Tethered to technology—leave home without your phone

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This morning, I left home without my phone and I didn’t care. OK, it was Saturday and, OK it was only for a couple of hours, not the whole day, but still, I was a little surprised that it did not bother me.

You can find on my blog that I have written about my love/hate relationship with technology. I have been ranting warnings and concerns to think about for years, yet I even I, get caught up. I shall admit it right here and now. I grab my phone every time I go from one room to another. I even have the phone docked next to my bed. I have been wondering about that one lately.

One day, I did leave the phone home alone for the whole day. I felt naked and lost. I worried I would miss something. What? For most of my life, I did not have any sort of technology like this. It was barely a dream. Now, I seem to feel as if I can’t get along without it.

So, I have decided to begin to call this phenomenon tethering. How far and how long can one go before they have to be near their technology? Might I miss a call, perhaps need to check my texts or E-mail. Maybe, I will need my technology to do something with it. I have a computer and a phone. I can be away from my computer for a while, but the phone seems to have a different hold on me. I wonder if I had a tablet, would I have to take it from room to room, thus carrying two devices? If my TV were gone, what would I do? I seem to recall suffering from the tethered effect with my watch. If I forget my watch now, I can always check the time with my phone.

Here is a key. As a technology device holds access to more information that we need most often, the greater the tethered effect feeling will grasp a person.

This tether I am describing might also be described as a leash. Perhaps this would be a better term to use, as the term tethering is also used to describe a process whereby two or more devices are connected together for the purposes of sharing an Internet connection. In some ways, the term actually could apply in context of a human connection to the information contained on the device and for the purposes of connecting to the Internet. To avoid confusion, perhaps switching to the term leashing, or something else, might be a good idea. With this leash metaphor, one might ask, ‘who, or what, is leashed and who, or what, holds the end?’ This is interesting. Are you leading around your phone, or is it leading you around? It may be a complex relationship that combines both possibilities.

I think the main notion I am prompting you to think about, is wether (whether) to tether and do you have control? Do we have a need to be tethered or leashed?

We may well be developing a new human and social characteristic—the need to be constantly connected to information. With this characteristic comes the need to have an access device in very close proximity, as if on a leash, or we are on a leash to our technology device, depending on how your look at the situation. The smartphone does seem to be the handiest device. I can leave my wallet in a usual location in my house when I come home, yet, my smartphone I must carry with me where ever I go in the house. It is rather facinating, don’t you think?

Where do you think this inconvenience might lead? What about a watch? I wear my watch almost everywhere, yet, I do take it off at home. A watch may or, may not solve the problem. If we are permanently connected to the Internet, perhaps we will only need our brains for bodily functions. I have heard that some people are looking toward embedded chips. Now that harkens to the prophecies in the Bible.

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Security Issues

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I think I will pass on trying to win the iPhone. It is another sign-up gimmick to get information about me, if only an E-mail address. Even without trying, I seem to get subscribed to lists, almost as fast as I can unsubscribe. It is hard to know how I get on all these lists. Not only is it annoying, but eventually, more personal information gets out and soon one can face identity theft. iPhone apps that ask you to establish an account on some fly-by-night company server, are notorious. I delete those sorts of apps.

Someone I know sent me a notification about an iPhone contest through Facebook. When I clicked on the link in the E-mail message, I was asked to login to my FB account. When I tried, I received a notification of suspected unauthorized activity on my account. Someone was trying to login from somewhere in the U.S. So, I had to go through a verification and had to reset my password. I did this and then went back to the link in the E-mail. I got the same notice and had to do the reset again. Finally, I got everything sorted out and then had to spend a lot of time making my account more secure. If I still have problems, I am going to get rid of my Facebook account. I don’t use it much, find it annoying and it is simply not very elegant, in my opinion.

You may think that I am being a bit paranoid, but, recently, someone did send a message to most of my few Facebook friends with a link in it. It was a harmless link to a Google page. It could have been a link to anything, including a script that might be destructive.

There are few contests where something is given away for nothing. They want a contact and you can be sure they are going to do something with it. One does not have to look hard to find instances of people’s personal information being compromised. Most of the major instances, such as with cyber bank theft, seldom get publicized. Society would lose confidence in the financial system and that would never do. There is simply too much at stake, too much money involved.

Even when I try to keep a low profile, I still have to deal with a few compromises each year–MasterCard, Facebook… It is happening more often and I know, most of the time, I never hear about the compromise or know what is really happening.

As kids, we used to run about the neighborhood as we pleased, mostly. Today, parents are very careful about this. Kids do not run free. We need to be just as careful with our personal information and identity. Anyone who has lost valuable items in a break-in robbery knows the feeling of violation and loss. The cherished items are gone for good. Just consider how it would feel to have all your money and or your identity stolen. How about the time lost dealing with unwanted E-mails, securing your information and other annoyments of various sorts. Isn’t this some sort of personal attack?

I could go on about digital packet sniffing software that can monitor and sift all your digital transactions, from E-mails to websites, sending that information to a stranger. For $50 one can purchase a small scanning device that, when passed in close proximity, can scan the chip cards in your wallet. Where is the security in all this new technology? Whether we surrender it through a gimmick contest, or other means that interests us, or are scanned, or by any other method, there are people out there who want your personal information. For sure, they will do anything to get it.

There is an old saying, “trust everyone, but, always cut the cards.”