Impact of Hyperwork on Family

I am seeing this all the time now… 

Parents of little children, or even older children, who are too busy working to pay much, if any, attention to their families.

Call it a disease of the industrial revolution + information technology. 

Whether people worked on the assembly line making widgets or nowadays on the computer and smartphone answering their bosses and colleagues compulsively–it’s become a global obsession. 

On one hand, with the impending robot and AI revolution taking over jobs, people need to be grateful to even have a job to earn a living for the families.

On the other hand, with the connections to each other and our work 24/7, the depression-era saying of:

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Has morphed into:

Brother, can you spare some time?

Yes, we all need to be responsible adults, earn a decent living and pay our bills. 

But in the end, it’s not money or things that we give to our families that is the most important.  

I would argue money and things are the least important, and what is truly most precious is the love, time, and attention you give to yours. 

As the old saying goes:

Money can’t buy love.

But time and attention given to your loved ones can build meaningful relationships that last a lifetime and beyond. 

Yes, of course, people need to work to earn a living and productively contribute something to society, but it is also true that work is used as an excuse to run away from parental and familial responsibilities. 

It’s easier to give an Amazon gift certificate or a Gameboy then to actually spend the afternoon with the kids. 

These days, people say ridiculous things like:

I love going into the office to get away from home. 

But you can’t run away from your problems at home–you need to work on them and solve them.

The diabolical murderous Nazis used work as a tool to enslave, torture, and exterminate their victims as the sign over the gate of the Auschwitz (and many other) concentration camps read:

Arbeit Macht Frei  (or Work Sets You Free)

But as we all know inside, true freedom is being able to give generously from your time and effort to your loved ones, and slavery is not being able to let go of your work. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When Your Pants Are Down

Yesterday in the news was how a drone was used to fly over and take pictures at a nude beach. 

So at a nude beach, even those that advertise privacy protections, let’s face it your walking around in the buff. But still, the use of the drone with a camera was a violation of people’s expectations not to be photographed and by those outside the facility.

And about a week earlier, a five year old finds a camera phone in the lady’s bathroom in a Starbucks. 

Yesteday, I had a similar lesson about people’s warped sensibilities or perversions (but without the drone or smartphone–this was the low tech version). 

I’m at the pool for a swim after work. 

There are 2 locker rooms for men and women, of course.

But at one point, I see this LADY get out of the pool and head straight for the MEN’S locker room–she actually proceeds to go in one side–through and past the bathrooms, showers, sauna, and lockers–and out the other side to exit the facility. 

So trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, when I get out of the pool, thinking maybe the locker room wasn’t clearly marked, I check it–and there is a big sign with a picture (the symbol for men) and you couldn’t miss it!

Also, this lady was clearly not new as she gestured a friendly hello to the lifeguard, and she wasn’t the slightest bit confused (she had actually made some small talk with me in the pool)   

When she left, as she headed into the men’s room, she didn’t hesitate, knock on the door or anything, and obviously didn’t care whether anyone was in there–dressed or naked.

Perhaps, because the men’s locker room is closer to the exit, she was just taking a shortcut–for her, how convenient!

Then again maybe she was a true perv and this was her way of getting some cheap thrills regardless of other people’s right to privacy and safety, including those of children. 

In a sense, this is more than just about generalized privacy (such as with information), but even extends to your very privates!

We live in an age when it is a balancing act between sharing and privacy, between openness and modesty, and between doing what’s right and pure self-gratification. 

Unfortunately, to put in bluntly, some people just don’t seem to give a sh*t about respect for other people’s decency or rights, and they will do what they want regardless of the social balancing act or the necessity to use common sense good judgement in public and private.  

The lesson is that when your pants are down, as creepy as it sounds, it’s best to assume that someone is always looking or at least may be on the prowl, so be careful out there. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

tURNING yOUR dEVICE aGAINST yOU!

So interesting article in BBC about the Samsung’s “Listening TV.”

This TV has voice activated controls and they don’t just take commands, but…

“If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”

So aside from hackers (and spies) being able to turn your phone and computer mics, cameras, and GPS location data on and off to surveil and eavesdrop on you, now the dumb television set can listen in as well. 

You can be heard, seen, and found…whether you know it or not. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal with eyes and ears from here and here with attribution to Firas and Simon James)

They Ain’t Nothing

So Microsoft has tried to do the copycat thing of the Apple Store. 

See Apple (top photo) streaming with customers trying out their world-class computers and smartphones yesterday. 

See Microsoft (photo underneath) just a few storefronts down in the mall with nice vibrant colors, but just a handful of customers (the non-red shirts) in the entire place.

BTW, I took a look at the iPhone 6 Plus and liked the size (I thought I wouldn’t) and ordered one (will be nice I hope to actually see the screen on this thing). 

At the same time, I tried the Microsoft Surface, and my wife says to me can you videotape me showing how long it takes to actually try to figure this thing out–piece of garbage!

It was also confusing why the Microsoft store was selling Dells and other companies computing devices–Ah, maybe because they don’t have anything competitive of their own???

Microsoft great try with the overall store (Touche!) but you just don’t have the retail products to compete with Apple–and the piles of Xbox in the rear of the store to draw people in–that wasn’t working either. 

Microsoft still a winner at enterprise computing, but Apple hands-down has you on personal computing–everyone to their corners. 😉

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

“Wicked” Contact Lists

So two interesting things I learned today about information and communications technology.

One, technology is better when it’s chocolate. Pictured here are telephones, cell phones, and smart phones made of luscious chocolate. Only problem is that the technology is too beautiful to eat!

Two, kids these days are putting in some very creative names into their smartphones’ contact lists to identify their parents. For example, one of my daughters friends who went out with us today told me about three names her friends are currently using for their mothers:

– Birth Giver

– Financial Aid

– Mental Case

Ah, while we have to appreciate creativity in our young ones, perhaps too much of anything is no good. 

Anyway, I’m glad that I’m still “Dad” on my girls’ phones–or at least I think that what they are still calling me!  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Selfie Heaven

So this lady found out how to take the best selfies.

She has an extendable stick with an adjustable ball head that attaches to her smartphone, and a separate remote control for snapping the photos.

Here she is with the camera snapping away.

I looked it up on Amazon and this device is only around $6.

For a completely ego-centric society without friends, why not get this doodad and you too can take selfish selfies all day long. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Rosh Hashanah iPhone Greeting Card

I had to share this wonderful Rosh Hashanah greeting.

This was developed using Apple’s iPhone icons.

It is one great technology way to usher in the Jewish New Year of 5775.

Please G-d, let it be a wonderful year full of blessings! 😉

(Source Photo: Sarah Herbsman from Pamela)

Health Monitoring Ad Nauseam

So the new Apple Watch promises to monitor our every virtual health status as technology and person blend to become one.  

However, the question raised in the New York Times is whether this level of continuous monitoring is really all that necessary?

“One central rule of doctoring is that you only gather data that will affect your treatment?”

But how can more data hurt you?

– Change in measurements are often normal: For example, “blood pressure jumps up and down in response to thoughts, hydration, and stress.”

– Data sometimes outstrips our ability to understand it:  So collecting more and more data may actually end up concealing the needle in the haystack, rather than culling the crucial piece of evidence we need for a diagnosis and treatment. 

– Data can sometimes belie the underlying truth: “Some patients die with ‘Harvard numbers, [and in others] test results can can look bad even when the patient is fine.”

– Obsessive-compulsive monitoring may actually stress us out: “If you were dieting would stepping on the scale 1,000 times a day help you lose weight?” Perhaps, the stress of monitoring every stat we generate may actually make us sick from fear and worry.  

The point is that as they say, “there can be too much of a good thing”–monitoring and checking is helpful, but not every minute of every day without some intelligent filtering and analysis. 

Perhaps, the technology will evolve to wear the monitoring is unobtrusive and where the artificial intelligence is there to more or less accurately decipher true warning signs from run of the mill changes in bodily functions, and where data is aggregated to get a holistic picture and diagnosis of the person rather than a snapshot of individual functions.

No one can live under a microscope and making ourselves sick with an endless stream of health tracking and worries is not helpful. 

However, in time, the technology will most certainly evolve to where it will be discreet, accurate, and truly lifesaving. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Free Behind Bars

Fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal about going to mock prison to get away from the stresses of life.

Ok, so you know your working too hard, when your only escape is to lock yourself up and throw away the key for a few days.

In South Korea, where they work 18% more than on average (2090 hours per year vs. 1765)–their is a great need to get away from it all.

There where life satisfaction rates a 4.3 out of 10, which is 34% lower than the average (of 6.6), putting yourself in prison is a quality of life thing.

A two-night stay in the makeshift prison for extreme relaxation costs $146–and there you can meditate to your hearts delight.

You can also attend “spiritual classes” and participate in “healing plays.”

Normally smartphones wouldn’t be allowed, but people freak out without them, so they get to check them once a day while on the inside.

Being locked behind bars is a punishment in most places, but here its time to think, reflect, and get back to yourself–most of all you don’t have to go to work on those days.

It’s funny, but one of the hardest things is generally for people just to stop and think–really stop and think–it’s much easier to drown ourselves in endless activity and never have to deal with what’s going on inside.

When we stop to let our thoughts catch up, to deal with our anxieties and fears, to confront ourselves and all the mistakes we make, and to let ourselves feel what can be an tidal wave of pent up feelings–that is a freedom that few can bear to make. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

UNSOCIAL Social Media

This video is absolutely fantastic.

Congratulations to Gary Turk for hitting the nail on the head here.

And thank you to my daughter, Michelle, for sharing this with me.

Smartphones, dumb people.
Easier to connect with people, but we spend more time alone.
Be there in the moment.
Give your love, not your like.
Look up from your phone, shut down your display.

Part of me just wants to say that Social Media is one of THE biggest wastes of our time…REALLY!

Another part of me, believes in some aspects of it for information sharing, collaboration, and being a greater influence.

But Social Computing is NOT a replacement for genuine human interaction, which is too OFTEN what it has become.

I applaud my daughters, for at times, disconnecting their Facebook accounts to read, spend time with friends, and do other activities.

We’ve lost too much of ourselves to an escapist virtual reality–where it’s easier to HIDE behind a screen, then be there in the flesh facing the challenges that we must.

There are great aspects to being online–it’s been a true information revolution–but the computer needs to SERVE the human master, and not the other way around. 😉