- Joined
- Jun 4, 2012
- Reaction score
- 19,493
- Age
- 64
- Location
- I'm liek, in Cali, dude.
- Lifestyle
- Vegetarian
Ads for mobile devices showcase the ease and convenience of using these devices for everything, from scheduling appointments, creating and storing this week's grocery list, making playlists of your favorite songs, paying bills, checking to see if your aunt’s flight from New York is on time, and so on. But every time you use these devices to access the internet or even just make a phone call, your personal information is compromised. This is known to everyone, and yet everyone loves the convenience of mobile devices and continues to buy them at a prodigious rate. Smartphones and tablet sales have now outpaced computer sales, even laptops, which causes some observers to predict the imminent death of computers. Why is it so hard for people today to cut the electronic cord when they know the government is listening and watching and their personal information could be, and is, stolen at any time? Why has simple letter writing become almost obsolete? Is it that electronic device users are so used to the instantaneous speed of communication that waiting a few days to communicate with each other with handwritten notes is unthinkable now? They’d rather have their personal information spied on? Even using a cellphone to call the airline to ask about your aunt's flight from New York is tracked, but fewer and fewer people have landline phones these days, and checking the airline's website to see the flight's schedule is preferable to navigating your way through an automated phone system and then being put on hold for an eternity if you want to talk to a human.
There are books published that contain correspondence from notable historical figures and from plain, ordinary people. This is history, this is literature, this is insight into what people in previous eras have thought, have done, have said, have felt. Even just opening that trunk you found in the attic and discovering the letters your grandpa sent to your grandma while he was serving in the military has special meaning for you. What will future historians do when such letters have vanished from civilization because nobody writes letters anymore? How will they know what today's notables have to say when all they can find, if they can find, are brief Twitter messages that don't really convey much?
So people in 21st century America and elsewhere prefer convenience over loss of privacy. Discuss.
There are books published that contain correspondence from notable historical figures and from plain, ordinary people. This is history, this is literature, this is insight into what people in previous eras have thought, have done, have said, have felt. Even just opening that trunk you found in the attic and discovering the letters your grandpa sent to your grandma while he was serving in the military has special meaning for you. What will future historians do when such letters have vanished from civilization because nobody writes letters anymore? How will they know what today's notables have to say when all they can find, if they can find, are brief Twitter messages that don't really convey much?
So people in 21st century America and elsewhere prefer convenience over loss of privacy. Discuss.
Last edited:
