What did Thais do before smart phones?

[VocalNeal]

In Indonesia pre-smart phone there were three main modes of communication.

 

1. Television

2. Telephone

3. Tell-an-Indonesian

[Photoguy21]

I first came to Thailand in 1982. It was a totally different place back then. People were more welcoming and happier I think overall. The smart phone and the corresponding addiction to it have done nothing to improve the situation.

[OneMoreFarang]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Don't know why they are called smart phones when using programs like tik tok, etc their mentality is actually moving backwards.

They are smart phones - compared to many of their users. 

[lopburi3]

If go back still remember GE Porta-Mobile hand held VHF with selcal to get our attention.  Not really compact.

[Walker88]

Like many people over the age of about 30, I have a love-hate relationship with mobiles. Useful, but they have hypnotized most of society and taken control.

 

The first place I saw Phone Addiction was Japan. The usual 4 friends go to eat together, and all four ignore their mates and get buried in the phone. It subsequently spread around the world.

 

Myanmar was one of the last places to become addicted. The old junta controlled SIM Cards. Few had phones and there was no roaming for tourists. SIM cards became a speculative item like crypto. Peak price was USD 4400. Under democracy, the market opened up and SIM prices fell to 75 cents. OUCH to those caught with a pile of junta-era SIMs. Now, it's like everywhere else: folks buried in their online life.

 

Thailand might be the worst. On the BTS I sometimes look to see how many folks are NOT buried in their phones. Often it is only me. If I eaves drop it's usually TikTok or Facebook I see that have people entranced. TikTok, that surreptitious commie Chinese influence tool, is about the most banal thing I have seen since the Pet Rock or Tomoguchi. As I have said, TikTok is for people without talent to make product for people without taste. Harsh, yes, but true. I have visited rural Thailand with a friend, and sat at a meal under a bamboo roof where the 15 or so folks present were all staring into their phones, usually watching TikTok. Family? Are they online? (No, they're right next to you if you would look.)

 

Real human interaction and social skills are declining due to the phone. The ability to write well and communicate is fading away due to texting. Maybe this is evolution, but the 'great connector' of phones and social media is leading to greater levels of loneliness and depression. Since leaving Oldavai Gorge humans have needed direct interaction. Giving it up to the phone has effects that are ripping lives apart. Suicides are up, depression, bipolar syndrome, OCD and other mental ailments are all on the rise. The phone likely has played a significant part in this.

 

There is a progression that began when Zuckerberg found the best way to monetize Narcissism (beating MySpace), and moving that into the now ubiquitous phone. A poster above wrote of 'taking 200 selfies a day'. Not sure if he meant that or was trying to engage in hyperbole, but it is accurate. Some people take well more than 200 selfies a day. They also post, believing---or hoping---their life and thoughts and actions and lunches and moods are the import equivalent of a major earthquake or war. Life has become playacting. Reality of one's life is what one hopes they can convince others it is. All the while, real human interaction is asymptotically declining to zero. It isn't too much of a stretch to see a future world as all robots and virtual reality. Maybe Covid and social distancing exacerbated the trend toward isolation.

 

So are phones a net positive or negative? That remains to be seen. If I were to guess, I would say in the long term phones will end up doing more harm than good to the average person and society at large.

 

 

[Gandtee]

The same as everyone else. They talked to each other.????

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, recom273 said:

Maybe people think of smartphones as android / iPhone.

 

If my memory isn’t too clouded, in the 2000s I had a palm titanium that was linked to my Sony Ericsson mobile phone via BT. Even 20 odd years ago, Thais were very early adopters of windows mobile phones. Panthip was full of windows phones. Way more than you would see in the UK.

 

So although I visited before then, I don’t remember what people did before smartphones because there was always some kind of mobile computer here.

I don't remember the years. My phones in Bangkok were:

After the pager my first mobile was a Siemens, just for calls and text messages.

Then an Ericson which was also able to receive emails and WWW. I remember I got the news about the coup in 2006 on that phone - when the Thai news didn't report anything.

That phone was supposed to be able to sync with Outlook, but it never really worked.

My first smart phone with touch screen was with Windows mobile - finally the synchronization worked. I think that was also my first phone with camera. I think that was in 2010.

I am sure some girls had more sophisticated phones. 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

One little detail we should not forget is that there are very few land line phones in the villages up country. For many Thais their first phone ever was a mobile phone - because that was the only available option.

[thecyclist]

Thais are not readers of books, never have been. In the eighties you got on bus with a book or a newspaper, chances are you were the only one reading. The Thais would sleep, doze if they were by themselves, talk if they were in company, rarely read. Snacking was another favorite national past time,pursued on intercity buses and trains. 

[Kwasaki]

45 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

In Indonesia pre-smart phone there were three main modes of communication.

 

1. Television

2. Telephone

3. Tell-an-Indonesian

And not being able to give people 1 star and upset them. ????????????

[1sickpuppy]

18 hours ago, Thailand said:

Not just Thailand, it's the whole world.

Pick there nose

[richard_smith237]

6 minutes ago, 1sickpuppy said:

Pick there nose

Where nose ?

[taotoo]

I have a vague memory that pre smartphones they were doing QQ and HI5 on their feature phones. Before that they would spend hours chatting on their dumbphones, watch TV and VCDs, and also do puzzle books.

[wwest5829]

Ha! Yes, it is hard to remember back to a time when .I first got a Nokia “bag phone”. And now, well GPS has taken the place and need for maps, compass, and ruler to measure the approximate distances. Not to mention currently sitting in a cafe with coffee and reading posts on FB from folks on 6 continents … and replying here. I do love the advances in technology. Certainly makes my retirement much easier … currently planning a visit to USA … hotel reservation, car rental reservation. Entrance tickets purchases … indeed what did I need to do previously …

[recom273]

51 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't remember the years. My phones in Bangkok were:

After the pager my first mobile was a Siemens, just for calls and text messages.

Then an Ericson which was also able to receive emails and WWW. I remember I got the news about the coup in 2006 on that phone - when the Thai news didn't report anything.

That phone was supposed to be able to sync with Outlook, but it never really worked.

My first smart phone with touch screen was with Windows mobile - finally the synchronization worked. I think that was also my first phone with camera. I think that was in 2010.

I am sure some girls had more sophisticated phones. 

 

A lot has changed in the way we view the web past 12-15 years - although the tech was there, it didn’t always work, my palm used to sync with yahoo - i vaguely remember MySpace being more popular at that time, and meeting girls on thailandfriends (TF) but communicating on ICQ, Skype or yahoo messenger. I was working in the UK but here for about half the year, smart tech was more prevalent here than on the London Underground.

 

Do you remember phones with a TV tuner in them, lol .. they were popular with the taxi bike drivers.

[jwest10]

19 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Why would you assume that?

 

Many, probably most, Thai pastimes are very different to what we see back home.

Yes, just about everyone has one and personally do not have one but share the one with my wife for contacts but anyone ever thought about mobile phones going off in a funeral and also next we shall be hearing them in coffins!!!

 

[MrJ2U]

20 hours ago, Thailand said:

Not just Thailand, it's the whole world.

Including me.

 

I'd be lost without internet and a Smartphone. 

[globerunner4]

Crochet, lots. It was always odd coming back home from a visit to Thailand with a hat and scarf. 

[lopburi3]

4 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Including me.

 

I'd be lost without internet and a Smartphone. 

But you do not need a smartphone for the internet - in fact was using packet switching before the internet was born.  But agree smartphone is a valuable asset for many things - but obviously many take it a few steps beyond.

[sandyf]

19 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Before smartphones you could walk past bars and all you could hear was Connect 4 tokens dropping, it was foreplay with farang

That is if you could  walk past the bar, most of the girls were out on the pavement trying to pull you in.

Fun days.

[Jaybott]

They used corded analog phones.

[tandor]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Don't forget pagers

I had the advanced version which showed not only numbers but also text. ???? 

 

 

Hi-so.

[BangkokReady]

13 minutes ago, Jaybott said:

They used corded analog phones.

At bus stops and on the BTS?

[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Where nose ?

How can you pick your nose while wearing a mask? Oh! Wait.

[BonMot]

21 hours ago, Thailand said:

Not just Thailand, it's the whole world.

People fear their own unsettled minds. If it's not boredom it's perhaps ghosts.

 

People seem to be very uneasy with their own thoughts.

 

Soft Darwin Award here for phone zombies

[3NUMBAS]

smombies are every where causing   obstructions 

[MrJ2U]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

But you do not need a smartphone for the internet - in fact was using packet switching before the internet was born.  But agree smartphone is a valuable asset for many things - but obviously many take it a few steps beyond

A meant a combination of Smartphones and high speed internet has changed how the whole world works.

 

 

 

[Freddy42OZ]

Back in the 90's before phones had big screens and became like pocket computers, I used to spend a lot of time sending SMS messages back and forth with friends and talking to them on the phone.

Also phones could play music so I often listened to music when I was on public transport or walking down the street. 

And playing snake ????

[geisha]

I sat in a nice cool Starbucks and read the newspapers.´

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, geisha said:

I sat in a nice cool Starbucks and read the newspapers.´

But not in Thailand.

I am pretty sure mobile phones arrived here before Starbugs.