Has recent technology improved your life?

[Kimby]

Most of us will immediately think "yes", but I'm beginning to question some of the advances of the past several decades.

This came about as I dug through 30-year-old journals (to find out where we stayed when we last visited the Grand Teton National Park) to settle an argument with my husband/hiking partner. Naturally I couldn't just read the pertinent entries, I had to read a whole year's worth of writings by my 30 year younger self.

I was struck by how much I used to get done in those days, how many fully "from scratch" homecooked meals I used to make, how many classes I took for fun - pottery, natural dye-making, stained glass, country swing dancing, how many movies we went to in theaters etc. - and mostly, how much time I spent entertaining and being entertained by a multitude of friends and acquaintances.

I don't do any of that today. It's not just a difference of less energy than I had when I was 25. A big factor is modern technology. Specifically the device I am at this moment tapping away at!

VCRs and now DVDs and BluRay players have made movie theaters irrelevant, email has killed the personal letter, cell phones have almost killed conversations between two people in the same room, as one is almost certain to have to interrupt the conversation to answer a call or return a text.

"Convenience" foods and carry outs have made homecooked meals a rarity, food cooking in a microwave doesn't scent the house like food in the oven, kids are growing up not knowing how to cook (as opposed to warming already prepared foods).

It's discouraging. Am I a luddite? Am I the only luddite?

[Kimby]

Coincidentally a friend sent me this today:

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'computering',
And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick....
I was just admiring my work.

I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site.
That I got SO way into it.
I was into it all night.

Nothing's changed except my mouse
It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess...
While I sit here on my hiney.

[Deleted]

In the big cities at least, movie theatres are not yet irrelevant, but I understand your point on that.

I would say what upsets me the most in daily life -- and perhaps even more so due to living in France, which has a reputation for good food -- is watching at the supermarket all of the ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL CRAP that so many of the people are buying -- frozen pizzas, fish sticks, pre-grated carrots -- you know what I mean.

These people are not improving their lives. They are just making more time to post on stupid internet forums! ..... uh ..... oops.

[Kimby]

Irrelevant was probably not the best word to choose. But for some of us, the VCR gave us an opportunity to get away from sticky floors, rump sprung theater seats, the kid kicking the back of our seat, and the noisy crunching of popcorn, and we never looked back. 30 years ago I went to a movie every week. Now I can't tell you the last time I was in a movie theater. Maybe when Ben Hur was released in surround-sound?

[lagatta]

I do go to the cinema still, but because I have cinemas easily accessible that aren't as you describe, and it is a social outing.

The major problem with new technologies is that for many of us, there is no longer any distinction between work and non-work. I'm still studying a work-related thing, and also looking at the computer.

I never buy ready-meals though. It is far too important for me to control what goes into the dish.

Kimby, not the meals, but I think some of the other decline in number of activities you observe is age-dependent. Middle-aged people simply have less energy than very young people. I could stay out till all hours, work on an alternative newspaper, and work all day the next day.

[Kimby]

Even the meals relate to energy level, perhaps especially the meals. Harder to think of spending an hour on my feet in the kitchen, concocting a dish that requires a side of 50-minute long-grain rice, when there are 90 second microwave rice "creations" available....

And I could use those other 48 minutes on here!

[Deleted]

I agree that a lot of the cooking shortcuts are an improvement, just like the discovery of fire.

I was taken slightly aback today listening to the radio. France is in the process of voting a carbon tax, which will go into effect in January. The price of gasoline, gas, and many other things (almost certainly airline tickets) will go up once again due to the tax. However, everybody will receive a carbon check as well, so if you didn't spend money on gasoline or the other stuff, it means that the other taxpayers are paying you for your virtue. (Rural people who are obliged to drive receive bigger checks than urban people, just to get that question out of the way.)

Anyway, this is causing a lot of discussion and comment obviously, and one thing that the specialists were saying was that home delivery was one of the very best things that people can do to reduce their carbon imprint. For example, one person delivering 20 pizzas to different addresses pollutes a lot less than 20 people driving to get a pizza. Same for grocery deliveries and most other things.

I have never liked home delivery, but this has caused me to reconsider my position on the subject.

[lagatta]

Well, you and I live in densely-populated urban areas and can damned well walk or cycle to get groceries or takeaway food.

There are few decent delivery pizzas anyway (and the ones I've had in France are certainly nothing wonderful).

Another big carbon saving is having smaller grocery shops in neighbourhoods rather than hypermarkets most people have to drive to, this despite the trucks delivering to the grocery shops. I like to see what I'm buying. But I can see the benefit of delivery for people who have difficulty walking or carrying heavy groceries or who have a family and are bringing in large quantities.

I'd love a delivery scheme for cat litter!

Internet and smaller computers have made it much more easy for me to travel, as I can take work with me and clients may not even know that I'm sending it in from a continent away...

[Deleted]

One of the major developments in France over the past several years has been a pick-up system at all of the hypermarkets. People choose all of the items that they want on the internet and then just go and pick everything up an hour later. People with small children appreciate this very much since most people know the nightmare of kids going wild in a big store. In the cities, people often just get their order delivered because there is no fee if you spend at least 50 euros. Out in less populated areas, people usually go and get the stuff themselves because they generally have other errands to run in the local shopping gallery or town centre.

[chexbres]

lagatta - do you have a sort of "animal store", where you can buy everything you need? If so, you might be able to sign up for delivery of cat litter and food. If you spend a certain amount, the delivery is often free.
I've had to resort to this, since the food my dog needs isn't sold anywhere nearby.

[chexbres]

I am besieged by spammers and phishers, now
Made the mistake of logging in at a cafe before I had internet access...
The electric company has no record of my contract, though I have received 8 messages from "someone" saying that I have one.
Now have to start all that over again.

So, a big fat "NO" to the premise that recent technology has made my life easier!

[Deleted]

Phishing is just the new version of those old mail campaigns "You have won $1,000,000!"

[rikita]

i don't think i could say that technology made my life better or worse, it just made it different - and since i only know the life i have, i can't say in itself what is better. of course i remember the time before i used the internet (that is, the time until i was 19 or 20) or before i had a mobile phone (so, my early 20s) or a smartphone (so until about four years ago), but other aspects of my life were different then, too, so it isn't a direct comparison. in the end it is up to everyone what they make out of it ... like, without this technology, some might have spent the day watching TV instead of online, without ready-made meals they might just eat bread with butter every day ... and other people still go out and are active, and cook (and look online for new inspiration for places to go or new dishes to prepare) ...

i do think i spend too much time online, at the same time i enjoy it, and apart from forums and flickr i read the newspaper, write my journal and my stories on the computer, edit photos ... without it, i'd probably read more books, and buy the newspaper (which would be good for the journalists), i'd have to hand write though, and thus might be less inclined to edit and re-read my stories ... my view of other cultures would probably be (even) more clichéd and influenced by what the papers here say, without regular contact to people from all over the world through forums - of course there's traveling, but i'd have to rely on printed guide books when deciding where to go, booking accomodation would be more complicated ... on the other hand, i might still be carrying photo albums of my travels to my friends, rather than sending them links to my flickr album, which they usually don't look at ...

[Deleted]

1. The food thing is my biggest pet peeve. WTH? I saw frozen plain steamed rice the other day. It takes 15 minutes to cook, and costs 1/18th of the cost of the "convenience" food, with all of its packaging. The meat in prepared meals tastes disgusting. And as for the rest of the ingredients…

2. I'm sad that people can't walk down the street, sit in a coffee shop, ride on the bus, without staring at their damn phones. And don't get me started on the instagramming of one's restaurant meal.

3. However… I only ever had a cheap crap phone, but about two months ago I was given a cast-off iphone by a friend's 13 year-old daughter who was trading up to some Android or other. Well, during this time with my father it was a life saver. I was able to phone people from his bedside, make tearful calls in the hallway, read him Rudyard Kipling stories off of it, and contact or text people when I needed things. I'm able to get a taxi much easier now, can deposit photos of cheques to my bank account, and put my train tickets on it. I'll just have to make sure, from here on in, the thing doesn't control my life.

[onlyMark]

The problem with convenience food is that we all have our own line drawn as to what is and what isn't it. I've bought in the past Uncle Ben's part cooked rice in a bag and put it in the microwave to go with a tin of baked beans. After all, tins of food that has already been cooked is also done for convenience, no?
Then I remember regularly having steak and veg cooked and wrapped in a convenient container made out of pastry. Some may say then a Cornish Pasty is a convenience food. It certainly was for the tin miners.
This is the point, how much are you prepared to make things from scratch and how far will you go in the chain of buying raw, preparing, cooking and combining into a meal and at which point do you say it is a convenience food? Packets of peeled potatoes? Ready cooked chicken?
Pre-prepared frozen meals can be god send to people in some situations but I think having pre-peeled oranges in a packet are certainly too far.

[Kimby]

I'd be happier about convenience food if I thought it was nutritious. Or at least not unhealthful. It's too easy to eat stuff that doesn't really sustain life.

[rikita]

thing is though, the people who buy it are unlikely to eat healthily if it didn't exist, they might just have a bag of potato chips for dinner, then, or get food at mcdonalds ... and i at least hope some of it is nutritious, like the soups i sometimes buy (in a glass jar, so i just pour them in a pot and warm then) ... and then sometimes i have unhealthy convenience food like frozen pizza or instant milk rice etc. because i like it ... and i just don't enjoy standing in the kitchen, much, and have so many other things that have to get done ... if it wasn't for the family, i might also just microwave a big potato and have some tsatsiki with it, probably not the most healthy either ...

[onlyMark]

Jan 5, 2017 23:50:55 GMT rikita said:

i have unhealthy convenience food like frozen pizza

Dr. Oetker often taste good.

[rikita]

they do ... i don't think they are particularly nutritious though - and they have quite a few calories ... but yeah, some of then taste quite nice ...

[Deleted]

I'm glad that paper airline tickets have disappeared -- one fewer thing to lose.

[lagatta]

Yes, but I always have a lingering fear that they won't let me on the plane.

Dr Oetker are remarkably good for "corporate" frozen pizzas. I doubt a homemade organic one would have fewer calories. I'm going to try making one with leeks this evening (I have the dough made ahead).

[bixaorellana]

Ha, LaGatta ~ I have that same fear!

I don't understand all the talk of convenience foods in this thread, as they can hardly be considered "recent technology".

[Deleted]

Recent techology in food would be molecular gastronomy…

[bixaorellana]

Here -- eat the rest of my foam. I'm too full to finish it.

[Deleted]

Thanks, but my melon caviar spheres were more than enough for me.

[bixaorellana]

And the video ends with the word "enjoy".

Sheesh. If that doesn't make you want to go into the kitchen and whip up a nice meatloaf, nothing will.

[lagatta]

I have friends in Catalonia where that trend began - and no, they don't eat that stuff at all. They eat perfectly normal and very good food.

[Deleted]

Molecular food is already finished and the related restaurants have closed. We have moved on to "superfoods."

[onlyMark]

Mentioning technology with food -
"Chilean-based start-up Not Company is already using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop plant-based alternatives to animal products, such as milk, cheese and eggs.
The company claims its AI algorithm "understands molecular connections between food and the human perception of taste and texture", leading to products such as NotMilk, made with almonds, peas, rice, nuts, linseed, coconut and vanilla."

www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/88093154/forget-kale-and-chia-seeds-these-are-the-new-superfoods-for-2017

[bjd]

The US got there first with their "butter" substitute: