Electronic Walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times. Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Maddog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us. The Electronic Walkabout welcome listeners around the world. Ever since the man, we've been bent on making our lives easier by developing the latest gadget. So the ones of course come to mind are the. The obvious one. The wheel. Can you imagine a world without. Without a wheel there, Mad Dog?

Nope. No, our cars would not ride the same.

Wow. It reminds me of the old cartoons, the Flintstones, when they had the. The square wheels.

And it was a rough ride. It still, still went, but yeah, it was really tough.

What about fire?

Yeah, you start thinking about the city, simple things, right? Because you were like, oh, with sketches to help. And I'm thinking iPhones or something like that. And you're like, fire? We all like. Oh, right, that far back. Okay.

Oh, yeah. See, we don't even. Well, safe to say when I was growing up, there was no such thing as an iPhone. And my first cell phone was a flip phone. I guess some people are getting back at the retro thing is. Is new again. What's that?

I'm sorry? It's like bell bottoms from the 60s, right? They were good, they went out, they came back. It happens with everything. So it doesn't surprise me that the ph. Like Atari games, right? Like the. They've relaunched them and, you know, you can get 500 games on one kind of drive and stuff, so everybody likes the old favorites. Just sometimes for just a fresh spin on it.

We were at the hotel, Josh and I, on the weekend in Vancouver, and I looked over and there was like Galactica game. And I said, St. Josh, I said, do you think that's an original or just a retro? Of course, just a retro is what he said. So.

Yeah. Well, we were out for dinner at a local pizzeria this weekend, and it had an 80s arcade attached to it and there was Donkey Kong Dig Dug, like all, all the old classics. So I was in heaven. I spent a few quarters there, so. Quarters?

Are you. Are you. Are you kidding me? It's still just a quarter for a game.

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a. It's the kid draw, right? Like, that's how they. They get the parents in there to sit around as they have cheap games for the kids, like. Cheese?

Now, Maddog. We. We fast forward a few hundred Years. And let's go. We have computers that are a large part of our everyday lives. They help us work at home. And there's not one aspect in our life today that technology has not touched. So. So join us during this episode as we question whether technology is a friend or foe or simply a frenemy.

Friend of me. Not my, not, not, not my coin on terms there but do together. You get a friend of me. You really want to have a friend of me is what I'm wondering. Still sounds ominous at the. The back end.

So are you ready for this? I am. You ready to get switched on with new technology?

Yeah, I wouldn't go that far. I said I'm ready for talking.

Ready. But first, as always, a thought for the day. Technology was to make our lives easier by making work more efficient and giving us more time to enjoy life. The problem is no one got the memo.

Yeah, yeah. It's as much as people say, you know, oh yeah, it helps alleviate this and this. No, the days are busy no matter how you organize them and stuff. So I think technology sure plays a part in it, but it doesn't completely solve.

Yeah.

The time crunch crisis.

It's such a communication tool. And I'll tell you right now that if you weren't plugged in when I was doing that old job and you miss like literally the memo and, and especially with things that are time sensitive, it, it wasn't pretty when, when you missed that, that bus, that boat, or the, literally the, the horse had left the barn because you weren't plugged in at the time. So you were taking the task on that. So the expectation was you, you were going to be plugged into that system whether you liked it or not, just hardwired. And I don't, I don't know if I shared with, I was talking to my daughter the other day and I, and I said, okay, do you realize way back when we had these things called landlines and someone would call and if you weren't home, pick up and there was no answering machine. No harm, no foul, someone just tried calling you back or they didn't and life just went on.

That's it. Or if, you know, somebody asked you the question for something, you didn't have Google at your fingertips, you couldn't answer everything in a split second. So different era.

Okay, so you, you've already mentioned a bit, one thing. The, the whole iPhone thing. Is there any other other types of technologies that come to mind that. I'll just say that play A part in our lives and the best of intentions meant to make life easier for us, more efficient.

I think, you know, aside from obviously the computers and stuff, I. You start seeing more VR games or virtual reality games. So, you know, that doesn't, I'm sure it helps some industries or outside of my pay range, but you know, now you've got these meta glasses and it's, it's really starting to evolve and it almost is like mapping out your whole life for you digitally. But yeah, it's, it's a little unnerving for me.

But I, I know we, we talk a little bit about AI just. And maybe we'll one day we'll do a whole show on AI, but just the mere fact where, when you think about even a university education where simply the suggestion is I don't have to do term paper, I just have to go to one of the AI platforms and say, hey, I need a term paper on whatever. And it spits it out. I know they're checking to see whether or not the documents was created by AI or not, but that's the world we're living in today.

Yeah. And it's no different than driving, you know, with the smart cars. My wife and I were traveling and we got an Uber and that was sort of her first time in a smart car or Tesla. So we're driving and you know, halfway through the ride the guy just full on turns around, starts talking to us. You know, the natural instinct is to freak out, like, watch the road, buddy. But nope, it was driving itself. And it was, it was, it was unnerving. But you know, you said, oh man, in 10 years the kids aren't even going to know how to drive because they'll be relying on all this driver assist stuff. And that freaked me out. That would freak me out too. Especially if it started to literally it would have want to. And it didn't necessarily adhere to any of your wishes. As you're traveling down the highway, the door's lock and it wants to go for a swim. You're going for a swim too.

Yeah. So I'm just going to ask you this question with respect to. I think I've got six or seven things and we're just going to kind of banter it back and forth. But how has technology affected communication these days?

I think communication, it has affected it greatly and I definitely have reaped the benefits of that since we moved away. That with all of our sons kind of being scattered around, we have, you know, family teams, calls every couple of weeks where everybody gets on and we just, you know, share space together and chat for an hour, hour and a half and it's refreshing and everybody loves it. So you know, I definitely enjoy taking advantage of those types of things. And you know, with work we got cell phones and iPads, all the supporting stuff that you would need to communicate. So you know, as far as communication goes, I, it hasn't done anything that I haven't liked or been able to get my head around.

You. You know, I, I always think about communication being like a face to face type of communication because then you can actually see the non verbal. I'll just call it the human, human touch. And with the, the FaceTime or whatever it is, it's just not the same. You, you don't have that connection like, like you're used to. But maybe that's just the old school guys. And that's because I'm sure if you ask someone that's younger that that, that the only communication they've had, let's say is either through Texting or the FaceTime or whatever it is that they're. I guess, I don't know.

And I think a lot of people like the anonymity of emails and stuff and texts where they don't have to engage with the person. They can just fire off answers without to your point, the, the human response, if you will.

Okay, so. And this. And we've, we've heard of it before. Well, where people will actually break up through text or email or whatever it is. And we know that that's totally wrong, it's inappropriate. And I'll just maybe even go as far as maybe calling that individual Howard for, for kind of taking that step that way for sure. Because out of respect for, out of respect for that individual you're no longer want to be in a relationship with. You should be having that face to face conversation.

Yeah. Like I said, it's easy to hide behind a lot of these devices for people. So unfortunately that's how some of these things get handled.

Okay. Technology and convenience with our daily tasks. Any ideas that come to mind?

Just no daily tasks. Not that I can think of. I'm sure there's lots, but yeah, I don't. Aside from, you know, using cars and stuff to get places. Technology per se.

What about online grocery shopping?

Not for me. I'm an in person purchaser. I refuse to use the term shopping because I don't go and shop. I go and buy stuff. Exactly what I need.

So that you have to feel the produce, you have to squeeze The Charmins. You have to. A little bit of all that.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I think that we're kind of an in between household where. Yeah. At a convenience even today you just pull up to the back and they come out with your order and you check it and you certainly check it when you get home to make sure that this is ripe or maybe this is overripe. And if it is, they're more than happy to accommodate to you if there's something not right with your produce. That's for sure.

Yeah, it's great. And they have a lot of those meal delivery services now that you can kind of set your weekly menu. And yet if you're time crunched or whatever the case may be. Yeah, those. Those serv. I definitely think come in handy.

Information awareness.

Awareness or overload.

Oh, that's another thing. We should talk about that. That'll be on the other. How's it made our lives more complex. But we're going to talk about that for sure. That's. That's really, really good. When I thought about that and I just heard it on the radio as I was pulling in and you see it on your phones these days where. Where you virtually hear this has been a test of the emergency Broadcast System. But you know as well as I do that if you have a handheld device that literally you get those tests as well and they come up as a. As a message and I believe there's supposed to be a bit of an alarm sound that goes with that passage.

It's very bombish. Like you should be ducking for cover when you hear those that. But yeah, it's. But the one thing that I actually can say that I. I would definitely be happy to have evolved was the whole Amber alert and you know, the senior alerts and stuff like that. Like a great way to that information out ASAP and be interesting to know the stats of, you know, with when that is used and what the success rate is.

Oh, for sure. I. And. And there's. There's a good example where it's been a real, positive role. Plus just getting back that whole handheld device and that message coming up. I know it. I. And I'll just call the technology new because it's not perfect because I know that let's say two or three people in the household got the message, but the one didn't. And always a little bit of a humor and you just think, well, I'm. I'm sorry you didn't get to the alert. We know what that means. You got voted off the you're not

in the cool kids club anymore.

What do you mean I didn't get the alert?

Yeah, exactly. Am I missing something? Somebody not telling me something?

Yes, Financial management. Do you stand in line in banks these days at all?

No, no, it's. Unless I need like a certified check or something like that. But no, it's. So that is definitely been the convenience has been able to, you know, manage your finances through the apps on your phone. So I definitely take advantage of that one.

It is, it is so easy to pay a bill depending on the bank too. Like some banks are better online than others. I know that, that if I were to make a purchase and use the bank card, one of the accounts I have, automatically that pops up one of the other banks that I have, it takes a day for it to show up in the account. The balance still goes down like it should, but you don't necessarily see what the purchase is. Like you would, right? Like it should almost be in real time.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm learning the ways of the U.S. banks and whatnot and but it's all seems to be the same, you know, being able to transfer money from account to account and you know, all the same alerts and stuff. So yeah, there's, it's been pretty seamless.

And do you worry too, too much about the conversion rate at this point

or are you just going, ooh, I'm taking advantage of that, let me tell you because yeah, I'm getting paid in US dollars. So now I just flip it over to Canadian Savings and capitalize on said.

Yes, yes. And that's the other thing too. Like you can, you can find out what the bank rate is the conversion rate for today, just go online and find it. If you want to see what the conversion rate for let's say September 5, 2025, you can go online, find out what the rate was for that date as well. It's, it's staying nice in that sense.

It's funny because back in the olden days, you know, you'd have to look up all of those stats in the paper, right in the financial section. They, they publish all the stock information as long as or as well as, you know, the TV guides to figure out what's on t struggles that kids nowadays will just never know.

Yes. What about travel?

How has that helped for me personally actually really well because I have the airline, hotel, Uber, all those apps on my phone. So it's it. I can check in online for pretty much everything. I pre order vehicles for travel. So yeah, I 100% embrace technology when it comes to travel.

I'm thinking our Uber driver on the weekend should have embraced technology a little bit better because we were at the hotel and we wanted to get the BC place. So I get the Uber and I put in the address like you're supposed to. That worked perfect. And then he stops in front of an apartment building. He says, we're here. I look him, I said, no, we're not. I said, how can you, how can you not see what DC place is such a big place. Yeah. I said, no, we're not. We're not where we're supposed to be right now. Oh, yes we are. I said, no, we're not. That. I tell you what, just drive over there, drive over there and then you'll see where we are. And then you let us off.

Wow.

And all he, all he had to do was actually use technology because he just had to follow his map, right?

Yeah. Memory gets you nowhere.

Yeah. Well, he seemed maybe he might have been a little bit older than I, maybe resisting technology a little bit. So I don't.

There's that, Is there paper maps on the front seat?

Yeah. Yes, yes. Healthcare positive or negative?

Yeah, I think, you know, if you get blood tests done now you can find the results online before your doctors do. And of course that's great because then everybody just self diagnoses at that point. But you know, for blood work and stuff you can pre book appointments. I don't think it's, I haven't gotten that far with, I haven't seen any doctors being able to, you know, book appointments online. But yeah, I think it's been good so far. Like have any.

This. I, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said the whole self diagnosis or people are googling their symptoms and figure out after they've googled their system is that they're going to die.

Then within two days I'm sure it's

going to ramp up where technology is more the enemy than the friend in this case. So we have increased burnout, information overload and you've already mentioned that as well. Privacy concerns. That's a big one with people. Yeah. Keeping up with the pace of rapid communication, if you care. Of course.

That's easy. And the new phone comes out or the new headphones or whatever. Yeah. People will clamor for that stuff and stand in line and pay exorbitant amounts of money for it.

Yes. Here's one. Distracted driving. I mean, it's bad. It's bad. So you, you should not Be texting and driving. Use the, the hands free. That's what you should be doing. But I still see people looking down at their phones all the time and it's, it's just not a good thing.

No, it's. And there's no real. People are just going to learn that one the hard way. Unless, you know, they've. They're all sorts of crazy fines if you get caught, but people still do it. To your point, family functions is a way to avoid them.

Well, see, what happens is this is in the negative side too. So what happens is you go to your family function, everybody's still got their handheld devices and they're not, they're not plugged into the family function, they're still plugged into their device. So wouldn't it be nice if as you walked into that family function, there was a bag, everybody just dropped their phones in the bag and literally you unplug yourself from your device and you plugged yourself into your family for that time.

Absolutely. It's no different than, you know, the whole breakup via phone or text or whatever. It's that you're avoiding that human interaction even if it's your own family people tied up. I'm looking at this and this and this and yeah, it's just not great.

Any time where you've heard a cell flow ring when it shouldn't and that's technology getting in the way of something. Funerals, funerals that happened, that happened not too long ago. I was at a funeral and I just said, well that better be God calling. So I don't.

Well, that's it. It's. You'd figure that's the base thing of what you're going to take care of going into an event like that.

So I mean, there are some pros and cons, but I'm just going to go through kind of some ideas there where there are ways we can, and it pretty well has to become a habit where we can unplug, create no phone zones. So different than I said that if you come into this area, unplug, put your cell phone there, you might even have to communicate with someone face to face. Right. Implement a bedtime routine. Stop using electronic devices at least one hour before bed to allow your brain to wind down and boost melatonin so

you don't ask for one.

I think it could be naturally created.

That's crazy talk.

I know. Use analog alarm clocks. Charge devices outside the bedroom to prevent immediate morning or late night scrolling silence notification. There's a lot of people that a Silence notification already batch your check ins. Instead of checking emails and social media constantly set specific times to do it.

People's organized with your check thinking, what's that? So be more organized with your scrolling.

So I think it can be done. And I know there's Josh's trainer, he's one of these guys that he uses his cell phone for business to communicate, but most of the time he'll like put it aside like it doesn't exist and it's, guess what, he survives.

And in business it shows that you're, you know, you value your customer, your client and you're not preoccupied with something else.

That's correct, yeah. So any, any other things that might come to mind? Maddog, when it comes to, let's say technology being a friend or an enemy, not really.

Just I think it's going to be more impactful to our lives whether it's positive or negative, because all these new gadgets keep coming out and it's. I just hope we don't turn into like all those people in that movie Wall E where they're all confined to floating recliners because we can't move anymore because everything became too convenient.

Yes, I'm with you there. I think every once in a while we need a wake up call just to remind us that there needs to be a human touch to remain human. And if we plug in too much into technology, there's so much that we're losing there and it still drives me crazy. Literally when someone's in the same house, when they send you a text, what are you doing?

You know, walked 15 steps and ask.

Yeah, kind of crazy. Or I get the text and I actually respond by walking to 15 steps. And it still works quite well. But maybe they're just trying to be efficient, maybe they're multitasking.

Yeah, let's go with that.

Yes, maybe. Well, unfortunately, there's that music telling us that this episode has come to an end. Now, safe to say technology is a frenemy as far as I'm concerned, because there are pros and cons. Although it has shifted the nature of our problems from physical limitations to mental exhaustion and digital management. While it has made life vastly more efficient for most, it requires conscious effort to manage, always on connectivity to ensure it acts as a butler serving rather than a boss controlling. So the bottom line with that is that if you can actually become a slave to that technology, and it's quite easy because if you have notifications, you see it all the time. People get a notification and they gotta look right away because they might. They might miss them in the world,not collapse if they don't open that Snapchat. Oh, God. And I. And the something about Snapchat, of course, I don't have that app, but is that once you see it, it's gone.

A lot of stupid things, I'm sure. Happy. Exactly. You think it's gone?

Yeah. Yes. So remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about e walkabout, please visit us at ewalkabout.ca

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