WHO are these people!?

I read these two articles on this site called "good.is", and basing my opinion entirely only on these two articles I think the name is a misnomer.

In the first one a guy is talking about how he decided to dump his iphone because it was too distracting and taking up too much of his life. In the second one, another guy talks about Facebook in a similar vein.

And to both of them I want to say - "What a crock of shit!"

Since the first one is talking about iphone in a generic sense, let's substitute "smartphone" in place of "iphone". Any smartphone is a tool, it's up to you how you use it. If someone gave you a sharp knife for a gift, would you cut your throat? You'd use it in a sensible way in the kitchen. At least, I hope you would. Same thing applies to any tool, you use it properly, it's a great asset, you misuse it, it's a dangerous possession.

He says since he dumped his iphone for an old non-smartphone Nokia, he is reading more. I ask you, does a smartphone stop you from reading? I have a smartphone, have had one or the other smartphone for several years, and I do read when I can. My phone actually helps me read more because I can buy electronic books and read them on the phone. When I was working in Central London in a big company, I used to read going up and down in the elevator! Even now I use my phone to read audiobooks while walking to and back from work, while cooking, while doing the dishes etc. etc. I can't do that without technology of some sort, smartphones just make it so convenient that I have no excuse for not reading!

Then he blames internet for being a time-waster. Well, isn't that up to you? You can spend 3 hours POKING people on Facebook or you can read up on something really interesting on Wikipedia. I didn't even know how to fry an egg, I googled it and found a video tutorial. Since then I have come up with my own recipes around eggs, leading to a better diet and a better quality of life. All thanks to internet.

Ironically, this idiot was reading Theareau's Walden on his phone which lead to this epiphony! Funny, isn't it?

He says he used to have arguments with his wife because he used to check his phone for blog comments and such during dinner. Well, some men watch sports on TV during dinner, some follow news on radio, some read newspaper on breakfast table...all leading to the same kind of argument. To paraphrase the great Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men - "Devices don't piss off wives, idiots do!"

The same thing applies to the Facebook basher. It's a social network, dummy. Network! Like you have a network of real people around you. Do you go around calling every number in your phone diary every day just because they are in your network? If not, then why do you go around wasting several hours on Facebook when you should be working?

He talks about Facebook's terms around IP content without knowing what it means. He claims that Facebook owns your content, when the link that he himself has posted to the Facebook terms page says clearly that you own the content. Facebook takes a non-exclusive licence when you post any IP content like photos and videos. Without that Facebook cannot display them and cannot make them searchable. I am not going to argue the fairness of Facebook's T&C agreement, I would just say if you don't agree with it, just don't upload any IP content to FB. Who's twisting your arm to upload your girlfriend's bathtub photos to share with the world?

Funny thing is the moron starts the article with "I gave up on Facebook the day it kicked me off for using a fake name." I mean talk about not having a case.

I have a Facebook account and my average time spent on it is an hour a week. (No, I am not a super-disciplined person, I waste the rest of my time in Second Life, but I don't blame Linden Labs for it!)

Anyway, that's all my rant. I just hate it when people don't take responsibility for their actions and blame everybody but themselves. If you don't have the discipline to manage your time and your life in a sensible manner don't go blaming Apple and Facebook for it. Yes, evil as Apple might be, even they don't MAKE you use the phone 24 hours a day.

So, my question is who are these people?! Were they born in a cave or raised in a household where they never had to take responsibility for anything they did?

If you are curious, below are the links to the original articles I am ranting about.

http://www.good.is/post/why-i-dumped-my-iphone-and-why-i-m-not-going-back

http://www.good.is/post/the-new-dinosaur-why-i-m-not-on-facebook-and-why-you-shouldn-t-be-either/