Technological stuff.

We have been watching the latest series of House of Cards on Netflix. The candidate opposing Frank Underwood for presidency of the USA is, it becomes increasingly clear, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, making him very tense and irritable at times. In the episode we watched last night poor Will was being offered VR therapy for PTSD. This involves putting on a headset and finding yourself back in your stress situation. Then this morning there is an article in the Guardian Weekend magazine all about VR therapy for all sorts of stuff. What a coincidence!

The whole magazine is technology-themed, so one section is about apps for your phone. I don't buy apps. My grandchildren find this hard to understand. Some of them are quite amazing. You can get an app called RunPee which will tell you when is the best moment to run out for a wee while a film is playing. Of course, if you watch your films on Netflix, you can just pause it and run to the loo. Another uses Google street maps to show you what children's playgrounds look like, thus avoiding getting to on only to find it full of broken equipment and the leftovers from teenagers's get-togethers or, worse, syringes left behind from drug session. There is an app to send you sleep.

Most amazing, for me anyway, is PoopLog, which tracks how ofetn you go to the toilet for what the writer tweely calls a "number two". "Every time you do a number two, instead of absent-mindedly picking fights with strangers on Twitter, you can open the app, look between your legs and measure consistency (based onthe Bristol Stool Scale), size, time and location." Good grief! Too much information! I can see how certain medical conditions might find that useful but really, how anally-fixated do you need to be? Taking your phone to the loo is the best way to risk dropping it into the toilet. My mind boggles.

There is also an article about the addictive qualities of iPhone use. Some people, it tells me, "touch, swipe or tap their phone an average of 2,617 times a day." It talks about concerns regarding cognitive facility and attention span, "continuous partial attention"which limits the ability to focus and perhaps lowers IQ. Significantly many of those who work in silicone valley are working at weaning themselves off their own products and sending their children to schools where iPhone, iPads and even laptops are banned. Most of these are youngish people in their thirties, the age to have children starting school, who acknowledge that they are the last generation to remember a time before mass technology everywhere.Top executives, notably, are not bothered by any of this are bothered by any of this. Like the sellers of any addictive products they are more interested in making lots of money. 

And finally here is a link to Howard Jacobson's comments on technology. Interestingly (well, I think so anyway), he begins with a story of giving a child a conker and the child then trying to eat it, much to the parents' consternation, rather then recognising it as a thing to hang on a string and play/fight with. This reflects some of my remarks yesterday about children not recognising flora and fauna.

Mind you, there are plenty of countries where children are more likely to think that a chestnut is something to eat than something to play with.