CSotD: Phoney Concerns and Tales of Hell

I think today’s Deflocked (AMS) is largely an example of lead time. When the first cell phone bans in school were announced, editorial cartoonists leapt to depict disheartened children, though my own suspicion was that the kids would largely shrug it off and either adjust to life in the here and now or find new ways to smuggle in, and use, their phones.

It wasn’t that I’m a genius or psychic, but I worked in schools for a couple of decades and I’ve got grandkids in the right age group.

I know there is a phone ring at a pitch most adults can no longer hear, and I have had the experience of sitting down to a computer in a school library to find a recipe for marijuana brownies on the screen with the text changed to white so you’d have to know it was there.

Kids today have the ability to stay one step ahead of grown-ups, just as we did when we were students.

But I have also seen a news article where a reporter took the time to ask kids how it was going (fancy that!) and got mostly a shrug, though one girl observed that the kids spend more time talking to each other at lunch rather than texting, which she liked.

So now we’re far enough into the school year that the comic strips are catching up, and we’ll see if others take it up as a topic.

Juxtaposition of the Day

Betty — AMS

Speed Bump — Creators

As Betty points out, a lot of people don’t use their phones as phones anymore, though I think of this as a phenomenon for people younger than her friend Alex. Getting hold of kids on the phone is a pointless exercise and if you get their voice message, it will tell you it’s full because they never check it, much less clear it out.

For which I can’t blame them, because I haven’t even set it up on my last two phones. I’m still in Old Duffer mode, but that means I use e-mail, which is also a fading technology among the under-30 crowd, because I like its permanence for things that involve planning or detail. I often search to find when I bought something or to locate somebody’s contact info, and YMMV but I find it much easier than going through old texts.

But the most blatant sign of my being an Old Duffer is that I rarely use my phone for anything but an occasional phone call or to text my dog-walking buddy to let her know I’m on the way to the park, and sometimes to look up a bit of trivia while I’m there.

The rest of the time, I’m on my desktop, where you can actually see what you’re looking at, and, if nothing else, this gives me permission to complain about the way newspapers are shrinking the comics, which would be silly if I were reading them on a phone.

Anyway, if when I die I end up like the folks in Speed Bump having to give up my phone, I’ll need to check the sign on the door, because it will seem more like Heaven than Hell to me.

Meanwhile, Arctic Circle (KFS) takes a swipe at AI and good for her. The flood of computer art on social media is annoying, but the real heartbreak is how readily it’s accepted by the general public, whose respect for artists seems all but nonexistent.

Though at least there is pushback over the AI-generated album cover for Tears For Fears long-unawaited comeback. I’m willing to take whatever resistance I can get, and I’ll skip listening to see if they used a real drummer or just a machine.

Which reminds me of a cartoon I drew in college — class of ’72 — that depicted a pretty girl in a recording studio while, behind the glass, the engineer is saying to his assistant “Bring me her last album. I’ve forgotten what she’s supposed to sound like.”

It’s not new, it’s just gotten more sophisticated. It’s easy enough to cite memes as the culprit, because cut-and-paste artistry has definitely cheapened the real thing, but I wrote a column 30 years ago about how Photoshop and Forrest Gump were making it difficult for people to tell the trickery from reality and the phenomenon has certainly not improved since.

The Idiocracy is upon us, and the notion that someone will awaken a Great Pushback seems more naive every day.

And yes, I’ve been an Old Duffer all my life.

And speaking of the confluence of technology and idiocy, Bill Day posted this cartoon on Facebook the other day, only to have it censored and then his appeal denied.

The algorithm spotted it as nudity or sexual activity, which is foolish enough, but then their appeal system apparently doesn’t involve having anyone with the brainpower of a cocker spaniel actually look at the piece.

I suggested to Bill that depicting cheeks is forbidden regardless of at which end of the body they are found, but we have all seen bare bottoms on Facebook, so it’s not that simple.

I suspect the problem, rather, is with the asses in charge.

Can’t We Talk About Something Less Apocalyptic?

Rhymes With Orange (KFS) offers people one last chance to have fun, and I sure hope you aren’t waiting for that opportunity, though I like the thoroughness of thought that has put an outboard motor on Charon’s boat so he can tow the ride at a fun speed.

And this cultural note: When Psyche visited the Underworld, she was cautioned not only to carry a coin in her mouth to pay Charon, but to carry a piece of barley cake soaked in honey to feed to Cerberus, the horrible three-headed dog who guards the Underworld.

Speaking of horrific dogs, The Other Coast (Creators) offers this caution about letting even a one-headed dog into your house. I’ve had a puppy tear a piece from the wall-to-wall carpeting and another bite a chunk off a couch cushion, but most of my pups have done only minor damage to unimportant things.

Anyone you let into your life is apt to create a little damage and chaos, but as Cupid and Psyche teach us, the outcome is Pleasure: