Since it’s TV-Turnoff Week, we should have at least one post about television…
I’ll just reference a thoughtful post on Television Can Undermine Even the Best Parents, from DadTalk.
Posted: April 28th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2
I promised a follow-up with some additional ideas on dealing with telemarketers and unwanted phone calls, and it took me a little longer to getting around to this post since it’s been such a busy week.
Anyway, in my last post on the subject, I talked about using certain technologies (albeit the basic ones) that help, but this post is going to be more about the way that we interact with the technology in order to deal with those calls.
What I find interesting is how we have tools to help us in our lives, but some people become slaves to those tools. Of course telemarketers rely on our willingness to let them interrupt us, and then allow them to engage us in conversations.
The classic example is the phone. It rings, and as reliably as one of Pavlov’s dogs, some people run to the phone and answer it, no matter what. Maybe they are reading to their child, they have their hands tied up making cookies, or they are willing to risk breaking a leg by jumping out of the shower onto the slippery floor and running to the phone — only to find a telemarketer on the other end.
I don’t get it. Is it that people expect that Ed McMahon is going to be calling to tell them that they won the sweepstakes and if they miss it, they’ll be passed up for somebody else?
My wife was one of these people. Despite the fact that we had caller ID and an answering machine, she had to pick up the phone even when the caller ID said “Unavailable” or “Anonymous Caller” or “XYZ Marketing”.
So I’m at the table reading a magazine after dinner, and the phone rings, the caller ID announces “Unavailable” and I don’t budge. She’s doing something in the kitchen sink and her hands are wet, so she asks, “Are you going to get that?”
“Nope,” I reply.
So she gives me an exasperated expression, dries her hands and rushes over to the phone only to engage a telemarketer who can’t pronounce our name correctly.
Chuckling, I ask, “Why can’t you let it go? It’s clearly nobody that we know calling since it’s coming from a blocked number.”
She insists that you never can tell. It might be somebody we know. But if it is, and if it’s important, they’ll leave a message on the answering machine, and then we’ll know who it is, and we can always pick up then, right?
I have to say that in more recent times, she’s gotten better with ignoring the unknown callers, but I still frustrate her when our phone announces the caller ID and it’s somebody that we do know and I don’t move to pick up the phone when we’re both busy.
“Why aren’t you going to answer it!?” Well, because I don’t really feel like talking to somebody right now. I’m in the middle of a chapter in a book, this is my private reading time, and I don’t care for the interruption right now.
When I am involved with my kids, and the phone rings, I often ignore it, because in general, my kids are a higher priority than the other person who is calling me. Other times, maybe I’m enjoying the song on the radio and I consider that to be of higher importance than the actual phone call. Or maybe I’m just too tired right no to talk to my friend who’s calling me, and I don’t think that I would serve them well by having a conversation when I’m just too beat to give them my full attention.
The point of this post is that despite having technology to help us manage our lives better, we have to make sure that it doesn’t start to control us. We should employ the technology intelligently and not lose site of the actual reasons why we have the technology.
Stop and think about it for a moment: Are there any technologies that might be controlling you? Are there technologies that should help you to be effective, but instead seem to make you less effective? What can you do to turn those situations around? Leave a comment with your thoughts.
Posted: April 27th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3
With TV-Turnoff Week hitting us this coming week (April 25-May 1), a handful of us were talking about why there wasn’t a PC-Turnoff Week. Afterall, many of the negative affects that TV has on kids, teens, and adults are also present with heavy computer use.
From that inspiration, PC-Turnoff Week was born.
Alorie Gilbert from CNET interviewed us about both the PC-Turnoff Week Organization, and SoftwareTime, and put together a very nice article. Thanks Alorie!
We’ll be working hard over the next few weeks to flesh out the content of the site and to spread the word about it. Contact info@pcturnoff.org if you’re interested in getting involved or want more information.
Posted: April 21st, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none
When enjoying some family time at home, nothing used to irritate me more than those #&$!@ telemarketers. At dinner time, or while sitting on the couch reading a book with the kids, the phone would ring, you’d get up to answer it, and you’re now listening to a push sales pitch that you cannot politely turn off.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t why the telephone was invented, but those filthy marketers are going to annoy us from here to eternity. Hey it sounds like I’m going to bash the telephone as an intrusive technology, right? Well, no I’m not. I want to point out some perfectly good technological solutions to help you manage the telephone better. It doesn’t have to affect your family in negative ways.
Do Not Call
First of all, walk… No… RUN over to https://www.donotcall.gov/ with your browser of choice, and be sure to register your phone numbers with them. I did this with my number a few years ago, and it significantly reduced the number of calls. It takes a couple of months to kick in, but when it did, the flood became more of a trickle.
Caller ID
In my opinion… worth the extra monthly charge to have this service. Have an answering machine too though. If a call comes in and the display reads UNAVAILABLE or ANONYMOUS, just let it go to the answering machine. If it’s somebody you know, they’ll leave a message, and you can always pick up then and make an excuse like, “I was outside and couldn’t get to the phone in time,” or just be honest and tell them the truth. Tell them about the federal do-not-call list while you’re at it.
Talking Telephones
Recently somebody left our portable phone outside in the rain. Pretty much did it in. So I went to Costco and found these Panasonic telephones that actually speak the caller id information. I think it’s the greatest thing! Now when I’m sitting down at the dinner table, on the couch, or taking care of business on the throne, I can actually just wait until after the 2nd ring, and hear whether or not I need to get the call. When I hear “Call from Unavailable”, I know that I can simply ignore it. No more interrupting my reading time with the kids to get up to see who it is that’s calling.
Actually these talking phones have actually improved the efficiency of getting the phone calls routed to the right person without extra people involved. Since they caller id is announced, none of us actually move until we hear who it is, and most of the time, once we have that information, three out of the four of us know that “it’s not for me”, and the person who it is for can make the dash to answer it.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the non-technical solutions to the problem.
UPDATE: trendyblog points out that I missed a helpful technology in the form of the TeleZapper. Rather than repeat it here, click on the link at the start of this sentence and go read it on trendyblog. I’m not familiar with it myself.
Posted: April 21st, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none
“Communicating with children today means using the latest technology,”
-Neil Gallagher, U.N. World Food Programme Spokesman
The United Nations World Food Programme is offering a free game called Food Force (available for both the Mac and PC). From the website:
An aircraft circles over a crisis zone. War. Drought. People are hungry. This is the virtual world of the Food Force video game.
It represents too many parts our real world, where 852 million people lack enough food to eat and World Food Programme teams deliver food aid using not only airplanes but a fleet of ships and thousands of trucks.
Play the Food Force game, learn about food aid, and help us work towards a world without hunger.
From a Reuters article on the new game:
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) hopes the game “Food Force,” in which players direct aid workers trying to help the poor, will teach children about the problems of feeding the hungry, especially those trapped in war zones.
“So many parents complain about the blood and gratuitous violence that kids are so frequently exposed to in video games. This is a fun action-packed alternative,” said WFP spokesman Neil Gallagher, launching the game on Thursday.
Posted: April 18th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1
ALERT: E-mail scam directs users to bogus Windows update.
Ugh. Don’t these people have anything productive to do with their lives than to write malicious software to harass the rest of us who have computers and real lives?
Well, if you don’t want to spend a weekend with a broken down PC, then be aware that Microsoft doesn’t send you emails with links to click to update your PC. It’s a trap.
Because family computers are used by many people with varying levels of technological savvy, they are particularly vulnerable to these intrusions. I am a technical user, but my wife is computer-clueless and my kids know enough to be dangerous but are still naive. So I’m the IT Department in my house, and try to keep the family computer up-to-date with Antivirus and Security Software.
I also find it helpful to instill a lot of fear into them when it comes to emails from unknown sources and attachments. You know what I’m talking about… Like the story about the guy who opened a virus that caused his mouse to blowup, taking off his hand. Tales like that, repeated often enough, generate a bit more caution and I generally get called in to have a look before they open the suspicious email or attachment. :-)
How many other Domestic IT Specialists are out there? How does it work in your home?
Posted: April 10th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none
A slideshow, IBM’s Store of the Future, to give you a glimpse of what it’s going to be like in the supermarket of the near future. (NOTE: You navigate the six slides by using the << and >> on the top-right of the slideshow page.
I like the idea of technology that helps us, but I don’t like the idea of technology that helps marketers continue to barrage us with adverts and to get them to manipulate us into buying things. As if the cereal aisle isn’t already hell for parents, I can imagine when Captain Crunch appears as a hologram to bolster your pre-schooler’s persistent nagging to buy the sugary cereal. :-)
Hat Tip to Question Technology for pointing out the link.
Posted: April 10th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none
In January, I had pointed out that companies were promoting “Exertainment” as a way to get kids to play video games to get in shape.
Seemed like a very odd pairing to me. Most parents would probably rather see the kids turn off the game and go outside to play, or get involved in sports.
A new study is underway to see how exertainment will really help.
“It improves cardiovascular health as well as eye-hand coordination,” Lambert said. “Kids who don’t like other things bloom on this. If they don’t like basketball, jumping rope or ball activities, they like this.”
The article says that it’s been showing promising results with some of the initial subjects. Great!
I wonder if people will get bored with it after a while. I wonder why kids don’t like other things like basketball, jumping rope, and other outdoor activities. Perhaps more needs to be done with children to get them to enjoy these outdoor activities more.
What kinds of things do you do to encourage your kids getting outside and playing? Do you push them out the door, or do you get outside with them? Maybe parents need to get outside to play more too!
Posted: April 4th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none