Thai people and their smartphones - your take?

[henrik2000]

Hello, what do you think about Thai people and their smartphones?

 

1. How did did smartphones change the country since circa 2007?
2. Do people in other Southeast Asian countries have a similar relationship to their smartphones, like in the Philippines, Vietnam etc.?
3. Do people in Western countries have a similar relationship tp smartphones like Thai people?
4. What changes brought the advent of mobile data, selfie-ism?

 

Irrelevant small personal experiences:

 

1. Upcountry, but not in the big cities, at least once a week I enter a shop or restaurant where staff is so absorbed with their smartphones that they don't notice me at all. I am hardwired to not interrupt people having important business, so I just walk back out and they never know I was there. Also some streetside taxi drivers lose my business that way. When cycling small town roads, i often see motorcyclists parked in the middle of nowhere, staring at their phones.
2. The reception at The Hot Springs is in a closed box with a closed, sliding window. I look through the window and see a lady immersed in her phone, naturally not seeing me. Now I have to overcome my discretion and knock hardly on the window pane. She looks up irritatedly, slides the window open, all the while looking at her phone, not at me. I have to tell her my wishes while she is looking and tapping at her phone, never looking at me. Another lady guides me to the booked place, walking “blindly” while constantly looking down at her phone. I don't dare to ask any question.
3. I was intimate with a high flying, very well earning + living Thai lady manager whose TWO phones rang and plang constantly, also on her hours and days off (she was never off really). Asked if she might want to turn off or at least mute her TWO phones during sex, she gave me a very annoyed look as if I seriously let her down.

 

But are Thais and their phones something extraordinary? Or just like anybody else around the globe, including you and me?

[Conno]

Cant speak for other countries as I've been here for years, but Thais have it bad that's for sure. Often see groups [seems to be mostly females but not exclusively so] sitting at restaurant tables for example, none of them are  talking to each other. All of them are glued to their screens. I mean might as well just get a takeaway and stay at home. Maybe I'm just an old git but this doesn't look anything like a good way to behave. Looks like an addiction to me. 

[AlexRich]

The world is changing, and some people are failing to cope with it. I feel sorry for older people who are not up to date on smart phones because they are being digitally excluded. My mother kept buying smartphones and returning them because no one was around to show her what they could do and how she could use them. Now that she knows she uses them all the time, for booking gyms, checking what’s on TV and catching up on Facebook and reading emails. If no one teaches you then you are lost. 
 

As for the ops observations, I’m afraid the genie is out of the bottle, and won’t go back. We are responsible for our own actions, not anyone else’s. The survivors adapt to changes and improvise. You don’t want to end up like a Luddite, the workers in England in 1811 who destroyed machinery in cotton and woollen mills because they thought it was threatening their jobs. Better to embrace change, and adapt to it. 
 

As the philosopher Yoda said:

 

” Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering”

 

Don’t be that angry old man. 

[Conno]

I agree up to a point. Just as a hammer can build a house, it can also be used as a weapon. Smart phones are a brilliant technological advancement I'm no luddite, in fact I'm a Crypto Knight ;-) So embrace and welcome change with open arms. I think the point of the OP was that anything can be abused and have negative consequences if the user loses touch with what's really important in life. This does seems to be happening in the many areas of change you mentioned. Change for change sake doesn't always mean it's a positive change. 

Edited February 23 by Conno

[scubascuba3]

Farang use phones as much as Thai people, except the elderly who often resist change

[Robert Paulson]

Cellphones are more harmful to kids than things like weed and alcohol, and yet we ban kids from using those substances. We have our heads jammed so far up our asses on this topic, we’re just delusional. Phones are harming young people. I think they should be disallowed, esp in schools but even elsewhere but that would be harder to enforce

[Skipalongcassidy]

3 minutes ago, Robert Paulson said:

Cellphones are more harmful to kids than things like weed and alcohol, and yet we ban kids from using those substances. We have our heads jammed so far up our asses on this topic, we’re just delusional. Phones are harming young people. I think they should be disallowed, esp in schools but even elsewhere but that would be harder to enforce

Florida has sent a law to the governor which will ban social media to the 16 and under crowd... the haters in the liberal left are frothing at the bit

[Robert Paulson]

1 hour ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

Florida has sent a law to the governor which will ban social media to the 16 and under crowd... the haters in the liberal left are frothing at the bit

Wow that’s quite impressive. Because it’s an obvious against the corporate agenda policy. 
 

I personally think in the distant future this is going to be an issue like smoking in say restaurants for example, where we just cant believe we let people do that. Same here. There’s simply no way kids being on phones all day is healthy, and people know this yet nobody talks about it. 

[PJ71]

1 hour ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

1 hour ago, Robert Paulson said:

 

Florida has sent a law to the governor which will ban social media to the 16 and under crowd

How will they do this?

[spidermike007]

It is the entire world. Especially those under 45. Absolutely obsessed with social media, selfies and taking photos of their food, and other things that do not mean anything. The world has lost touch with reality. 

 

We are no longer advancing as a species. Smartphones have insured that. 

[proton]

I draw the line at these phone zombies using them in the cinema and have told them off a couple of times. Mrs is a total addict, eats while watching stuff about food and non stop selfies and pics of food, even a cup of coffee, gets a bit much, oh and while driving that gets her told off sometime, to little effect.

[PJ71]

I travel internationally a lot, everywhere is the same, Thailand is not unique in the smart phone addiction.

[brianthainess]

Walked into a Supermarket pushing my trolley, following a Thai woman doing the same, she then just stops and is looking at her phone, I was very tempted to just keep going and just push into her, I just said 'Hey stop looking at your phone'. It seems they are completely unaware of their surroundings. 

There is one young woman just up the windy road from me, has a 3yr old, everywhere and Always she rides her M/C with child, while she stares at her phone. 

[rabas]

28 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

It is the entire world. Especially those under 45. Absolutely obsessed with social media, selfies and taking photos of their food, and other things that do not mean anything. The world has lost touch with reality. 

 

We are no longer advancing as a species. Smartphones have insured that. 

 

Worse, we are advancing at an astronomical rate in directions we can't even imagine. 

 

Moreover, the just bolted AI onto it all, with no idea what AI will do. 

 

[recom273]

I have a lot of experience with Thai teenagers - I used to teach in a provincial tec college. Kids are a little naughty, a little mischievous, distracted - but likeable and creative. I thought it was the norm for kids not only to spend their time watching online content but like making it, using messenger services to meet up, keep in contact, etc. I was amazed how far their digital network spreads here - smartphones are a tool.

An old friend sent her 19 year old son to start his backpacking trip with my wife and I - he had nothing to say, no personality, total oxygen thief who spent all day on the bed looking at TikTok, he didn’t post any content of the time, he was constantly chatting but what about? He didn’t do anything?? just travelled most of the way around the world to lie on a bed. When we went out, instead of being amazed by what he saw, he played candy crush. Really, I wouldn’t complain about Thai youth, they are way better than the British kid that I came into contact with.

[brewsterbudgen]

Didn't people have the same crises about books in the 18th/19th century, TV in the 1950s/1960s, then video games in the 1970s/1980s etc.

 

Things change.

[Old Croc]

I now live in Issan where the cultural practice pf dumping kids on the grandparents to raise, while the parents enjoy a quasi-single life in the city, is still very prevalent.

Mostly, the GPs also work, usually in the fields, so have little time to coddle kids. The smart phone and iPad are used extensively to keep the kids occupied. Despite the usual austere village lifestyle, all, from about 2 or 3yo up, have various devices constantly playing games, cartoons, etc. I often find their model is better than mine and feel I should upgrade to stay ahead.  

Annoyingly, various kids are often dumped in the falang house where they take over and expertly manipulate the big living room tv at full volume. I lost one large screen tv when small kids whacked cartoon characters with sticks.

 

Edit: As I posted this some kid just walked in and turned on the tv!

Edited February 24 by Old Croc

[Tropicalevo]

8 hours ago, henrik2000 said:

Thai All young people and their smartphones?

By young, I mean less than about 50 years old.

 

I was at dinner in the local Italian restaurant the other evening with friends - table of 5. All of us were older than 50.

No phones. Just eating, drinking and chatting.

70 - 80% of the other tables - hardly talking. Most on their phones.

 

The previous evening, I was dining with customers, again no phones.

100% of the other tables were on their phones.

The most worrying aspect of this scenario was that most tables had young children with them. Children on the phone almost all of the time.

One mother was actually feeding the lad of about 10(?) as he was playing with his phone so he could not feed himself.

No one was talking to their kids.

 

I live on a tourist island and there were no Thais in either scenario. Just foreigners.

[Gsxrnz]

Have times really changed that much?

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Farang use phones as much as Thai people, except the elderly who often resist change

Or

except the elderly who are polite and follow manners and etiquette.

 

I am elderly - ish (72). I carry two phones and use them all of the time BUT not when I am in company or socialising.

If I do happen to receive an urgent business call when in those situations, I excuse myself and answer the phone away from the group.

Most of my elderly 'younger' friends do the same.

The exception in our group are the couple who are 50 and 55. Always on their phones. Phone zombies when walking their dog with us.

 

Sorry - I should have added - no wifi on the phones. They are communication devices. Not entertainment hot spots.

Edited February 24 by Tropicalevo

[Henryford]

Well they certainly destroyed Thailand's nightlife, along with social media. But it's the same in every country.

[NotEinstein]

How long before cellphone jammers become a 'useful' to carry device?

[decca60]

My miss is so phone addict that, every time we get out with the car, I ask her to film the road. The only way I found to save some money by not buying a dash cam...................

[newbee2022]

12 hours ago, henrik2000 said:

Hello, what do you think about Thai people and their smartphones?

 

1. How did did smartphones change the country since circa 2007?
2. Do people in other Southeast Asian countries have a similar relationship to their smartphones, like in the Philippines, Vietnam etc.?
3. Do people in Western countries have a similar relationship tp smartphones like Thai people?
4. What changes brought the advent of mobile data, selfie-ism?

 

Irrelevant small personal experiences:

 

1. Upcountry, but not in the big cities, at least once a week I enter a shop or restaurant where staff is so absorbed with their smartphones that they don't notice me at all. I am hardwired to not interrupt people having important business, so I just walk back out and they never know I was there. Also some streetside taxi drivers lose my business that way. When cycling small town roads, i often see motorcyclists parked in the middle of nowhere, staring at their phones.
2. The reception at The Hot Springs is in a closed box with a closed, sliding window. I look through the window and see a lady immersed in her phone, naturally not seeing me. Now I have to overcome my discretion and knock hardly on the window pane. She looks up irritatedly, slides the window open, all the while looking at her phone, not at me. I have to tell her my wishes while she is looking and tapping at her phone, never looking at me. Another lady guides me to the booked place, walking “blindly” while constantly looking down at her phone. I don't dare to ask any question.
3. I was intimate with a high flying, very well earning + living Thai lady manager whose TWO phones rang and plang constantly, also on her hours and days off (she was never off really). Asked if she might want to turn off or at least mute her TWO phones during sex, she gave me a very annoyed look as if I seriously let her down.

 

But are Thais and their phones something extraordinary? Or just like anybody else around the globe, including you and me?

They are as ordinary as everywhere, with glued phones where employers will accept it.

[expat_4_life]

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Didn't people have the same crises about books in the 18th/19th century, TV in the 1950s/1960s, then video games in the 1970s/1980s etc.

 

Things change.

 

It was also impossible to keep your teenage daughter off the home phone

[JeffersLos]

I recently went back to Minnesota and it is far worse there than in Thailand. 

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, rabas said:

 

Worse, we are advancing at an astronomical rate in directions we can't even imagine. 

 

Moreover, the just bolted AI onto it all, with no idea what AI will do. 

 

From my point of view, AI and smartphones are both evidence we are moving backwards as a society, and as a culture. Technological advancements are not always a good thing, and not always a sign we are moving in the right direction.

[richard_smith237]

4 hours ago, Gsxrnz said:

Have times really changed that much?

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly... every generation seems to look back on the past with fondness and of future generations with disdain. 

Back in our parents days it was 'put that book down and go out and play'....

 

Phones, iPads etc are incredible educational and entertainment tools when used well. 

As with everything, it comes down to parenting. 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

4 hours ago, Henryford said:

Well they certainly destroyed Thailand's nightlife, along with social media. But it's the same in every country.

 

How did phones destroy the night life ????

 

IMO - they made it easier to make arrangements and meet up.

Edited February 24 by richard_smith237

[Enoon]

4 hours ago, Gsxrnz said:

Have times really changed that much?

 

 

 

The top photo is filed as "Men looking at job advertisments" from 1919

 

I'm guessing the other one is similar subject.

 

So a very different situation from playing Candy Crush or sending/looking at selfies or people cooking/eating food........all ******* day.

 

Those men are highly focused on a specific important task.

 

And once they've finished they will be about their business........likely wearing out their shoes going for the jobs.

 

Even if they were utterly absorbed with reading the early comic strips in the paper, or checking the race results......it would be over an done with then on with the rest of life.

 

Answer is yes......things are very different re. the way mobile phones are used today vs the way newspapers were read in the early 20thc.