This is just bullshit, fucking propaganda by the manufacturing companies. PCs are a mature market, and mature markets don't grow exponentially like younger ones do. The mobile-toy craze will halt, sooner or later, and then the corporations will try to sell you some other "hi-tech" "easy" and "trendy" shit like smartwatches, wearable computing and whatnot.

It's all useless shit, if you ask me. And PCs are here to stay. Forever :-P

I don't have a smartphone and won't buy my kids one either. I told them if they need to reach someone call them with the little flip-phone and if they want to play games use their computer, at home, during free time.

I recently met up with a cousin I haven't seen in 15 years. We only had about 5 hours to spend together before him and his fiance had to hit the road. About 10 min. after meeting up with them I stopped talking and just sat there not saying a word and not responding. When they asked me what was wrong I politely asked both of them to put their smartphones away and quit Face-planting while we were trying to catch up on our respective histories.

This is exactly the kind of social-un-networking that seems to be the norm lately. Socializing means to spend time with people. How can you socialize with phones while the very people who are around you are ignored?

I've just got back from the UK and I must say I have noticed a marked difference between the UK and Germany about how dependent people are on their phones and tablets. It's not all that bad in Germany, but in the UK people really are glued to their phones (although I must say that my fiancée has a nasty knack of going to and fro from her phone when we're watching a film). I do actually refer to my tablet sometimes when watching a film, but it's actually to check IMDB if I'm wondering who such-and-such an actor is and where I'd seen them before.

It never really bothered me like that to be honest until I was trying to have a conversation with a friend in the UK and they kept stopping to look in Facebook, and when I had some silly cow run into me in a shopping centre because she was too fixated on her phone and typing something while walking at high speed.

I miss the days when people would have a good old face-to-face conversation...

I live in a dead zone; no coverage for 30 square miles. No, it doesn't bother me at all! :D

Best way to do that these days is to barge into someone in a shopping centre because you were fixated on your phone.

Sounds like heaven. How much do you charge a night? I'll take a room for two years if you don't mind.

$150 - $175 depending on the room, open all year, rates never change.
We did get 314 inches of snow last year so keep that in mind.

At once?!?

October to March.
Okay I seemed to have derailed another thread. :P Lets get back to texting.

I witnessed a young girl who was texting on her cell phone while driving, rear end the car who had stopped in front of her at a stop sign. I pulled over, and waited until the police arrived, to let them know exactly why the accident occurred. I can't tell you how many people I have had pull left turns in front of me, pull out of driveways, roads, ect., while I have been on my motorcycle...I just expect it to happen now, and am always in a defensive mode (more so than I used to be) when on my bike anymore. It's absolutely ridiculous, how people are so addicted to social media and their phones, iPads, and other electronic devices, that they can't properly observe, or function in the real world. This kind of crap is all over YouTube and the internet : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJEExawlGFw

@OP

It doesn't bother me too much what people do, I might think it's stupid, but it's their life.

What does bother me is that many people seem to expect me to act the same. There almost seems to be an expectation that the individual, by default, will participate in modern social communication, and by extension make themselves available 24/7. I find it can make life difficult to say the least.

After a 14 hour day at work I don't want to receive messages from colleagues requesting I prepare things for the next day. Both friends and work colleagues have gotten angsty with me in the past because my phone is turned off and I missed an important text. My response; 'it was 11pm, tough ####'

I don't care so long as people aren't doing it in a rude or dangerous way. At least they're quiet, having to listen to peoples half-conversations is a whole lot more annoying to me.

Ha Ha Ha! :D
You know damn well we get that much snow, you live north of me! I would imagine you get a lot more.

My family is decidedly low-to-mid tech so that helps. I have a smartphone for biz and the only "social" crap not related to calls is the use of texting, and usually that's either to get a quick note to another tech or to arrange a call with a family member (very busy jobs, odd work hours, and time zones). Business email is just that - business - and it wouldn't make a difference whether doing it on the phone or laptop.