Travelling In The 21st Century Without A Cellphone (Working Or Otherwise)

While I was waiting for my connecting coach on Saturday last week in London Victoria Coach Station, a lady turned up who needed to find a payphone to call internationally. She had I think used all the money on her mobile/cellphone trying to make the call but had some cash. She asked one of the staff if there was a payphone and they didn't think there were any left in the station anymore as they had been or were being taken out, so she asked the staff member to borrow their cellphone to call as she couldn't think of anything else to do. The said staff member said they're not allowed to carry their phones with them (I doubt this as I know another member of staff used their phone to call an ambulance for another passenger, so they clearly carry them but don't let on as such unless it's an emergency). Well the member of staff with the lady was finally told that there are only 2 payphones in the whole station, both of which are in the arrivals hall. This got me to thinking, what would people do if there were once again no mobile phones? I think I would personally be fine, as I'm used to either finding about places before I travel or asking for directions, or some sort of a combination of both. I never rely on GPS as I find it partly distracting in the sense that I pay less attention to what's going on around me, but partly I'm so used to technology not working that I don't trust it, so do stuff like get off a bus too early. I've also nover found GPS terribly accurate either, especially in countries like the UK where buildings are right next to each other. If I try and get a location, it either won't work or go a long way about showing me as it does lately, or else it will give me an address a few doors away or across the road! As I'm not able to read the signs giving the names of shops for example, even if I do try and get to a place using a GPS of some kind, I still have to ask someone where I am or learn a route beforehand if it's somewhere I go regularly. However most people while they might know parts of town or city, still rely on looking at "smart" phones or other such devices in order to navigate anywhere. Today I was looking for a cafe that I wanted to visit (Suncraft is its name, more about that in another post), I got off the bus and turned out I had done the usual of getting off too early. I didn't think the GPS or driver would be too reliable as it's a 25 minute or more route. Anyway I got another bus to where I really should have been at and asked how to get to the rest of the way as I knew it was on the same street and so probably close by. Well partly I think people just don't listen to most of what I say as I had to repeat myself multiple times today, but partly the person I asked at that time for directions walked with me all the way to the other end of the street and back before realizing it was on the opposite side of the road! The place was really easy to find and closer, because the odd numbers were on 1 side and the evens on the other. What would we do if we went back to using maps and asking each other for directions? I know how to read some symbols on maps and actually find them pretty interesting, but not many younger than me could. In fact I asked a 16-year-old in 2015 what programming language she made the odd couple of games in at school and she came out with something I had never heard of. Not being too surprised, I looked it up and it was ane where you do very little actual writing of the program but more in the way of moving things around on the screen and adjusting their properties. I'm guessing the same person wouldn't have known what to do if I loaded up a terminal and said she had to use it. I wish at times I had been one of those who had grown up using the command-line on the computer, because I find nothing more useful than typing something and getting either the result I intended or an error at line whatever:column whatever, but sadly I only learned that stuff later on and pretty much self-taught. I think graphics can be useful in presenting of course pictures and videos, but not so if they're not accessible to everyone. To conclude: I think technology has its place if it's used as a tool, but I also think it is very much over-used. I find it nice to not use things like cellphones and wifi for a while. As it is I won't be keeping the cellphone/smartphone around forever, because when I stay somewhere permanently I'll be going back to a nice landline and a wired internet connection. Of course that also means people taking the time to talk or write meaningful messages, which I also think people don't do enough of perhaps including myself at times. We're all guilty if we have a phone or tablet or insert other hand-held device of staring at it and fiddling about with it. One of the first times I left my phone behind, I noticed how much more aware I was of the fact that a journey I regularly took at the time felt like a bloody long time. I don't have a concept of time unless I'm looking it a clock or some other timepiece, but noticed that in physical terms the journey was so slow, yet astral travel is pretty much instantaneous. If I know how long it's supposed to take to do something I can plan accordingly, but otherwise I don't know how long it will take to complete a task for example until I've completed it. That was a rather long conclusion, but that's all right with me. During the writing of this post, for some reason I thought of sending a link for this blog to Howard Hughes, the host of "The Unexplained" podcast and radio show. I have absolutely no idea why I thought he would be interested, but let's send it anyway ... maybe.