackronym KISS, for Keep It Simple Stupid.
Microsoft and its colleague companies have completely lost
sight of this, inserting option after option after option into
their software until it becomes more difficult and more
error-prone to use. The founder of the UNC Dept of Computer Science preached for 45 years, that just because you can do something does not mean that you should do it. I am sure that the Whirpool and Maytag marketers are honing their salespitches for an internet-connected washing machine. Gimme a break!
11
@Joe Capowski Samsung already touts its wif-connected refrigerators that can tell you you're out of milk. So the commercial shows Kristen Bell as a happy homemaker calling her hunky husband at the supermarket about what the refrigerator says. Maybe the fridge should just text him directly. Ugh.
5
@Joe Capowski
Fred Brooks?
@globalnomad - well, the wonderful thing about that (I kid) is that we can now buy durable appliances that will stop working in years instead of decades because their software will be outdated, unsupported, insecure and you'll find your fridge has been hijacked and is spamming the internet, and some hacker is using the camera on it (everything in the world needs a camera too, of course) to watch how you eat your morning cereal.
6
Long live vacuum tubes. Further, if someone has a better summer activity than a Maine sunset, a glass of wine, and listening to a Red Sox-Yankees game on a Tandberg TP41 circa 1971 teak wood job (transistor) radio, please let me know what it is.
8
@Rufust
All that, but listening to your favourite album on a Grundig valve stereo console.
2
I generally agree except for the electric toothbrush. Check with your dentist. I think he/she will agree with me that an electric toothbrush will always do a better job.
16
"In general, when I hear the phrase 'There’s an app for that,' my first question is, 'Does there need to be?'”
That's the best definition of Wisdom (yes, uppercase "W") I've seen in quite a while. Thank you for this Wonderful article.
10
How do you spell Luddite?
3
@Mike - you spell it "Luddite". Any online or paper dictionary worth its salt will tell you that - or your spell checker.
How much better is the life of someone who is spending most of their life learning how to use the new device that replaced last year's new device, while moaning the battery keeps dying (after they download 500 "free" apps that spy, use the battery up and possibly are mining bitcoins for someone else's profit)?
Like many people here who don't slavishly adopt all new tech because, gee, it's New Tech, I've been in the software and services business since before Windows was born.
But I think cameras (digital, but real cameras) are better at taking pictures than phones are, prefer carrying a few books along with my e-reader when I travel, and don't get a thrill over giving away my data to any 'free' app that does something trivial - but On My Phone! I'm also an ergonomics fan, and much of the stuff replaces better with worse in that regard.
Maybe lots of techies here aren't eager adopters of everything available because we know what's under the hood.
Years back, I interviewed a variety of staffers in a credit card company's different business units and you know what? It seems everyone there paid their bills in full each month. Because they see what happens when their wonderful product is unthinkingly used.
6
Though not a Luddite, I have never managed (or longed) to slide 'forward' on tech. (Even use of that truncated descriptive gives me the skeevies. I would much prefer to type "technology.") Owned a mobile phone for a brief period when my employer required that staffers be available 24/7. The device met an unfortunate end at the business end of my meat mallet. While inclined to give Kindle a pass, if only because it promotes the consumption of books, it cannot replicate the sensory experience of an actual book. Social media has become, at best, a banal cesspool. Would I retreat to the cave if I could? No. But to a sturdy cabin in a wood near a river, with a lantern to read by and a front porch on which to convene with neighbors? Yes, in a heartbeat.
21
"There's an app for that." "Does there need to be?" I would say you hit the nail on the head. So much of what passes for digital innovation is the unnecessary migration of a relatively simple routine activity to some application on a device. Why? Just because apparently. Who needs to turn a light off when you can ask Alexa to do it? Why call for a pizza when you can spend time ordering it through some platform? It may well go down in history that as climate changed, population burst at the seams we busied ourselves inventing digital ways to go round and round in circles.
9
I find this all an absolutely absurd conversation. It is the "year zero" discussion addressed in the work of French writer, Michel Serres. To which point do we go back to put the sticker of acceptability on the technology of that time as opposed to this time. I prefer the printed book to the digital book, but maybe i would have preferred Homer singing of Achilles. And so on and so on. I find electric light harsh and yearn for the days of the candle that I dipped myself. And there is nothing romantic about a thatched roof. Yes, one might feel a sense of reward after having accomplished it, but I wonder if a person thatching his or her own roof has enough time to read world literature. It is brutal and unrelenting work that technology replaced. And maybe that doesn't make it universally an advancement, but it also makes one realize that the alternative is little more than Marie Antoinette pretending to live like one of the people...people who would like someone else to thatch their roof.
3
I could not agree more!! AND, on my cell phone I hate all the apps companies keep asking you to use because they are always sitting there eating up power and tracking your every move.
4
Discarding Facebook and Twitter is far more powerful than just embracing print books and dvds. When you do it, you’ll be blessed with a far stronger equanimity.
19
Speaking of books … "The River" by Peter Heller is wonderful! Run. You won't be able to put in down.
And, yes, it could have been read on my NOOK; however, that has mostly been banished. I 100% agree with Ms. Paul about the virtues a well-crafted printed book.
Most certainly looking forward to this evening when I will once again pick up Mr. Heller's extraordinary creation. As always, I will first admire the mysterious blue and red swirly cover. Then, no doubt, its soft paper pages and gripping story will keep me up too long. Bliss!
3
My eyes aren't what they used to be now that I'm 65. My issue with books is that many are printed on off-white speckled paper, using fonts that are becoming increasingly hard for me to read, or in some cases, colored. It took me awhile to figure out that's why I feel exhausted after spending a short amount of time reading printed material.
I still read voluminously, but do it on my Kindle, where I can adjust everything.
On the other hand, I still have a huge CD collection, and subscribe to DVD.com, where the selection is huge, compared to streaming services.
5
@Anne Aging eyes differ. I found the Kindle screen contrast much lower than paper, even the Paper White, and prefer reading on real paper.
3
Yessss! I'm in the same place as almost everything mentioned. (But I still have my CD player.) I like my sturdy flip phone too and only answer calls on my land line.
Thanks for the tip on DVD.com.
15
@Vivienne,
My husband and I are beyond the reach of efficient streaming services (plus, data costs a bundle where we live), so we've always just used Netflix's DVD.com. (We get mostly blue ray disks.) The selection is GI-NORMOUS compared to what's available for streaming. Hopefully, others will go back to it, so Netflix doesn't discontinue it!
5
I am up for this, I am so so tired of useless technology that looks cool....I actually thought of buying a DVD player too and a CD player --- I miss the time when my dad would put on an old scratchy record and we would all listen along
9
Just because a record is old, does not mean it is scratchy. I have 60 year old records that sound great on my 45 year old turntable.
8
Like the author and many readers, I use a mixture of tech and nontech: flip phone with all texting blocked and with a 20-year-old low rate; lots of online reference apps and techno-tools but a large American Heritage Dictionary on a nearby bookshelf; WiFi, antiviruses, antimalware, backup hard drive, and obviously an online subscription to the NYT. But also an entire wall of paper books (many given to my children 50 years ago with dedications in front); and finally, a turntable with LPs.
5
Whenever people bring up The Book Experience ("do you prefer the smell of paper or the feel of plastic?"), there's no room for people to say "both are awesome!" I love books, and I love going to the second-hand store down the road to purchase something I haven't read before, and I get to support a small business. On the other hand, I love reading at night and my Kindle allows me to do that without disturbing my husband, and I love using the feature where I can highlight a word I don't know and get a definition - it's incredible useful! And, if I read a digital book I really enjoy, I go back to buy a paper copy.
There are many people - I would assume a vast majority - who have a very healthy relationship with the tangible world and the digital. This is a response to all articles like this, but they strike me as elitist and ableist. We require students, regardless of income, to have a laptop; have enough money, and you're able to have a laptop AND enjoy the comfort of a personal, physical library. Kindles are tools for the vision-impaired, but if you don't have health insurance, you can't get glasses, which allow you to enjoy the physical books everyone tells you are just too good; ditto with phones. Everyone should patronize their local library, which you should carve out time in your busy day of school and work to go visit. Guess who's more likely to have the time and ability to do that?
The Old Way is fine. The Old Way should not be held as a desirable level for everyone.
7
@Sara Agreed...I love books but have a Kindle so I can access affordable English language ones while I live in Holland where they are either not available or absurdly priced. There's room for both in my world.
2
Technophobe nonsense! An e-book reader lets you customize font, font size, background color (sepia!), and brightness to your preferences. You can highlight without defacing and click to share a passage with a friend. You can get a screen in your preferred size and wrap it in a leather binding. And yes, you can display the page number (or percentage, pages left in chapter, estimated time to finish ... or nothing at all). You can take a break to read the NYT or play chess, all on the same device. I read MORE because of all these conveniences, my condo is more Kondo, and the trees smile and say THANK YOU.
12
@Michael She is not a technophobe. She simply is selective in the technologies she choose to use. Nothing wrong with that.
59
@Michael. If you get more pleasure reading on a screen, the by all means, read on a screen. I get infinity more pleasure reading a physical book. The ability to take a break to read the NYtimes or do anything else online is a drawback for me, not a feature (and I always have my son asking me to play chess with him in real life, anyhow). As for the environment: well-made books will outlast computer technology. And electronics waste is pretty toxic. I was recently talking to a librarian about preservation and digitization - she said digitizing physical materials was really about access (or decreasing damaging physical use of very delicate materials), as the books themselves will outlive their digitized forms - the books are preserving the content, not the technology. Parchment is still a longer-lasting material than any computer technology.
15
Bravo for sharing. I looked at the same issue from a psychological perspective just a few weeks ago - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-refracted/201902/consider-these-human-consequences-mobile-phones. SO important to keep the way you wantto ive your life in mind.
1
My wife and I have no cable, no streaming, no real television. We watch DVDs with many available through our local library. We have no e-readers, we only read books. While I have an on-line subscription to the Times, I do get the Sunday addition in print form. And I have a flip phone. My life is fine and it is much less expensive than if I went high tech.
36
My electric toothbrush does a much better job than a manual one ever did. That's what my dentist said when I started using it...the semiannual cleanings are easier too.
That's one thing I will not give up.
29
@Old Mountain Man I was going to post the same thing. I inherited my Dad's and would never go back to a regular brush.
1
Every device, program or app I’ve ever used has an off/log out button...always my favorite feature.
6
Yes, all these apps just feed and monetize the Surveillance Capitalist beasts. Best to keep to quill and parchment.....touching things is its own enjoyment.
15
A paper calendar is fine if you are only reminding yourself, but if you have to or want share calendars with others, paper is useless.
5
Yay! Common sense as opposed to shiny objects.
21
As a book designer for a major publishing house, it is wonderful to hear a book reviewer expressing notice and appreciation for our work on the physical book. I have always felt that the tactile and visual aspects of a book add so much.
59
It's certainly a balance that I try to strike (and fail) with tech.
I work in a highly technical field, it's always been that way even before computers (I'm not that old though) but regardless if it's celluloid or pixels... technology is a strength of mine.
What I miss about the way I used to work... before all my resources were on-line, before every piece of software I own became "subscription based" is the un-interrupted flow state that was my day to day work.
Now my day resembles Swiss cheese, the holes being the work I actually focus on and everything around it being the din of interruption... be it email, texts, dropbox, checking the news, going down a rabbit hole on youtube after looking for a simple solution for something in my software (no paper manual). It's got me thinking if there isn't a way to firewall my professional life in a way that benefits my health and my work, without somehow putting me at a competitive disadvantage or under-serving my clients.
I can honestly say I was no less informed about technology, the world or myself before the internet became the backbone of everything I touch and do and I was clearer for it.
At least I quit all social media about 4 years ago. That is simply a waste of time.
26
@Citizen: You might find it enlightening to learn that at Microsoft, software developers (as opposed to those in tech support, customer service or sales) are advised to access their mail only 3 times a day - on coming into the office, after lunch and before going home. As for checking the news or texts, turn the apps off when you need to focus. Leaving them on is like letting your children blast heavy metal while you're trying to do your taxes.
I sympathize with your complaint about manuals though - it's not the lack of paper, its the lack of unified documentation, period. Compare the documentation of smaller outfits (which supply compiled HTML files) versus that of Microsoft Office or MS-Windows. Alternatively, contrast MS-office's documentation with the high documentation quality of MS-SQL Server, which is aimed at medium-sized to large businesses that won't tolerate bad documentation.
3
As Executive Director of The Imaging Alliance, I read with interest your column on Turning the Page on Tech. Recently, our organization started Project 240, an attempt to bring people back to putting photos in "old fashioned" photo albums. While photo-books are the "tech solution" to albums, fully 70% of photo-books are abandoned before they are finished due to the tech challenge. The result are less albums to pass down to future generations. Project 240 suggests that people print 20 pictures each month, and put them in a photo album. At the end of a year, they will have a beautiful, low tech photo album filled with 240 pictures, to pass on to their children and grandchildren. I've often argued that tech for tech's sake can lead to people forgoing what their true intentions are. Project 240 is one positive step in this direction.
23
@Jerry
Project 240 sounds really interesting. Where can we find more information about it?
3
@Matt Probably on the internet. Oh, the irony!
6
@Jerry - Perhaps you can tell the children and grandchildren what to do with boxes of photos that really aren't very interesting at all. I feel guilty throwing them away, but....
1
As I'm sitting here reading your article on the blinding white of the NY Times website (please NYTimes, add some dark color options for our aching eyeballs!), I have to agree with the author. Some digital things I really enjoy such as being able to watch British TV on britbox but sometimes the old way is the best way. I remember things better when I write my To-Do's and notes in a paper planner. Books I will buy kindle sometimes but I buy way more paper books because of the reasons the author state. I listen to streaming music sometimes but vinyl sounds better so I own a record player. I think the author is pointing out a trend that most tech companies are oblivious too: The needle swung almost all the way towards "Digital" being better for everything and what we're seeing is the slow realization by people that "Digital" is just one of many tools. It's not the be all-end all. Sometimes doing things the "old" way is more efficient and effective.
15
@Paula You can control the brightness of NYT or any other screen in your display settings. An app lets you have your to-do lists handy whenever you might need them--and sync them with a partner! And a digital recording can be tweaked to mimic the unnatural sound of vinyl ... but vinyl can never be made to sound natural. Good technology really does make most experiences better, but you have to take the time to learn how to use it.
5
@Paula Use the f.lux free application for Windows, and you can adjust your screen to not glare.
Although I am typing this on my laptop, where I read most of my news (except for the free local rags), I am overall on the same page as Pamela. There are certain areas in which personal technology has probably enhanced my life, but I too am intentionally sliding backwards. I gave up my social media accounts years ago, for starters (I was on the first wave of all of that, and don't miss it a bit). My phone is old and not that great, so I rarely use it for any smart features (the map function is the only reason I keep a smart phone now). I use a paper calendar - in fact, three paper calendars. We keep a family calendar on the wall, I keep a calendar for my work above my desk, and then I keep a portable calendar for writing things down on the go. If it sounds complicated, just try it: it's very easy, and even a pleasure. My next step is going to start doing more of my work off of the computer. Typing is definitely faster, and easier to correct and share (and I would have to type up most of my handwriting at some point anyhow). But it's also distracting, because my machine is connected to the Internet, and also because I have all of these little tasks to do on here. Yes, there's a tech solution to this problem, but a free, pleasurable solution is to sit down with a nice pen, some paper, and my own brain, and to remove my eyes from this blasted screen.
12
I am fairly certain that I am one of the last of my age cohort (mid 30s) to have never owned a smartphone. I found another one of us last year in the wild, so I can say that I am not alone, but I am probably close. People poke gentle fun of the point and shoot camera and the paper planner, but after the initial shock of the slider phone wears off, I hear more frequently than one might expect "I wish I could go back to that."
36
@Jana I get the same reaction when people see my flip phone. They always say they loved theirs and wish they had it back. I'm not sure if that's true or it's just a nice way of telling me I'm a dinosaur. Either way, if you liked it you can always go back.
6
@Roberto No, it's true; we do wish we had our flip phones back. I do, anyway.
4
@Jana My husband, mid-40s, has never had a smartphone either, and doesn't want one. We laughed the other day when a friend tried to explain to us what smartphones do, as if his reason for not having one was ignorance that he can check his email on there. No, he just doesn't want to.
10
No you are not the last Netflix DVD subscriber. I'm with you, and hope they never stop the service. I love the selection, reasonably quick access to recent movies, and availability of lots of old ones.
I, too, much prefer reading paper books, but I do love my Kindle for the ability to download books for free from the library and take lots of books with me on trips.
My cell phone is an old flip phone with a prepaid yearly subscription for only $110. All I need.
I worked in tech all my work life, but agree that selective use is the way to go.
16
Ha! I never threw away of my CD's and still buy new music on disc . At home and work, I still use a dead reliable IBM Word Writer typewriter for short notes and forms, file labels, etc.(much faster than having to boot up the laptop and printer.) I subscribe to cable tv and internet, but no extra subscribers services. Using the web and email are certainly worthwhile but I otherwise minimize my contact with unnecessary tech and associated costs.
8
Thanks Ms. Paul. I'm glad I'm not alone. I do however think that my love for paper books and my 'little black book and pencil' is so deep because I tried the digital equivalents (for a good 3 years) and found them lacking.
6
Totally agree with Pamela Paul, ever since I watched that CSPAN BOOK TV interview a few years ago.
Exceptions to the Luddite life would be the ability to read the comments in newspaper articles online, like this one, and downloading a region of fully interactive Google Maps on an iPhone before traveling abroad.
Navigating around Europe in a rental car without depending on wifi or cell coverage and data consumption was a welcome advantage as a backup to paper maps.
Some other things are just taken for granted, such as GPS instead of a sextant, but, in general, I agree that less is often more.
3
I am onboard when it comes to downgrading tech. I shut my Facebook off over a year ago and I have considered downgrading to a flip phone. But not all tech is bad. For example, electric tooth brushes. According to my dentist, who I have no reason to question, they do a better job than a normal tooth brush. They aren't distracting, either. In fact, if you get distracted and brush your teeth for twice as long as you are suppose to, that would probably be good for you!
7
This is a wonderful article and concept. This Luddite is now reassured by The New York Times. Long live PAPER and PRINT!
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Thank you for reassuring me that I'm not alone.
Smartphones make us slaves to the clock; one can never escape the boss, or any other people, for that matter. They're leashes, tying us to everything and everyone.
Digital devices just make us stupid. Case in point: When the iPad 2 came out, a lot of my friends raved so much about it, I decided I needed one, too. I found it to be cumbersome; in fact, the only use I found for it was to play "Angry Birds." Once I reached the top level of the game, I sold the iPad.
6
I too loved the book Cheaper by the Dozen. I often think about efficiency when I do my morning hygiene routine.
I depend on technology at work so I try to be thoughtful, like the author, about how much I use it in my personal life.
3
The shame is that an article like this even needs to be written. One of the big justifications tech addicts use is that there are less natural (e.g., paper) resources used in digital items. But the people who believe this have coffee from a one-serve plastic container. And oh how I miss the stacks of newsprint we used to stuff into our rain soaked shoes. A younger person had never heard of doing this to dry sneakers out and actually thought how unusual I was. We used paper bags from the grocery to cover our textbooks and re-used wrapping paper and bows. We were not poor, its just what we did. Now I contribute to stacks of useless technology--plastic, rare earth metals and who knows what else is in there. Progress indeed. I know many readers will slam me for this but I am just asking, like this author, to really balance out what you're actually doing instead of just worshipping tech.
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@Mrs. Cat Plus have the next tech addict who ridicules you look into the power consumption of the average cloud data center. Not sure digital is so green in the end. All those bits run on coal in the end.
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@Mrs. Cat
Hello, Mrs. Cat - I use my daily Los Angeles Times for many other things after it's been read. It's good for packing boxes, instead of plastic, covers the floor when I feed the neighbor cat, and has great articles to cut out when I write to friends and family. If intact, I usually drop it off at the coffee shop for others to read. Of course wrapping paper and bows are re-used. In honor of Earth Day just past - Reduce, re-use, recycle!
6
A most enjoyable column. I too, read Craeft, a gift from my crafty wife who quilts, sews and gardens. For me print is perferable to digital. I like to hold things, touch and take them into my heart. Though I spend much time on a computer working in Photoshop, I value time to quietly be myself, preferably with a paper book.
Ross Chapple
14
Of course I had to use tech to read your article! It was recommended by a friend who said I would love the part about calendars. I use my NYSUT (UFT) slim yearly calendar and by the end of each year, the book is heavy with scotch tape mending! But I wouldn't trade it for the hard-to-figure-out calendar on my smart phone. I'm smarter than it is... Loved the article.
14
Wile I admire Pamela Paul's deliberations over tech or not, I, for one, need the visual clarity of digital. Being a woman of a certain age, I suffer the same dry eye condition as any other senior would. I find reading this newspaper far easier than the, to me, paler ink on the actual paper. I love my Kindle, but would not read a reference kind of book on it. 'when you need to turn actual pages, okay to go with that. But for ease of reading for my eyes, Kindle has the actual book beat. No need to make them adversaries, choose what you need and like. And don't forget the dazzling videos on the Times - I love them.
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@renee
Couldn't agree more. I love being able to change the font size and line spacing. Also, big hardback books are hard to hold when you're reading in bed at night. I love all books, paper or e-books, but I much prefer to read on my Kindle most of the time.
6
@renee As another older person, I would be in deep trouble if I only could read printed material. With ebooks I can enlarge the font. With chrome I can use the High Contrast feature.
However, I got rid of my television several years ago, and I have a flip phone not a smart phone.
2