Oh no! A world without cyber-bullying, Trump tweets, incel brigades, Pepe memes, or Kanye West stories. How ever do they make it through the day...
*Because I know that gaslighting has destroyed our collective ability to tell what is genuine and what is fake on the internet, I’ll just state plainly that the above statement was sarcasm.
103
They’ll have WiFi soon once Trump defunds all science spending and the telescope is shut down.
79
Interesting article! Of course, I’m reading it on my phone.
39
Idyllic. Not! Wouldn't live there for a million bucks
17
Not sure how the author managed to skate past “an allergy to radio waves ...” but kudos.
58
I feel guilty reading this. Online. With a baseball game on. Aaarrrggghhh.
18
Sounds right peaceful there.
Fiber to desktop could give all these people (and the rest of the country) really, really fast internet access. Of course, it's probably 'coronavirus week' and not 'infrastructure week' now, so I doubt we'll see anything like that for a while. Wouldn't it be nice for Green Bank, and the rest of the country, if that were a policy goal of the nation's leadership, instead of bailouts for the cruise ship and airline industry?
36
There are advantages to not being locked into social media or having your kids perpetually staring at their cellphones, but there are downsides to not being digitally connected through broadband, especially for students as this article pointed out.
It’s a great disservice to them, especially if they are academically inclined high achievers.
There are vast swaths of this country that still depend on dial up service, something that’s inconceivable to many readers here.
The memory of screeching dial-up modems is amusing and slightly disturbing; that fact that there are still a handful of dial-up service provides like AOL and Earthlink suggests that we need a remedy.
Here’s a February 2019 NY Times article addressing that issue:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/us/green-bank-west-virginia-quiet-zone.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
16
My family is from Green Bank and I still have cousins there. I love going there just to get away from my phone, computers and work. It's amazing to wake up early, sit on the porch to drink my coffee and read a real book. I don't miss my phone at all. I've taken my grown sons and grandson there and they quickly adapted to no phones or computers. We talk to each other more and really listen without the interruptions of texting or phone calls. Now they want to know when we are going back!
136
I lived at an agricultural boarding school in the Atacama desert for awhile. The flush toilets wouldn't flush and the occasional leaf came floating out of the faucet. Actually, there was hardly indoor plumbing at all. Water scarcity was constant. The only things worse were running out of shade at midday or running out of petrol in the field.
The school did have reliable internet though. Old tired computers and not enough of them but no one ever blamed the internet. This in a place where military aviators were literally dropping test bombs in the valley where we worked. We lived in an artillery range. Good times.
The kids seemed to handle it well. My Spanish was poor even then but you got the gist of things. The one house in town with a commercial fridge would routinely sell out of cold beer exactly 30 minutes after school ended. You inevitably stumbled across the regular teenage romances. Pop magazines and bad pop music abound. Same things as always.
But they had internet when they needed it. End of the earth. You can see across the milky way without a telescope. You can still fill out a college application online. What does Chile get that West Virginia isn't getting?
14
Chuckle. Until 5 years ago, we had no cell service and it is still spotty and have multiple locations nearby as well ason the interstate and US highway system with no signal. Probably 90% of our calls go through our wifi system since we do have fiber optic gigabit internet (go figure). It does have unintended consequences. When people come to visit, particularly under 30 years old, there is stunned silence for at least 48 hours when they realize they are no longer connected (I shut off the wifi). Once they get used to actually talking to people and each other, they come to like it and go back to the big city refreshed and with a new outlook about people.
20
My friend has a vacation home (nothing fancy) near Green Bank, WV. We spend a week there every summer in August for the Perseid meteor shower. The area is beautiful, green mountains rising, clear streams, deer grazing in the fields beside the road.
The peace and quiet are restorative. No tv. No cell phone service. No computer. Instead of spending the day with our faces in a screen, we hike in the woods, perhaps at the Falls of Hills Creek, a steep path with three separate water falls. We also visit the Green Bank Radio Observatory and tour the massive largest steerable radio telescope in the world and relearn about Frank Drake starting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence there.
At night we sit outside and simply talk for hours, dark mountains on the horizon, the sky alive with thousands of stars. On the peak nights of the meteor shower, we lean back and watch the streaks and sometimes the fireballs zipping across the sky.
The week is a gift.
123
First, I am so glad to hear that some people in this country are actually talking to each other, engaging and being in community.
But I am worried.
Why are many of the people cited in this article overweight?
If you are out running around in nature, climbing trees, exploring the earth AND you don't have advertising/marketing pushing junk food because you are not on the devices that hawk it, what would lead to people being overweight?
Along with addiction to devices, obesity is a national epidemic.
I grew up in the 1950-60's within two farm families.
We worked, and when we didn't have to, we ran around. We were not overweight.
We must find a way to overcome this life-threatening problem.
35
@Eve Elzenga That won't happen until everyone recognizes that our obesity epidemic is not a will problem but a pollution problem. When I was young(50s-60s) an obese kid was a real rarity. It wasn't just all the exercise we got running around on our own. Modern food is full of chemicals that are supposedly "harmless"--yet there were no long term studies done on most of them. And what studies are done are not looking for subtle long term effects--just if the chemical is going to kill you immediately.
Somehow we need to push eating things with only natural ingredients and no additives to make you crave them more.
Marketers want to addict you to their products, and they search for the additives that will do that. Without worrying about what else all those additives are doing to our bodies and minds.
37
Sounds great. As an 80’s kid, I am grateful that my generation still got to play outside all day in the summers, walk home from school, and ride our bikes unsupervised around the neighborhood. We watched a lot of tv, but we spent a lot of time just playing. We were also the last teenagers to handwrite notes to our friends (or love letters) and spend hours just talking without screens as a distraction.
I have a preschool age daughter now and I lament for the future and social media. For now, we avoid letting her play with a tablet or our phones...trying to let her just be a kid and connect humanly with others. I feel sad for kids whose parents shove a phone in front of them when they’re out, or adolescents who spend entire vacations staring at a screen.
38
In a sense I envy this community. No gadgets. Sounds peaceful. Getting a good nights sleep without having to charge up a phone. Sounds wonderful.
16
The federal government should pay for excellent land-line connections for these people in the quiet zone.
13
Almost heaven,West Virginia,Blue Ridge moutains, Shenandoah River ,Life is old there,older than the trees,younger than the mountains, Growing like breeze. John Denver
18
Nice to know these spots exist for those who prefer this. It really does take all kinds in this world.
8
Reading this great article made me wonder ... are the Green Bank registered voters here Trump supporters or "Never Trumpers"? I'm guessing the former, even without the daily tweet stream that they are missing.
6
This place sounds great. What incredible prescience on the part of the government scientists.
4
copyeditor: one doesn't have "a broadband connection that's too slow."
"Per the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a broadband internet connection has a minimum download speed of 25 Mbps and a minimum upload speed of 3 Mbps. While all speeds below that threshold aren’t always necessarily slow, they are too slow to be considered broadband internet."
for the rest: we need more radio telescopes.
8
If you care about your child's welfare, do not give them a cell phone until they are in high school and limit their screen time at home. Young people these days are constantly glued to their screens and are missing out on real life in the meantime.
21
I was charmed until, "Over the years, the area has become a refuge for some who believe they suffer from a widely disputed medical condition known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which they claim is caused by radiation from cell towers and Wi-Fi." As a former NYC resident who moved to Appalachia after developing electro-hypersensitivity, I would like to encourage the author to educate himself. This illness is not "widely disputed," nor is it a just "claim" of radiation-induced illness by fear-mongering technophobes. It has been studied and documented for decades,and is acknowledged by several countries as a disability. You might start by reading the "EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses" here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27454111 Sent from a *gasp* WIRED connection after making extensive eye-contact with my loved ones while sitting in my favorite tree...
29
Sound like a potential quiet time tourist industry ready for investment.
3
These tech devices are merely tools. It's nice to know you have the cyber world in your pocket, but the real world is much, much more important.
Who cares about fake friends on social media, or how many "likes" you get for a post. Your real friends are waiting for you to pay attention to them and do something fun.
I'm personally sick to death of hearing people walking around and talking on their phones. I couldn't be less interested in their personal conversation or life.
Tech is a tool. It's not the end all, be all of life. We desperately need to teach our kids this lesson.
17
Sigh. Surely we can strike a balance.
12
what? no cell no wifi AND no microwave popcorn?
4
I'm getting strong "old man yells at cloud" vibes from these comments. It's always amusing to hear a generation of parents complain about how they failed to raise their children with social skills.
13
Someone should do a study of Childhood cancer between this town and those like it with the usual electromagnetic pollution.
11
What a dream. I’ve been wishing for some sort of technology that would make it possible to have a few rooms in your house that are silent.
7
I wonder if any of you have any idea how many such places exist in West Virginia and there is no huge telescope anywhere near to justify the absence of technology.
Yes, I am a West Virginia girl!
11
@csav Actually there are little pockets like this scattered all over rural America. Those of us who prefer a life more attuned to nature and those rhythms manage to find them, and each other.
10
@csav It's true. Throughout West Virginia there are "hollers" (translated hollows or valleys for y'all city folk) that are so deep, no cell service penetrates. Nor does the sun, 'cept from 11am-3pm. And we like it that way.
13
It's so interesting that so many of us who have had it up to here with the Internet are right here on the Internet saying so.
18
By cracky, there was a time when we didn't have telephones and, even if we did early on, it was too expensive to use. But when that all changed and we could afford to connect by telephone, we lost the fine art of letter-writing. We lost that sort of thoughtful intimacy and leisurely time that we could spend writing thoughtful things, expressing emotion in a way lost once the phone became a central part of our lives.
Now that's the other side of nostalgia for you! Take it or leave it!
5
@Glenn Thomas while I agree it’s lots more “affordable” than it used to be I see way too many families spending money they don’t really have “being connected” because everyone in the family “needs” their own cell phone. If we hadn’t given in to our kids “needing” them they could use the one or two that adults have after they get home from school.
Not judging any individuals here. It’s the human penchant for wanting to much of a good thing.
2
I love this story! So inspiring to hear from these kids who love reading, doing robotics, and exploring the outdoors -- without distraction of keeping up with the Joneses via social media. Beautiful.
18
Anyone my age can create a shared sense of childhood by discussing the same, limited number of television shows we watched as kids. Exactly the same for my mother...and my 36 year old daughter. Anyone younger has had so many options and do much technology that the likelihood of two age peers having the same experiences is unlikely.
14
Sad but true:
"Undistracted by technology, they laughed and maintained eye contact, a domestic scene they recognize as somewhat rare."
20
West Virginia and Kentucky are great coal supporters and polluters. If Trump wins a second term and there Social Security ends monthly and their rural delivery stops that is one place i would not want to be. I lived in Nicholson Pa in the 70’s and 1980’s. There is no bus transportation neighbors are a good distance from each other and if your vehicle breaks down you are stranded . Those rural communities are dying and i live in Lewes ,De now and it was the best move we ever made. I get fast WiFi ,bus service near a hospital and it won’t be to far to go if Trump and supporters stop our daily mail. Trumps budget now asks for 500 billion in cuts to Social Security and medicare so its coming. They are for less government and taxes except they love wars to get us in.
15
I absolutely love the internet, it has opened my world.
At the same time, I am so very grateful that I grew up in the 70's and 80's without it.
70
It is true that most people outside of this radio quiet zone stare at screens too long and don't get outside enough. That being said, internet connectivity has essentially become a prerequisite for the modern professional and modern student (especially for those studying STEM, and in higher education). Children who grow up in a place with extremely slow and limited internet will have to make a tremendous adjustment in the way they study and learn if they want to succeed on most college campuses, where a majority of course material is online (e.g. Blackboard.com).
Therefore, I think it's important to strike a balanced lifestyle in which we are always self-conscious about our overuse of digital devices and the effects they have on our physical and emotional health. However, it is an obvious truth that a society which is limited to a shoddy internet connection will be left behind in science, technology, finance, healthcare, politics and, most importantly, building an interconnected generation of the future.
7
@Nish I think the modern pace of professional and student life is primarily what's driving down quality of life and contentment. The fever of the economics that's driving this lifestyle is inherently unhealthy regardless of it's ubiquitous presence.
4
@Nish Respectfully, I disagree with the idea that it will be a tremendous adjustment for non-online kids to enter into the online world of university and professional life. As a 40-something stay-at-home mom who just started going back to school, I figured out Blackboard and required video conferencing apps in a matter of minutes. Most of my textbooks are ebooks, and for lectures, both on and offline, I simply take notes with pen and paper like I used to. It's just not that big of a deal. Offline kids and young adults will be even faster to adapt, when/if they need to. I'm raising my own children with tech to an absolute minimum (no smartphones or online access until they are teenagers) and in no way feel like they are being done a disservice. On the contrary, I believe the benefits of a peaceful, engaged childhood in an increasingly narcissistic and detached world outweigh any technological ramping up they will have to do later.
17
Just yesterday I was completing a transaction at Walgreens Pharmacy, I was looking at the credit card screen and the pharmacist was looking at her screen to make sure I was following the prompts... when it was don I noted to her we just had a transaction where we looked at different screens and did not talk, it's no wonder society is unable to effectively communicate verbally. So is technological progress really good for all society? I'm not so sure!!
23
@Todd B I tend to agree with your pov; but, honestly, you've been ''completing'' that same transaction ''just yesterday'' all week long ......
3
A lot of the problem is that electronic device manufacturers have stopped installing faraday cages in their equipment, allowing them to be very noisy. Look inside a 50 year old tube radio, you’ll see a faraday cage in it.
13
@Paulie
That's actually exactly backwards. In the old tube radios, the Faraday cage wasn't to keep signal in, it was to keep unwanted interference from other devices out. Modern, solid-state electronics are so much "quieter" that they don't need the built in Faraday cage.
3
20 years ago, all I had to do was drive to Lone Pine CA, and climb up and over New Army Pass to find hundreds of square miles of digital free space. It was a great place to regenerate. I hope it still is.
Were/are there dangers? Absolutely. I wouldnt have had it any other way. Cradle to grave security and safety is severely overrated.
11
HA!
“Now I’m like, why am I doing this when I could be climbing a tree?"
Exactly. There is a whole world of things to do, so why spend your precious time in the more mindless aspects, eh?
John~
American Net'Zen
15
@John Exactly.
We should all be doing the things John prefers. Making up our own minds would be just so frivolous.
4
Whoever thought that Buddha would appear in the form of a giant radio telescope? Fitting, isn't it?
33
They are probably more productive because of it!
8
Grew upon the sixties, during inclement weather I would read.
20
@Paulie UPON the sixties ?
Not that they should ever be subject to such indignity, but these (lucky) kids would make for a wonderful control group for any number of sociological studies.
22
One of my favorite places in West Virginia. It’s beautiful.
13
West Virginia is an underpopulated, underappreciated state torn between extremes of incredible natural beauty and terrible poverty. But one of the reasons why it is impoverished is precisely because it lacks reliable wifi and broadband! Dozens of articles have been written over the years by publications (including the NY Times) glamorizing the Town With No Internet. Stop glorifying the past and instead improve the present for thousands of residents who could benefit from enhanced educational and employment opportunities.
Don't take it from me. As a journalist/WV resident recently wrote in USA Today: "The story of West Virginia’s entrenched poverty is told in data points, which land the state at or near the top of ominous national rankings: worst health, worst education levels, worst employment. But it is often more nuanced than that. A puzzling factor of the state’s ailing economy, for example, are our rolling mountains, which isolate towns from sorely needed industry and internet access..."
18
A lot of commenters seem to think they cannot ignore their phones or computers. You don’t need to move to this town to get away from the internet, you do have the choice to not participate in the vast wasteland that is the internet. Are you all really that weak willed?
I use my cell phone as just that, a phone. Why would anyone choose to watch a movie that was meant to be watched on a theatre screen that is literally huge on a tiny screen?
26
@Paulie It's a matter of what your community as a whole is doing, not just you.
2
Part of this isolation is deliberate: there's nothing about the telescope that would be affected by, for example, gigabit fiber. If they don't want it, that's fine, but it's certainly available to them.
8
@Greg Shenaut
Yeah, but it really isn't. No one is running a gigabit fiber trunk line through the mountains to serve a town of 143 people. It isn't cost effective.
There used to be government programs to subsidize things like roads, hospitals, communications infrastructure, etc. in areas with low population densities, but those are long gone. Another casualty of our current system, where all the money is funneled to the top and stays there.
16
Wow, this area could become a major tourist attraction. This is a major asset if they manage it properly. I personally would love to go to a place where there is no WiFi access and get away from the hassles of modern tech...
17
This can't be all bad.
All people addicted to the internet should move tere.
8
Apparently the cable company doesn’t see any profit in laying coax or optical lines which would provide very fast internet speeds. The WiFi feature couldn’t be used, everything would require a LAN connection, but at least they could use the internet.
I live in a neighborhood that Centurylink will not replace the phone lines rendering kps speeds. Meanwhile there’s a Verizon optical line buried along the street. Illegally the town has given Centurylink a monopoly. I resorted to a satellite Viasat connection.
Funny how when I subscribed to centurylink they ignored me, when I cancelled their service they were my best friend asking what they could do to keep me.
How are these exclusive cable contracts legal?
24
Sounds like Heaven. Not even Almost Heaven.
24
I’d love to move there.
11
If they build a resort here - America would come.
9
One thing this story got wrong is that GPS is a one way street, the devices are merely receivers, unlike what many people think. They work by comparing the difference in time between the receiver’s clock and the the time signal broadcast by the GPS satellites. The amazing thing is how accurate the clocks are, measuring tiny amounts of time.
8
@Paulie
Receivers are not passive devices. They have oscillators to match the carrier frequency of the incoming signal.
3
@Phil
GPSDOs are often paired with GPS units for extreme nano-second accuracy, but are not common in everyday GPS units. Your standard Garmin satnav, stuck to windshield with a suction cup, does not contain an oscillator.
1
@Phil
This is true for all modern receivers, including car radios, GPS, police radios and the receivers in radio telescopes.
However, these receivers have shielding around around their oscillators to prevent interfering with other devices.
Sounds like bliss. Too bad I make my living in IT.
5
@hilliard Yeah, in the dirty mines of IT... funny how industries change everything!
I don't think the problem is the technology. It's what people do with the technology: surrendering to manipulated data vacuums like Facebook and Amazon and getting hit with hourly garbage dumps from the president of the United States on Twitter. Feel free to take that all away.
Just leave me with the ability to read the New York Times in an up-to-date paperless form while listening to WFMU, the world's greatest radio station, several hundred miles from the edge of its terrestrial broadcast signal.
18
@Pedro G. Agree! We must be able to use all the technology we develop to our best interests. We must not allow it to be demeaned.
1
We can choose to only use phones for specific purposes. I really like this story because if people feel envy, or nostalgia, perhaps then we can examine what we really get out of being plugged in all the time. Love!
7
Doesn't West Virginia market itself (with good reason, in my limited experience of the New River Gorge area) as "Almost Heaven"? Sounds to me as if you can leave out the "almost" in the quiet zone!
8
Yup - some people will just have to get used to the dark ages of wired Broad Band.
If you're old enough to remember terrestrial TV broadcasts instead of satellite and cable, you would be ecstatic about broadband in any form. Anyone that can get cable can have really fast BB and maybe, just maybe, families will actually talk to each other again over the dinner table and read books (you know, those paper things with great covers and printed words).
5
" Undistracted by technology, they laughed and maintained eye contact, a domestic scene they recognize as somewhat rare"
HA! This was where the article lost me. Big eye-roll.
16
@CJ same
5
Green Bank: The perfect site for a digital detox resort. Meet friendly residents and support a local economy. Throw in some farm-to-table cuisine and some hiking trails and I'll be there in a flash, once I get off my smartphone.
17
I am old enough to have grown up before computers of any kind and, believe me, I was just as obnoxious and eye-rolling to my parents as the kids of the today. My best friend and I would talk on our phones and gossip and complain. Granted there were not the dangers of cyber bullying but please don’t frame the pre-internet world as some kind of idyllic paradise.
22
Green Bank is living like we Boomers did in 9/10s of the 20th Century.
16
“I don’t like to keep my face in my phone all the time because I like to enjoy what’s in the moment.”
Wise words of mindfulness that escape most of us and is key to the quality of life
14
As a teacher, I immediately find myself wondering if the local schools are hiring.
Sounds like heaven on earth.
21
Guess you don’t have FedEx and UPS trucks running up and down the street(s) all day long which would be nice. What sounds good is no cellphone always in your hand. Maybe life isn’t so bad in Green Bank.
3
Hi,
Do cable and/or fiber optics count as radio interference?
I wouldn't think so since they do have land lines.
Of course, first someone has to pay to lay the cable.
1
@Jack Fibre ethernet is not a problem for the telescope. Cable can be problematic when it is poorly maintained but otherwise is not a problem. We do get the occasional noisy power pole as well.
2
Count your blessings.
You will be all the wiser.
F3
What a gorgeous slice of the past-in-present. Having watched scores of teens drown in the poisonous waters of social media--and few benefit from it, truly-- I envy this community and hope it can maintain its "no wireless" integrity. The rest of us don't even have the right to choose, though we're often told that we wouldn't deselect constant connection. The truth is more that we can't.
7
If there’s WiFi or not, you can choose to not use it. No one is forcing you to stare at your phone.
9
Not sure how the kids can declare that they are happier to not have something they've never experienced, but whatever. As someone who grew up in the 90s and avoided a high school experience inundated by the social catastrophe of Facebook -- sign me up.
4
@Mike The girl at the end of the article was from Connecticut, so not having a cell phone was new to her.
5
How about putting the telescope in a Faraday cage that only is open to the sky? I LOVE science research but when it seriously impacts the lives of people who were there first, I have some misgivings.
I am old enough to remember when "radio waves" meant the radio and television (no such thing as cable). Wireless phones were either imaginary, or extremely expensive and only available to the super-rich--the phone in the passenger compartment of the chauffeur-driven Rolls or stretch-limo.
The world wasn't a better place then.
Be careful about romanticizing cell signal dead zones! I live in one. There is nothing charming or romantic about having no way to call 911 in an emergency, when power is out and cable phone service along with it. AT&T stopped supporting land line infrastructure here some years ago (it seems that their current policy is to not restore lost service at all). Our DSL service (we were among the lucky few here who could get DSL) was always intermittent, so we switched to VOIP phone service. But that depends on the power lines. And they come down a lot, in winter.
15
@Passion for Peaches
Get yourself to a thrift store and buy an old analog phone--the kind with a dial or punch buttons. When the power goes out I switch out the phone to an old analog (Jacks interchangeable) and that works when newer landlines don't.
5
As a native Mountaineer, it is an awesome place! Great article, and I hope folks will visit. Not a hard drive, especially if you are a driving enthusiast! Last time there I passed and was passed by a lot of adventuring car owners.
11
The tool, or the technology, is not the problem. The problem is the lack of personal ethics, controls, and restraint in the use thereof. True of the internet, wi-fi, vehicles, telephones, and even guns. If those qualities are lacking due to age (young or old) illness (mental or physical), frustration with one's lot in life, or bad character, the tools and the technology weaponize the weakness.
24
@Janna
It is physiologically or psychologically unsound for human beings to be expected to practice constant vigilance 24/7 against risk, exploitation, danger etc. Such conditions are an experiment in stress and create expanding social, psychological and physical ills. To throw it back on personal ethics and self-restraint, is naive. Tools and tech don't weaponize weakness, they exploit common human nature on a broad scale that the individual is unprepared to counter day-in and day-out. Other societies purposefully "engineer" support of people along so many important measures as a counter the exploitation. Your confidence in this concept of a dichotomy of weakness vs strength (and where you see yourself falling on this continuum) is misplaced and again naive.
16
I'm not seeing this as nostalgia but as a model for signal-free "parks". Think of rural communities deciding they have "quiet" to offer. They could figure out what a "park overlay" looks like. A lot of people with money or skills, especially with kids, find the lifestyle attractive . . . And there's always connected broadband.
31
Excellent story
31
Slippin’ Jimmy McGill’s older brother Chuck from “Better Call Saul” was seen wandering the streets recently, happy to be free of the radiation.
21
A 500+ word article on nostalgia for the past, and wishing that the world would stop still. And the poppycock of " Undistracted by technology, they laughed and maintained eye contact, a domestic scene they recognize as somewhat rare"...was truly eye roll inducing.
26
@Ali- I completely disagree. These children sound much more self-aware (in a good way, intelligent and tuned into the real world than the average teenager. I would love to live in a quiet zone, as I am noise phobic. At 64, I've never owned a television. As an avid reader of books, I never feel bored.
I still have my landline but I do have a cell phone, which I turn off anytime I meeting with friends or at appointments. I usually forget to turn it back on for hours. I charge my phone at the opposite end of my apartment.
29
@Ali Did you really read the article? No one is Green Bank is pining for the world to stand still. As a native West Virginian, I am fully aware of the stereotypes of the state. People need to know that there are very bright kids all over our state doing the kinds of things these kids are doing in their robotics class. You may not choose to live in the same manner, but your reflexive dismissal of another more judicious approach to technology says more about you than it does about the residents of the town.
19
@Ali Is everybody welcome in this little town in W. VA? You know those that don't look like the folks in the photos.
7
Do they give a pass on radio frequency use to first responders, fire, police, search and rescue?
12
I’m sure there are exceptions for first responders and the telescope is set up to ignore those frequencies.
2
@L. W. They certainly do. Being fairly mountainous we use quite a low frequency compared with other areas.
4
Great. No childhood porn or bullying online. In my opinion, Facebook and the lake should be closed down less they can control content.
19
As a father of a 12 year old daughter living in an urban New England town, I so wish I could raise her in a setting such as Green Bank.
37
You want her to be completely unprepared for the world as it currently operates? Why?
6
@SB no smart phone. Just give her a flip phone. It will make a giant difference.
7
I have an unrealistic wish for such a telescope to be in the vicinity of the white house. It would force the president to read books and listen to people rather than tweet much like his predecessors.
104
@HR
You mean "It would force the president to learn how to read...", right?
17
The absence of legal transmitters int eh quit zone is not total. The National Science Foundation which funds NRAO and requested the Quiet Zone is also a good neighbor.
There is a ski resort in the quiet zone and the total absence of Wi-Fi and cellular put them at a competitive disadvantage with other resorts. NSF, NRAO and others worked together cooperatively to develop a limited special low power Wi-Fi and cellular system for this ski resort that was acceptable to all parties.
Kudos to NSF in recognizing the need to be a good neighbor and balance economic issues with protecting sensitive scientific issues. 20 year a NSF also allowed very carefully controlled sharing of 608-614 MHz, nominally TV channel 37, for medical telemetry in hospitals.
By contrast NASA generally refuses to discuss ANY sharing of passive spectrum it requested and objects to any changes of rule developed decades ago - independent of new technology and economic issues
See
https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/10/08/218976699/enter-the-quiet-zone-where-cell-service-wi-fi-are-banned
https://www.wvnews.com/at-t-solves-challenge-of-radio-quiet-zone-at-snowshoe/article_9eb9f6fc-7b1a-5728-8e47-32e7c5531c11.html
19
Give me a break. They have wired Internet so it's not like the ware cut off from the world.
4
I don't think they claimed to be. the just said that life is quieter, less distraction, and more interaction. I think there is something to be said for that.
10
@Grace It is probably the equivalent of the AOL days not really that great.
1
I’m confused. This is a radio quiet zone but the middle school was engaged in HAM radio operation. ???
6
@flatpick why not? As long as you stay within the band limits that is required within the quite zone and per the FCC there not a problem with Ham Radio in Green Bank.
5
@flatpick and this one "A few weeks later, they moved with their 13-year-old daughter, Jenna, from Connecticut into a cabin near Green Bank. The cabin has battery-powered LED lights, a wood-burning stove and no electricity or screens of any kind." duh
1
They are most likely to use only certain frequencies to transmit if allowed at all. Also you can use HAM radios to listen only, many broadcasters such as the BBC broadcast in the HF bands. Notice HAM is HF, not VHF (TV and radio broadcasts) or radar and microwave frequencies.
2
This article reads like someone's grandparents ranting about how "things used to be". That's great that they want to live in the past. They're welcome to it.
11
I find all it takes to have a much happier life is to never consume the mainstream media.
They are always hyping some nonsense to trick you into watching them and inflating their own importance and pushing their insane liberal agenda.
Life is good. And better without them!
31
It is shocking how much ‘big news’ we can do without. I used to listen to Rachel Maddow podcasts up until the mueller report. I realized this massive, historic event was actually nothing. Then I was surprised how much I didn’t miss it at all. Seems like a wonderful women. But we don’t need that much hysteria.
2
@George Orwell I was fine with your comment until "liberal agenda". I guess you never heard of FOX TV. I wonder why you were so inclined to make an otherwise reasonable statement into a political one.
38
@George Orwell Thank you for your participation in civil discourse enabled by the NYT, a mainstream publication and one of the most venerable in our nation's history! To me, it is a shame though that you bring unnecessary and negative partisanship into such exchange. Thank you, however, for the irony of your comment at which I chuckled. The NYT is trying to build respectful exchange amongst many. Maybe you could try harder to do that in a positive sense next time. You could help us all improve our world's empathy and understanding. Sans insults and partisanship.
48
This sounds too good to be true, but it must be true.
Hands up, everybody who wants your kids to have exactly this kind of childhood, learning to value in-person interactions and real-life experiences. Just about everyone, right? Well, you can't have that — because then Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and Sergei Brin might not be quite as staggeringly rich. And in today's neofeudal America, making sure our billionaire ruling class gets constantly richer is much, much more important than everybody else's kids having a balanced life.
26
@JL Williams I would love for my grandchildren to have a life like this but I looked up the demographics of the town and I would be afraid for their safety in a town that has no diversity.at.all. Have to wonder if they would be welcomed there.
3
It’s a great opportunity for someone to study quality of life/happiness index vs. all of us staring at our screens 24/7–everything all the time.
8
OMG this place sounds AWESOME!!!
They should re-invent themselves as a luxury vacation destination...tons of people wanting to detox from the internet would flock there.
I don't even feel the need to detox from the internet, but I would go there anyway.
2 things:
1. Why buy an iphone for a girl for Christmas who can't use it?
2. Is there a REAL library where knowledge can be be achieved and the vastness of the internet can be accessed? Ten miles isn't that far. How about a free and frequent Library Shuttle to take people to somewhere where the internet is possible.
It's obvious that the citizens of this haven are not cut off from the digital world. They have various social media accounts they check, when possible. The beautiful thing is that they are not obsessed with them.
Full disclosure: I think it should be illegal for anyone under the age of 15 to have a cell phone. Like cigarettes and drinking - even voting! - certain things are better kept out of the hands of minors. Children do not need "social" media. They need more trees to climb.
26
@Nadia "1. Why buy an iphone for a girl for Christmas who can't use it?"
But they're so cheap, aren't they? :-)
Yes, I too had the same reaction.
Greenbank and the surrounding areas are some of the most beautiful and untainted by commercialism or what some call progress. My wife and I were fortunate enough to purchase several tracts of land in Pocahontas County and love traveling and staying there. So nice to unplug and unwind and get back to basics that enrich us instead of diminishing us with constant notifications or media.
14
For all the wonderful benefits the Internet and computing technology has given us I'd like to give 90% of it back, starting with smart phones.
13
For all those that read the article and wish the world can be like Green Bank why not try living in isolation, no electricity, no stores, and growing/gathering/hunting your own food. Green Bank sounds like a nice place for the isolated few however most of OUR world and even the world of Green Bank relies of modern technology. They may not have wifi or cell signal but most of their way of life has been improved upon or updated from the development of radio signals. Don't be so quick to think you can survive this way.
3
@Mark W , not sure where you got the idea Green Bank has no stores or electricity? One family moved there and uses no electricity by their own choice but the area does have stores, paved roads and indoor plumbing too! Although I do recognize a lot of benefits of wifi and cell availability, why put them down for showing the positives of living without them?
4
I love the photo of the radio telescope in the field. The composition reminds me of an Andrew Wyeth image. Makes me wonder how he would paint our technology landscapes now?
My question to the reporters. How free the surrounding area is from noise pollution? Is this area free from air traffic noise?
Rox of Spazhouse, Intuitive Research and Design
8
@Roxanne Henkle Not completely free of the sound of aircraft but it is rare. In general it is very quiet, especially compared to living in London.
4
This is me!! We live in a gulch and high speed internet is around the corner. We have one broadband company, a monopoly, and our service is awful.
Cell phones don't work here. You should see the confusion that causes. No matter how many times you tell people "We don't get text messages, unless we go to town." They still try to reach us by text.
We can't reliably stream movies. Oftentimes its so slow, I just stop and give up to try again another day.
It would be nice to have better connection.
However, parents can put a ban on screen time. We had one hour a day. Parents can demand that phones be put away, or thrown away.
We have a world class view, and hundreds of acres of BLM land at our back.
12
We're conducting a big experiment on our kids, raising them with dual citizenship in the real world and the virtual world.
They live so much of their lives in the virtual world that their skills for living in the real world have atrophied. It's no wonder that their stress levels are so high and unhappiness is on the rise.
160
excellent, proactive
3
Do you think people use technology such as cell phones because they are addicted to it, or more so they get addicted to it because of other reasons? I do not know the answer to this myself. I would just like to explore a different possible explanation.
3
@Tom Wanamaker
Does stress come from the simple act of using technology, or is it that so many voices in the virtual world promote anxiety?
6
I just want to say my tech loving NYC teen is an awesome conversationalist who makes and keeps steady eye contact when conversing, even if they just put their iPhone done when they start talking. They are like that because we parents have nurtured the art of meal time talk and conversation generally from the time they started speaking as part of our family culture. Can't blame it all on tech - and I say that as about the most anti-tech parent you will find.
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@DairyFreeIsMe I often observe that the parents are the worst offenders.
15
@RP I agree. Simple test: Count the fraction of those on their cell phones next time you are at a dark movie theater. Screens too bright. Phones not set on vibrate/silent. Mostly adults. Mostly adults who grew up in a world without cell phones!
5
I grew up in the sixties, and not only were we fine without the internet, we are better for not having had it. What would happen if the internet crashed tomorrow? I would be able to survive without it, but the majority wouldn't even be able to find their way around without their GPS.
25
"....so large that it requires near radio silence to operate,..."
The reason it needs radio silence is because it looks for very weak signals. That is also the reason it is large.
Internet:
Wireless internet is the usual last stage in a distribution system using optical fibers and copper cables. But it is not required. You can still plug the internet into your computer using a cable and it is potentially faster that way, not slower. Many rural areas have no broadband (except for satellite, which is expensive), and it has to do with the lack of fiber or cable in the area and the size of the potential market.
14
@Mike Sulzer Just curious. Does the Arecibo telescope have a "quiet zone"?
1
@Tom Yesterday
Arecibo has only a "coordination zone" so that new construction of transmitting facilities is somewhat controlled or at least discussed. Also transmitting towers cannot be constructed within a few mile radius of the observatory, but there is no restriction on cell phones and wireless except on observatory property.
Interesting article; I had heard about the Quiet Zone from the McElroy’s Adventure Zone: Amnesty, so it was interesting to hear from people who live there.
I think one thing that’s easy to overlook in our eagerness to praise “the good old days” is how isolating this would be for kids who didn’t fit in - especially LGBTQ+ kids. For a lot of people living in small communities the internet has been a window to a bigger and more diverse world, a way of finding out that they’re not alone and there are more ways to live your life. When the internet is that slow and it’s in the living room, I can only imagine how much harder it must be to ask those scary questions.
26
I am a scientist working at the Observatory. My family and I moved to Green Bank more than 25 years ago (initially for just one year) and decided to stay for the quality of life. What you have to understand is that we do have phone service, and we do have broadband internet service through our phone company. The only difference is that it is wired, not wireless. When I travel to most places in the US today it breaks my heart to see parents ignoring their children, and children glued to their own devices. The problem is not the internet, it's when it goes wireless.
355
@Jay L. Point well taken. I remember in graduate school having to use hardwired Ethernet in my dorm building to access online resources. There was a definite start and stop time, and students physically disengaged when neded and got back into study groups or went to the library. We all were excited when iPods came out for music, then Palm Pilots. That was the beginning of the descent into chaos.
57
I also spent a lot of time at the Observatory but have never lived there. For me, one important delight was being close to nature and away from the rapidly expanding electronics associated with not living in Green Bank. It is a step backward in time and, I'd suppose, a satisfying one for those who live there. Over the decades, the observatory has changed greatly: from a beehive of new telescopes and astronomical electronics and large staff in the 1960s to the simplicity of one --- albeit huge---telescope of today.
13
@Jay L. Since you live there I would love to know if all people are welcome to live in Green Bank? I looked up the demographics which is why I'm asking.
8
This may sound idyllic but it is difficult to function in modern society without reliable, fast internet or cell phone service. Trying to operate a business, interact with an office, or even do homework is tough. We lived here before the dawn of the internet, and have no options other than expensive, slow, satellite service with data rationing. Fortunately we can afford it. I do appreciate that my kids grew up to be patient and resourceful, but they sure were happy to “get wired” when they left for college.
11
@Elizabeth We have excellent high-speed internet in North Central West Virginia. I live in the Quiet Zone, though outside the 10 mile heart of it. "Modern society" here in WV still means tight family and community bonds, even if those bonds are now made through Facebook.
It's hard to imagine a life without Wi-Fi and cell service. The next thing you know kids will be going outside to play. :-)
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@Bill B
Fresh air and exercise - there's goes the market for Adderall.
11
That area truly is a time warp. This article reminded me of my own childhood in the 60s where the outdoors was magical. We read or played board games when it rained and of course were outside all day when it snowed or during the summer. TV was a night time activity and only for a short while. I wonder if any kid nowadays would be mystified by a pollywog?
104
@MJ I grew up around the same time and was similarly enchanted by nature. Still am.
Having lived before, during, and after the great digital revolution and having availed myself of, and enjoyed, much of what tech has to offer, I can say with certainty that the non digital life beats the digital one, hands down.
Wouldn’t mind a telescope like that in my neighborhood
2
I'm surprised that being proximate to a world-class scientific research facility doesn't afford the residents of Greenbank better (wired) internet connectivity.
10
@William Wroblicka Laying cable lines is extremely expensive.
1
@Stephen
I thought we were the richest country in the world... Oh, that's right. Only 1% of US is...
the rest of us, no health care, no infrastructure improvements. Too expensive.
7
@William Wroblicka Areas that are home to 143 people often have that problem. Providing internet service is expensive, and the less people you have, the less financially feasible it is for a company to make any profit.
3
Being born in the late 70s I remember getting the internet in my late teens, first cell in my 20s, and what life was like before those technologies were omnipresent. I also remember the transition when older folks rung their hands about how addicted to phones we genX were becoming. And now I worry about how both my teen nieces and my mother are glued to these handheld screens.
Life was less convenient in the 80s and 90s. If you didn’t know something, you could go on not knowing, read a book, or maybe ask your Dad. There was a lot of conjecture and unquestioned half baked notions. Now, thanks to the internet, we are clearly protected from misinformation. But don’t worry, if you don’t know something, you will soon be so distracted and forget.
All this to say reading this article took me back. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I envy these folks living real lives. I assume the focus they bring to their activities will make them valuable members of society.
15
@John ..."Now,thanks to the internet,we are clearly protected from misinformation." Are you serious ?
19
@John. "Now, thanks to the internet, we are clearly protected from misinformation."
I do hope you were being sarcastic (as I listen to the President of the United States spout lies about the threat of a possible pandemic because of his "hunch.")
3
Maybe we need more radio-wave blackout zones! I use a cell phone sometimes, the internet to read news, and otherwise live DIY like the people in this community. I like to travel this way, too--There's nothing quite like using a map, my wits and tips from local people, to explore a rural or wilderness area. No robotic GPS jabbering about turns, nothing between me and my binoculars to distract from birds and wildlife, and the ability to enjoy time with my traveling companions, too. Note that the kids in this community have opportunities to work on science projects related to this magnificent telescope, still go to school and aspire to college—so it’s not limiting them. I live in the epicenter of the “silicon rainforest” which often feels like “me-ville”, where too many have constructed the perfect delivery service life, where no interaction with humans is necessary! How refreshing to live your own life and be around others who do too—instead of mainly watching other people live via social media and the internet.
23
The internet was a lifeline for me. I'm a millennial who grew up in a rural community much larger than the one in the article, but still a small town. While being off the grid can be great for people who fit in well with their peers and family, it wasn't so great for me. Having access to the internet opens kids up to more extensive bullying, but it can also open up lifelines for LGBTQ youth, kids questioning their religious upbringing, etc. It let me know I wasn't alone.
208
@MichelleSmith- It seems to me that a lot of pressure on LGBT people comes from on-line bullying.
2
@Michelle Smith Yes, thank you! Sometimes a place isn't a utopia that needs curtains... it's a prison that needs light through the bars.
7
@Michelle Smith True, many people get a lot of positive support and content from the internet. What would be interesting is a definitive evaluation of the good vs. the bad.
4
I am 87 years old. I would love to live there, to just shut off the noise... completely silence the meaningless chatter.
I probably feel this way because I have heard it all, from all sides, and have leaned, from the passage of time and events, that none of it had meant anything worth hearing;.
But you have to have put in many years before you can credibly make such a statement.
Silence is precious, for those with the inner resources to truly appreciate it.
131
@Skeptic Ya don't have to live there to get peace and quiet from the internet. Just turn it off once in awhile and read a book or go for a walk without the phone. Or don't pay your cable or phone bill. Voila! You are living the dream of radio silence.
5
I live in the city with a super internet and wi-fi. I leave my phone home all the time. Sometimes I just forget, and others it is deliberate, or a concious decision. The first feww times you WILL have anxiety and withdrawal. But each time it gets easier. With all the cell phone spying apps I am about to go back to a very simple cell phone that just makes calls. No voicemail, no apps, no music, no ability to watch streaming web sites and no ability to text. Now I can survive. I am used to doing without. Just listen to what people are talking about like at a Starbucks. Vapid ignorant social media junk. Or what you will see is people who NEVER even look up from their laptops. I can do without those people, especially thiose that want to look so self important, of which there are many trying to be trendy, cool and in play. It would take a little bit for me to adapt, but I know I could.
18
Scientists should use this place as a control for studying the health risks associated with EMF radiation, including DNA damage, neurological disease, cancer, ADD, and others.
56
@Horace I was thinking the same thing.
1
@Horace There are actual health risks? You mean those who have fled to the Quiet Zone as EMF refugees aren't just 'claiming' to be ill to get attention? I mean, aren't we all just clamoring to have a rare illness that makes it impossible to navigate modern society? Tinfoil hats are so flattering, so shiny, so much better what's on the runways this season...(my electro-sensitive tongue is planted firmly in cheek).
1
What's sad is this is now considered "unique," when it's really the way most people reading this story grew up.
69
Now we have an automatic control group, whenever they get around to studying the effects that 5G has on the rest of the world.
35
@Jay Becks Great idea..... There is considerable concern among scientists about 5G exposure.
2
From the article: “I live in the sticks,” Brycen said. “You can find a lot of interesting things when you just walk 20 feet out in the woods.”
That isn’t just an idea. It’s the opinion and perception of a human MIND that is still connected to how things used to be, before universal WiFi, etc...distracted us all from former everyday reality.
We should all be thankful that due to an fortuitous set of circumstances re: family value and influences, that young minds can still express such perceptions....
32
What refreshing article to read! For the longest time I did not have a cell phone. We've not had a physical TV in the house for years. And I was ridiculed by friends and acquaintances with the question, "What century do you live in?" Well, whether I live in dinosaur century or not, what did people before the internet? We talked by phone or in person, we took walks outside and had conversations. I miss those days. At the same time, I love my MacBook air; it's my eyes and ears to the world.
16
I wish we had more zones like this across the United States. I would not object to being not connected 24/7/365. Whenever we cruise the first thing we must adjust to is that unless you signed up for the Internet service on board (which is terribly expensive and notoriously slow) we begin to live again like we used before almost total connectivity. And we don't miss it! We put our cell phones away and don't pick them up until 3-7 weeks later.
It's a great relief. Returning home we're bombarded with messages, missed calls, emails and other unnecessary electronic notices. Yet somehow our lives went on without all this.
The other day one of our home service providers began a fusillade of messaging directed toward us. After a couple of days we put them on notice; Stop the electronic messaging and just do services we contracted for. No more cell calls, emails, texts or demands to connect with their webpages. We advised that if they wanted to contact us, stop by and knock at the door. We're retired and can easily be found. We're doing this with more and more service providers.
Regular mail and contact with real human beings is more important than electronic messaging of every type. It is less intrusive, less demanding and lets us live in peace. A regular phone call now and then is also ok. I think we're also going to disconnect from cable TV. As kids in upstate NY we got two channels broadcast terrestrially. It worked. Life was good. TV was just black and white.
7
It seems as though their internet access is limited to dial-up, if I'm inferring the description of slow service correctly. The requirements of radio silence should have inspired broadband fiber to be run to these homes. The students are being penalized by the lack of broadband.
3
@Tom Wild Not enough paying customers to make it profitable.
"We’re related to people who tend not to come visit because the teenagers are stressed out too much about not being on wireless.” How true. I've had relatives come visit and the first thing their teenagers want to know is what my wifi code is. I have made them very angry by refusing to tell them, on the grounds that I like to interact with my visitors.
Apparently being connected all the time to distant friends means you never pay attention to present ones.
231
Great idea
7
@S North
I wonder how many of these teenagers are "voluntary" visitors & how many have been dragged along by their parents. You don't say if you've any teenagers yourself. I remember from my teenage years having to go on visits when I was the only child. That's almost 60 years ago & the awfulness of some of these visits is still with me. If only wifi had been available to me then perhaps I wouldn't think so ill of some of the people I was forced to visit.
18
I was hoping for an article discussing the science of the telescope (tell me more about this weird metal box used to prevent signals!) or perhaps the hardships of leaving this small town for college (how does college feel for these kids?) and not something more akin to "look at how better life is when kids live without phones!" The article covers some of the issues because of the lack of signal, but it mostly lauds the idea that these kids use their phones for just calculators and don't live like their peers. It just feels more like a grandpa ranting about how things were better in his age than a NYT article. How is a cell phone preventing kids from climbing trees and working on cars? Why not discuss more about how hard it is for these young adults to enter the real world where it's important to know how to use this technology? Disappointing.
72
@MND
A Faraday cage is just a mesh of metal wires. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation, so they interact with electrical conductors. If the mesh is fine enough (depending on the wavelength of the radio waves), it effectively dissipates the radio waves so that they can't pass through it.
33
@MND Dear MND: You ask "How is a cell phone preventing kids from climbing trees and working on cars?" I think the answer is that the cellphone poses a huge distraction; a frequent interruption. Just the other day, I left my cell phone home by mistake. (It functions both as my personal and my business phone.) By the time I had returned home, I had been suffering from a certain level of anxiety, but I had accomplished a good deal more of my work than I had anticipated. I think it was the absence of interruptions. And I could have taken time to climb a tree!
80
@MND Enter the "real world??" "You mean the world of cyber bullying and shaming? Nah. These kids have been given a GREAT GIFT; the development of character without criticism from social media platforms. As a high school librarian, I can't tell you the number of times a misunderstanding has grown into a full scale social media campaign between a couple of kids, leading to physical fights off campus. Believe me, when these children graduate and go to college or work, they will be brought up to speed real fast. I hope they will make good decisions on "important technology" (what does that even mean?) to incorporate into their lives, and not be a slave to their phones.
They aren't missing a thing.
35
We live on a 5-acre farm in rural Michigan. Before relocating here seven years ago, we confirmed we'd have access to high-speed Internet, which had just been made available a couple of weeks prior. Without the Internet, we said, we would not make an offer.
Today, I wonder why that was so important. Yes, I appreciate the access to Netflix and cable news and I read most of my news (including the Times) online. I pay all my bills and correspond with friends online.
That said, the idea of a life off grid is a romantic notion I gave up when we moved to an Internet-connected rural community. Many folks here have chosen to live a quieter life without the Internet and seem, I must say, much the happier for it.
47
@Melinda You can't miss what you don't know. They don't know what they're missing. And I, like you, write this comment via an online subscription.
1
@Ann Oh, for heaven's sake. They have internet, just not wireless. Everyone stop fretting.
3
@MWI "Many folks here have chosen to live a quieter life without the Internet..."
Phone or No Phone, Wi-fi or No Wi-fi. This is probably the hardest question in front of the parents of teenagers.
We certainly know that Phone has an advantage as a parent. With a phone, you can know what your children are and safe or not. In case of an emergency, they can contact you immediately. With phone, your children would not be isolated from their friends and classmates. They need to know what happened to their friends in order to be social.
We also certainly know that Phone could be evil something. To be clear, it is not the phone, but the People connected by it. As a parent, you so worried about who your child is talking to, which video he/she is watching now, which website he/she is browsing. Something you wish there is no phone or no Internet. Why not just books?
So then what we should do? Set the boundary, when your child can use it or not. But this is probably the hardest decision that parents would need to make, and wisely.
17
@Chris B As a sailor and a hunter, I am out in the middle of the Chesapeake or hidden up in the mountains of Virginia. Do I get a signal? Not on your life. And without a signal you cant do much of anything. One thing you can do is to download all your music and use your iPhone as a iPod of years ago. Those Palo Alto frekazoids must never ever get away to an area without any signal what so ever. As their software does not take into consideration you wil not get any signal. Note: download any and all music, but also keep it in the cloud. That way you can atleast use your phone for music. With Airplane mode you know that eventually you wil get a signal back. But sailing to Bermuda you will not be able to use it for days! Trying to find out how best to use your cell phone on the sellers/manufacturers/providers web site is near impossible. The most important reason to use a cell phone for me is to contact emergency services.
3
@Chris B I think that constant access to parents is not healthy, actually. We were just as safe before cell phones when we were kids (and the crime rate was a lot higher then).
1
Yes, I read another article about years ago. But for my complaining about technology, considering that at the tender age of 55 I am not addicted to my laptop (which I am writing this on) and my cell phone, both using my house's wifi, I don't know if I could "step back in time" for very long. But one can hope...
1
Retired and at the age of 67, I recently got my first cell phone. It's a track phone and I have probably used it a half dozen times since I got it a few months ago. I use a land line at home. I keep road maps in my car. I am trying to limit my internet time and this article is inspiring me to work harder at that. I am reading more. I am spending more time walking my dog. Basically, I am returning to the world of my youth and it feels wonderful.
138
@Deb I too am recently retired. I carry a cell phone for safety reasons but I never answer it when out. I treat it a a landline that I will check when I return home. For many years I lived in communities w/o service so it is foreign to me to use a cell as more than a phone.
Since retirement I am doing my art more; engaging with my dogs and also other people more; reading more; beginning to actually cook more. You are so right about returning to the world. And I would add also returning to oneself.
Thank you so much for your comment.
28
@Deb I too am retired and 67. I have had a cell phone for longer than you for one simple reason. I literally can get lost walking around the block. I am in love with Waze and Google Maps so that I can get to wherever I am trying to go.
Other than that, though, I keep my phone on silent. It is for my convenience. Like you, I am spending more time reading and playing with my dog. I know my neighbors now. That's nice.
9
@Jennifer I have gotten lost too. Sirie helped me out. Safety is important to me too. It seems we have a retired society of 3 just here on the NYT's comments!
6
Our children were raised in the Catskill mountains in Upstate New York. No cell service and, for most of their lives, no reliable internet either. They didn't get cell phones (which they used only when travelling) until they were 16.
I think we were very lucky!
104
My parents moved to Greenbank with my siblings in the mid 1960's. They grew up there while i did not. It really created a barrier between us in that we lacked the common experiences of TV and radio. They had no TV channels and little radio reception. One doesn't realize how central these things are to conversation until you meet people who have not experience with the popular culture of the day.
The Observatory used the first steerable telescope, a small one, to track down sources of interference. If a farmer had a tractor with a noisy ignition, they would track him down and add noise filters. If someone had a noisy microwave, they would find them.
Someone should run an optical fiber network in Greenbank. It is a beautiful place, but I would never want to live there.
26
@David Henderson I have been noticing the same lack of common experiences lately. People can watch what they want, and listen to what they want, when they want to on their phones, or watch shows on their 300+ satellite service. They don't have the common experience of radio and television that the over 30 population had growing up. We have the equivalent to Greenbank because there are too many choices.
33
@David Henderson
As someone that lives in this area I can tell you that the slow internet isn't due to the telescope but due to the phone company not investing in upgrades for the rural area. Another company came to the area and used funds during the Obama era to lay fiber. As a result, we have fast speeds with no need for landline unless your phone doesn't support wifi calling. Another company arrived a few years back and at our local ski area, and the speeds are good there as well. There are most likely some area pockets that don't have these options (most likely the case for the family in the article). Isn't that the case with many areas? As for the phone service via a cell tower. I'm happy not to have it as it prevents all those spam calls. :)
14
@David Henderson I find there's something sad about a culture in which 'common experiences' are mostly related to mass media.
14