Are the machines destroying Thai culture?

[thaibeachlovers]

Not a real question.

No definition of culture is EVER satisfactory - so that word should be chucked.

As for seeing the use of mobile devices as a Thai-only thing is just so myopic as to be risible.

and with the relative free flow of information in a country that spends a lot of time and effort trying to censor ALL media, it probably has a BENEFICIAL effect on Thailand as a country.

<As for seeing the use of mobile devices as a Thai-only thing is just so myopic as to be risible.>

In case you hadn't noticed, this site is called THAI visa, not world visa.

< it probably has a BENEFICIAL effect>

Yeah right. Child abuse and dog fighting VDOs are soooooooooo beneficial.

[JLCrab]

From an article on the 1995 passing of the legendary Broadway producer:

In the last year of his life, George Abbott, at the age of 107, was asked what was the biggest change he had seen on Broadway. He paused, then replied, "Electricity."

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/06/theater/abbott-is-remembered-in-the-colorful-spirit-of-broadway.html

[thaibeachlovers]

From an article on the 1995 passing of the legendary Broadway producer:

In the last year of his life, George Abbott, at the age of 107, was asked what was the biggest change he had seen on Broadway. He paused, then replied, "Electricity."

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/06/theater/abbott-is-remembered-in-the-colorful-spirit-of-broadway.html

Yes indeed. Electricity was a world changer while the machines that addict youth are unessential.

Probably most of us grew up without any of today's so called essentials, and were quite happy doing so. Man went to the moon without them, broke the sound barrier without, invented penecillin and atomic energy without, dived to the bottom of the ocean without, listened to great music without, played sport without.

Now youths sit and chat to "friends" ( people they don't know ) and get obese. Hardly seems to be "better" to me.

[SoiBiker]

Stop the world - he wants to get off.

[thaibeachlovers]

Stop the world - he wants to get off.

Thank you for your valuable contribution to the discussion .

[SoiBiker]

What's to discuss? Change happens. Technology develops. A few luddites fear it, and the rest of us just get on with using it in whatever way benefits us.

[thaibeachlovers]

What's to discuss? Change happens. Technology develops. A few luddites fear it, and the rest of us just get on with using it in whatever way benefits us.

Thank you for your valuable contribution to the discussion .

[JLCrab]

When I first started working in PR China late 1980's everything from USA to/from China had to done by TELEX. I had to track down one of the last of the TELEX operators in San Francisco area to handle correspondence.

[meand]

Thai culture is what is destroying Thai culture.

[SoiBiker]

Thai culture, like other living cultures, is constantly changing.

A few elderly farangs might not like the way it's changing, but that doesn't mean it's being destroyed.

[culicine]

Kids are obssessed with technology, yet the government does not allow calculators (a tool) to be used in Thai government schools...go figure!

[bkkgooner]

I saw a family of three in MK the other day, mother, father and an older son probably about 19-20 and the &lt;deleted&gt; had the phone out playing some silly little farming sim game for the entire meal. What kind of man ignores his own parents at a meal in a restaurant in favour of playing a farming sim game? Even my stepson at the age of 11 knows not to be playing on phones or tablets or anything when sitting together with family eating a meal.

It is really a outright weird obsession that is becoming a cultural norm in most Asian countries, groups of people out for lunch who are the best of friends but they are all sitting there playing with their smartphones and doing a great job of ignoring each other.

[JLCrab]

In the MK situation above the parents might have preferred it that way.

[RikDao]

Isn't this thread all a bit ironic being posted on a web form?

where would you suggest he post it, letters to the editor of the post?

Hahahah! I think the key word here is "ironic," which you seemed to miss, sam.

[samran]

Isn't this thread all a bit ironic being posted on a web form?

where would you suggest he post it, letters to the editor of the post?

Hahahah! I think the key word here is "ironic," which you seemed to miss, sam.

I'm the one who pointed out the irony.

[3NUMBAS]

a modern form of slavery

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2750540/Are-Apple-customers-slaves-firm-Desire-789-iPhone-6-Plus-driven-habit-expert-claims.html

[A1Str8]

No.

[sdanielmcev]

Back when I was a kid, we had a stick and rock for playthings. It really isn't about the technology, more about attitudes to what some deem important. No one gets out of here alive.

Did they have fire yet???

Nah. We had to read TV by candlelight.

[sdanielmcev]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-udg9zQSE

Almost forgot

[nisakiman]

It's in the US too....reason you see it here more is there are hardly any "latchkey" kids here because of the fear in the US - kids that go from school to an empty house and sit there waiting for their parents to get home....most of them are on computer - only behind doors.....

Social skills dimished while anti-social skills increase - you can only play so many shoot them dead games on the computer where the hero gets a new start next game.....I use to know an anti gang activist in the US and he said a good number of deaths occur because of these games programming where kids become anethestitised to the reality of risks and fear of bullets but still feel comfortable pulling a trigger......he remembered holding the hand of a dying teen that had been shot....as he was dying he looked up and said "nobody told me it would hurt".......

I think in LOS it's more social media - which means exactly the opposite as it singles away the individual & reduces activities such as scouts, after school sports, music programs/pursuits....healthy group activities where values as well as competition, winning, and losing are learned.....much easier to visit the world through a little electronic window - not even wanting to think or experience for themselves......

I believe there was a TV article awhile back about complaints at a well established eatery for time served, cold food, etc (USA)....turned out after reviewing CCTV tapes from 12 years before that the difference was from people playing on their phones, making waitiers come back many times to get the orders, having pictures taken, forgetting about the served food, then complaining about the service and food.....meanwhile, even though the place had hired more help to offer better service it didn't work because the diners were spending double the time "eating" & also depriving the establishment of generating more profit by not being able to turn the tables over quickly and having waiting diners leave rather than wait for a table......

Interestingly, along the same lines, a guy I knew who worked in the oil industry told me that the reason there are signs on petrol (gas for our American friends) pumps forbidding the use of mobile / cell phones has nothing to do with any danger of explosions; it's because people were spending too long at the pump if they were on the phone, and they were losing money as a result of reduced throughput. So they fabricated the danger of electronic ignition.

I don't know how much truth there is in that, but it sounds about right!

[wilcopops]

The pump thing was down to fears that the phones would interfere with the signal from the pump to the kiosk, where you pay....Thailand doesn't have self-serve pumps or remote kiosks.

[nisakiman]

Are you saying that despite having cables running underground between kiosk and pump anyway for the power supply, they use wireless technology to send information about quantity pumped between pump and kiosk? That sounds unlikely, given the simplicity and low cost of running another cable alongside the power cables to relay the information between pump and console.

[thaibeachlovers]

Thai culture, like other living cultures, is constantly changing.

A few elderly farangs might not like the way it's changing, but that doesn't mean it's being destroyed.

Reply # 88.

<Perhaps I should have titled the thread, "is the addiction to machines a good thing for Thai children?">

Just for you.

[namdocmai]

Yesterday i was a birthday party of a young girl next door. The tv was on and we had to see the release of the new Iphone6. It took about 5-10 minutes so i thought it was a commercial going on but then i found out it was the Thai news broadcast!

The presentor was talking about Apppuuuuul Appulllll , she even couldn't pronounce it right. I was invited to that party because the girl is attending a bilingual scool now but as soon as she saw me (7 years old) she went into the corner of the room with her new cellphone (playing a game) and never looked at me. Then she run upstairs and never came down for as long as we all were eating. Dad went upstairs, hit her and told her to come down and speak to me but she cried like pig so she won and stayed upstairs untill we left.

How can those kids learn to speak english if the presentors on tv even can't do it?

My wife is also very addicted to LINE and her games on the phone. In every restaurant we go i see whole family's staring at their computers. They even bring Ipads and loads of smartphones, nobody communicates with their company.

Sad.

[JLCrab]

_FYI: Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/fashion/steve-jobs-apple-was-a-low-tech-parent.html

[sirineou]

I thin the mistake is, that the OP considers culture as a static entity, It clearly is not, culture is always changing, and with in change resides opportunity and danger.

Are the changes good or bad? well I guess that depends on your perspective. Good or bad being subjective terms.

Is a longer lifespan better or worst? is a healthier life more desirable? Is an enhanced ability to communicate and be able to have conversations such as the one we are having now with people from all over the world better? How about the ability to access information, More information provides for better decision making. Is better decision making Good?

Give the name of an item, any item, I can Google it, then chose images and see a picture of it, Can you imagine when the technology exists (not far from now) for your brain to directly access Google? Instant access to all the information in the world at command.

This is a very exciting time we live in, and I am glad to be in it. Perhaps the next step in human evolution

HomoTecnos

I certainly don't consider "culture" to be static. If it was we'd still be living in caves and lighting fire with a stick.

Perhaps I should have titled the thread, "is the addiction to machines a good thing for Thai children?"

Yea, That's a good question, I'm afraid I don't have a good answer, other than to say, that i don't believe the condition is Thai specific.or limited to our time. There were always machines and tools to enhance communications, from smoke signals to Morse code,It.s just that now we have better machines and better tools.

It is a world wide revolution in communications, and with better communications comes ,, I hope,, better understanding.

Then there is the other side of the argument. does it isolate?

I don't believe it does,I believe it has brought the world closer together, and removed barriers,

Communications have being evolving since early humans started exchanging ideas with the spoken word, and one persons discovery did not die with that person,then writing helped preserve these ideas,

but analog communications were limited by time and space. With each progression these limitations are diminished.

Good book, though by now somewhat dated, by Thomas Friedman "the world is Flat. below is a small clip

I guess years from now people will be alarmed about telepathic communications and lament about the good old days of Skype when people actually spoke and show each other

[media]

[media]

[Neeranam]

20-25 years ago it was the same except everyone had a Tetris hand held game. Anything to escape the realities of life.

[shadmo63]

It's my experience that the youth of today, compared to the youth of you and your era, are 1. Much better educated and worldly, 2. Nowhere near as homophobic, 3. Nowhere near as racist, 4. Nowhere near as bigoted 5. Nowhere near as sexist, and last but not least 6. Nowhere near as ignorant and small-minded.

Machines as a rule have moving parts, digital devices as a rule do not. Only a creature from Jurassic Park would refer to a smartphone as a machine.

Thai culture is evolving unlike some of the 'dinosaurs' around this forum. The arrogant attitude toward youngsters is from another era too. Who do you think you are to judge a persons whole life and culture from a two minute viewing of them having dinner? Your use of simple anecdotes to make and pass judgements is just so TV and so ignorant it's laughable. What utter arrogance!! Anyway as I recall, in the Jurassic period, children were to be seen and not heard. So what's the problem?

[thaibeachlovers]

It's my experience that the youth of today, compared to the youth of you and your era, are 1. Much better educated and worldly, 2. Nowhere near as homophobic, 3. Nowhere near as racist, 4. Nowhere near as bigoted 5. Nowhere near as sexist, and last but not least 6. Nowhere near as ignorant and small-minded.

Machines as a rule have moving parts, digital devices as a rule do not. Only a creature from Jurassic Park would refer to a smartphone as a machine.

Thai culture is evolving unlike some of the 'dinosaurs' around this forum. The arrogant attitude toward youngsters is from another era too. Who do you think you are to judge a persons whole life and culture from a two minute viewing of them having dinner? Your use of simple anecdotes to make and pass judgements is just so TV and so ignorant it's laughable. What utter arrogance!! Anyway as I recall, in the Jurassic period, children were to be seen and not heard. So what's the problem?

<Who do you think you are to judge a persons whole life and culture from a two minute viewing of them having dinner?>

From Wikipedia- machine ( I'll take Wikipedia over you any day ).

Electronic devices

Vacuum tube, Transistor, Diode, Resistor, Capacitor, Inductor, Memristor, Semiconductor, Computer

NB Vacuum tubes, transitors and diodes have no moving parts.

[thaibeachlovers]

20-25 years ago it was the same except everyone had a Tetris hand held game. Anything to escape the realities of life.

Yes, some people obviously have a terrible life, so they have to use any means to avoid it- talking to imaginary friends on a machine, drugs, computer games, coming on TV and ranting at people they don't know ( not you ). Sad.