BS: The Human Touch

Subject: BS: The Human Touch
From: saulgoldie
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 11:52 AM

In more and more places and in more and more applications humans are being replaced with electronic or do-it-yourself interaction modes. The latest is the self-checkout at grocery and department stores. Perhaps if most users were proficient with all the push-button interfaces we would be able to "get more done." But I maintain that "getting more done" is not all that it is about. I insist that as a social species, the more we separate ourselves from each other, the worse is our quality of life, even if we ARE "getting more done."

Case in point: I can listen to dozens of CDs at home without the hassle of getting there and getting home. But having the people on the stage or in the circle, some smelling sweetly, and some not, some misbehaving, and some being charming, having some of (whatever) to drink or eat is superior to that lonesome experience, even though both are listening to music.

Let vigorous discussion ensue.

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 12:10 PM

In the same category, karaoke (sp?) machines are replacing live instruments in churches... black and white. Even with "live" musicians in attendance, I see more and more singers getting up with their "box" and doing gospel to a pre-recorded back-up.

On the positive side, I still commonly see groups in black churches who sing without any instrumentation. I never tire of hearing human voices in harmony. Sure beats canned backgrounds, in my mind.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 12:11 PM

superior? in some ways. depends on what you want out of the experience at the moment.

frankly - I enjoy live shows. But I detest crowds, I don't have the time to spend traveling - and there are few to no live music shows near me

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 12:18 PM

Being pretty reclusive, I feel immensely lucky to have the option of tech devices to stay tuned to the outside world. Those of us who don't do especially well in crowds (I used to) would be in sorry shape without those instuments of the devil ;-D

Seriously, I'll be interested to see what others post here.

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 05:57 PM

Clifford Stoll, author of "The Cuckoos Egg" and "Silicon Snakeoil", says in the latter that libraries are becoming too computerized and losing the personal contact needed.

Bull 'taters, say I. Libraries are using computers as tools, but they still have story hours, still have book discussion groups, still offer personal help.

Or at least this one does. And as long as I'm Director it will continue to do so.

In music, I'm bothered by the ubiquitous "DJ" and his music machine. What ever happened to live music? To real, live, dance bands? To something created on the spot rather than being recorded earlier?

One of the joys of such television shows as Red Skelton was that it was live -- not "recorded before a live studio audience" but broadcast live. Flubs and all. Ad libs and all. And to see the performers enjoying themselves added to the enjoyment of the performance.

Same thing goes for music.

Rant machine is now in off mode.

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 06:12 PM

I do what I can to offset this criminal slide into mechanism by being ever ready to croak out a song.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: C-flat
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 06:40 PM

I've loved music for as long as I can remember but the first time I ever saw music actually being played was mesmerising.
I was maybe seven or eight years old when a string quartet visited my school and I remember marvelling at these real people actually making music together.
I've never recovered.
I would rather be entertained by the local garage band on their first ever gig than someone armed with backing tapes or a D.J.
Maybe it's to do with engaging all your senses at once that make the live experience so much more fulfilling.
I take my daughter to events, theatre, concerts, etc, just to watch her face shine and in all the 30 years (on and off) that I've been playing I would love to think that someone, (just one would do,) was affected in the same way as I was all those years ago.
We seem to be distancing ourselves from reality more and more with each generation in every area of our lives. Our food comes in pretty packages with the option of a home order/delivery service, we take our entertainment at home via cable and satellite and make friends with people we will never meet, sitting at our computers. Sometimes it requires a little effort to get out of the armchair and go outside to mix with real people and I worry that the next generation coming through will completely lose the art of conversation and the sense of community.
This place is populated by some marvellous characters, many of whom I would dearly love to meet face to face, and our shared love of music does create a kind of community feeling but until we've shared a drink or a song together you can only be "someone I'd like to know."

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 08:00 PM

Isaac Asimov wrote many years ago of a planet where the population was sparse, and lived in personal hideaways, communicating by a cross between television and the internet. It is amazing how many of the problems and issues of reduced human contact he noted in the development of the story line.

Individual people vary in their need for interaction, but society as a whole needs to stop reducing the OPPORTUNITIES. (The worst offenders are those who have control over various items in our lives....that is, for example, those who make decisions about configuration of supermarket counters, and isolate themselves 5 or 6 layers from anyone who wants to question the wisdom of the design...(which often amounts to 'lowest bid')

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 08:57 PM

saulgoldie
"getting more done."

The real question is of course

Getting more WHAT done?

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 10:37 PM

About a hundred years ago the American diet was wonderfully varied. In meats alone there was pork, beef, lamb, mutton, chicken, turkey, deer, duck (wild and tame), rabbit (ditto), squirrel, pheasant, quail, goose (wild and tame), swan (!), pigeon, dove, and others. (Yes, some were shot by "market hunters" but that doesn't negate the statement that these were available.) Vegetables included all that we have today, but they were often locally grown and much fresher (and because they didn't have to travel thousands of miles, tasted better). Locally picked strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries -- whatever was available -- would find their way to the store.

Even banannas and pineapple were available.

But we lost a lot of this. Our meats today are beef, pork, chicken, and turkey -- at least where I am you can get lamb (no mutton that I've seen), buffalo, and if you work at it, goat. There are the usual vegetables, but the tomatoes taste like cardboard and head lettuce, well....

I dunno. I think that the Internet is doing a wonderful job of connecting the world together, but I worry about sociability.

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 11:33 PM

I really deplore the trend toward using canned music as accompaniment to live singing. I didn't realize it was as rampant in the gospel world as Jerry says; the worst offender here in New Orleans is the (normally) great Aaron Neville, when performing solo rather than with his brothers' band. Aaron has been straddling the line between the secular and gospel worlds in recent years, so maybe he has picked up on a trend he's been seeing on the gospel side (?).

On the other hand, I *like* the self-service grocery checkout. Despite my advanced age (56), I seem to be sufficiently tech-savvy to handle its modest demands. It's easier, quicker, and the bags are packed much better when I can do it myself. I don't feel that I'm missing much "human interaction" by avoiding the dull, slow personnel stationed at the cash registers. They're usually pretty impersonal, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: saulgoldie
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 02:08 PM

Another thing: Which would you reather get--5 short, unfocused emails with careless punctuation, grammar, and spelling from a good friend, or one letter (from the same friend) written out in long-hand with a fountain pen on some nice paper, and sent by snail mail with an interesting stamp, and perhaps even a wax seal? Sure, the emails "get the job done," but...

Subject: RE: BS: The Human Touch
From: jacqui.c
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 02:49 PM

At the moment technology is helping me to keep in daily contact with the man I love and who is 3000 miles away. The internet means that we can exchange daily e-mails and talk to each other on Messenger and that makes being apart easier to manage.

Sometimes the system gets slow or makes it difficult to understand what the other is saying but, when a letter can take a week or more to travel that distance, I would say that technology is very useful to me right now.

Having said that I love concerts and singarounds, where there is audience participation and must admit that I get more from the music that way than just listening to cds.

I'd say horses for courses on this one.