An unsocial media? K PERHAPS IT’S TIME FOR A DIGITAL DETOX ...
UBER is trialling selfdriving taxis in America and a British company hopes to have them operating in London by 2019.
I’m all in favour as I am not the most social of people when travelling.
On buses, trains or planes I prefer to immerse myself in a newspaper, a book or my own thoughts rather than interact with a fellow passenger in discussions about the weather, reasons for travel or, God forbid, Brexit.
In taxis I inevitably embarrass myself by falling into that Peter Kaye routine of asking the driver: “What time did you start?” followed by: “What time do you finish?”
I do this in an attempt to show empathy, when the only empathy the driver wants is to be left alone to negotiate the traffic followed by a reasonable tip once we arrive at our destination.
So climbing into a cab without a driver would be a boon – and save on the tip – and make the journey stress free. But wait, there’s more. Uber also say they will be testing flying taxis by 2020 and have them in service in London by 2028 which might conceivably help avoid traffic congestion but add to skies already busy with Amazon drones making same day deliveries. In fact, if you EIRA Knightley tried Twitter for all of 12 hours before kicking it into touch.
Megan Fox lasted five days before leaving with the Tweet: “I have yet to discover its purpose.”
Daniel Radcliffe prefers his privacy and Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t approve of social media and summed up the feelings of many when he said: “We’re all looking down. No-one’s looking up.”
Now it seems as if a growing number of young and informed people are adopting the same attitudes.
A study by Digital Awareness UK and the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, found 63% of students said they would not care if social media did not exist and 71% said they had taken a break from it.
They joined celebrities such as Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus in taking a digital detox.
Ed Sheeran took extended leave of absence so he could “stop seeing the world through a screen.”
Social media has its devotees but could that partly be because it’s addictive by nature.
Sean Parker, former President of Facebook, says the site was designed to keep people hooked in a “social validation feedback loop” and the same philosophy has been built into other social media outlets.
It can be time consuming to an avid user and produce feelings of guilt, jealousy and depression, particularly among the young. order your drone from Amazon it won’t be long before it will be able to deliver itself.
Flying taxis with vertical take-off are being developed by techno firms around the world and will presumably operate on SatNav and postcode, unless you are in the Irish Republic where they don’t have postcodes.
There the Sat Nav instruction might include interesting diversions such as: “Land at Ryan’s Store and Bar and ask for final directions. Special offer this week on peat and their draught Guinness is not to be missed.”
Now that’s my sort of taxi.
These days, I Facebook rarely, although I feel guilty if I don’t log on at least once a day to see what