Writerly: Where's the passion in technology?

[CharleyH]

Funny. I am just writing a scene where the character is searching frantically and angrily for a song, but in 2010 that means uploading specific songs from the iPod to plug into the stereo and not playing a record and crashing it against the wall, or a tape and ripping it from its roots. It struck me that I also can't slam the phone down on someone because my cell phone can't physically perform that melodramatic function. In any case, this begs a question ... has new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?

 

[rgraham666]

Nah. Verbal abuse still works for me. If that fails finding something fairly firm to pound the shit out of usually does it.

 

[jomar]

A guy just told me he got so frustrated with his laptop acting up he smashed it on the ground and stomped it to death.

 

[Pure]

//new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?//

you disseminate a videoclip of them doing something embarrassing or foolish, and post to youtube. take steps to facilitate it 'going viral.'

lacking that, a photoshopped picture (that's hi tech!) of their body with a pig's ass and tail can be circulated to a wide circle of 'friends.'

set up robot calls--e.g. political canvassing-- to their cellphone.

 

[CharleyH]

Nah. Verbal abuse still works for me. If that fails finding something fairly firm to pound the shit out of usually does it.

Thanks for your take RG lol - (BTW Congrats). Seriously, though, barring words or fists, technology today can't be thrown with the same sense of melodrama because it is way is too expensive to be thrown around, for one. In the old days you could crack a record by throwing it against the wall, but who is willing to throw their computer out the window or their iPad against a wall or what effect does whipping a USB drive at someone actually have? There is no passion in technology.

 

[CharleyH]

A guy just told me he got so frustrated with his laptop acting up he smashed it on the ground and stomped it to death.

I did that once, but only to a really old piece of a 386.

 

[CharleyH]

//new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?//

you disseminate a videoclip of them doing something embarrassing or foolish, and post to youtube. take steps to facilitate it 'going viral.'

lacking that, a photoshopped picture (that's hi tech!) of their body with a pig's ass and tail can be circulated to a wide circle of 'friends.'

set up robot calls--e.g. political canvassing-- to their cellphone.

All of those things require time and patience, they're not immediate emotional responses... Is revenge served cold and callous the only response possible these days?

 

[jomar]

I think you're on to something. Sending an all CAPS text or pushing the button and having the connection just wink off is not the same slamming the phone down...but if you call from the office you can make it work.

 

[oggbashan]

I can always smash a 78 rpm record, or worse still - turn it into a flower pot.

Og

 

[favoritesgoddess]

It's actually an interesting point. I hadn't thought of it that way.

I wonder if more advanced technologies are having any effect on displays of wooden anger, or if we just push the "end" button and kick the dog instead.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Have them throw a (cheap) cellphone against the wall. Then they have to replace the damn thing. Which is why they don't have an iphone.

Or, describe how they stop themself from slamming the iphone, and how their anger simmers even more because they can't express it the way they used to do in the days of handsets. This could be good motivation for them going out looking for trouble or something of that nature.

 

[TxRad]

Writerly: Where's the passion in technology?

They didn't have fucking machines back in the day so I think things kind of even out. Now, there's a steam punk idea to work out.

 

[Liar]

Funny. I am just writing a scene where the character is searching frantically and angrily for a song, but in 2010 that means uploading specific songs from the iPod to plug into the stereo and not playing a record and crashing it against the wall, or a tape and ripping it from its roots. It struck me that I also can't slam the phone down on someone because my cell phone can't physically perform that melodramatic function. In any case, this begs a question ... has new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?

Is everything around you new technology?

I still eat on china plates and sit on wood furniture.

Also, passionately smashing expensive things (be it priced vases or iPhones) at walls has it's own perversley gratifying effect, IMO.

 

[Liar]

All of those things require time and patience, they're not immediate emotional responses... Is revenge served cold and callous the only response possible these days?

No but it's way easier than it used to be.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Writerly: Where's the passion in technology?

They didn't have fucking machines back in the day so I think things kind of even out. Now, there's a steam punk idea to work out.

I'm on it.

I'm thinking gearing that runs a simple push rod back and forth through a housing... For precise aim, you know.

 

[Handley_Page]

I can always smash a 78 rpm record, or worse still - turn it into a flower pot.

Og

You VANDAL !

 

[Handley_Page]

Funny. I am just writing a scene where the character is searching frantically and angrily for a song, but in 2010 that means uploading specific songs from the iPod to plug into the stereo and not playing a record and crashing it against the wall, or a tape and ripping it from its roots. It struck me that I also can't slam the phone down on someone because my cell phone can't physically perform that melodramatic function. In any case, this begs a question ... has new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?

or finding You-Tube ?

 

[Liar]

I'm on it.

I'm thinking gearing that runs a simple push rod back and forth through a housing... For precise aim, you know.

You know, if you go full steam punk, you wouldn't have to limit yourself to realistic mechanics. You could have humanoid automatons doing the nasty.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You know, if you go full steam punk, you wouldn't have to limit yourself to realistic mechanics. You could have humanoid automatons doing the nasty.

Seems to me I've actually seen one...

I like the idea of the big boiler over in the corner, and all that steam power harnessed for one rather delicate operation.

 

[oggbashan]

You VANDAL !

I have thousands of them.

Anything of reasonable quality has been re-released on LP or CD.

The ones I value most are the artists/music that no one would ever record now except as vanity projects.

Although I have 78s of Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and several skiffle groups, the rarities are the singing dogs, the awful comics and the incompetent performers.

But yet another copy of Mrs Mills' Piano Party, or a badly scratched Harry Lime theme? They are only fit for flower pots.

Og

 

[3113]

has new technology left us without the proper means to articulate anger and frustration?

Not if the new tech belongs to someone else. Imagine someone waiting in line for hours for the newest iPhone or iPad or having something that's becoming more valuable because they're phasing it out like the iPod classic (music lovers LOVE this iPod because it holds tons of music, but Apple hasn't revised it and it may be phased out, so music lovers are buying the thing up by the dozens).

I think if you destroyed that item, the one they'd waited and saved up to buy (or the rarity they were holding onto), it would make a point.

So, smash their precious, expensive HP tablet where they have all their ideas and work backed up. Take that hard drive with their entire music collection that they spent all that money on (buying all those albums and saving them all in one place) and destroy that. It's harder than smashing one LP, but hey, the reward is that you get the entire music collection.

You may not be able to smash down your phone, but you can still blow a whistle into it when someone answers, still send a picture to them of a pile of dog shit--or of the pieces that you've left their Xbox in, or how you scratched and smashed up their car for that matter.

Of course, I think you should take the fact that a person has trouble smashing their own tech and run with it. Instead of looking for alternatives to smashing down the phone or breaking the record, why not have your protagonist go 'Grrrr," raise a hand to smash the phone then, 'No. Too expensive." Smash the favorite song? Can't. On and on. It could be a hilarious scene if she can't even break her boyfriend's favorite, eco-friendly coffeemug (built to last!) because technology has taking away all the satisfying "smashability" of such items.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You know, if you go full steam punk, you wouldn't have to limit yourself to realistic mechanics. You could have humanoid automatons doing the nasty.

I recently wrote a story about androids. Two kids break-in to a convention center to check-out an android exhibit. The specific exhibit at the electronic show is called A GIRL FOR ALL SEASONS. 'Summer' is Polynesian, attired in a bikini with a lei; 'Autumn' is dressed as a farmer holding a cornucopia, etc. All the girlz are anatomically correct. The guys decide to see how 'real' they are.

 

[CharleyH]

Is everything around you new technology?

I still eat on china plates and sit on wood furniture.

Also, passionately smashing expensive things (be it priced vases or iPhones) at walls has it's own perversley gratifying effect, IMO.

Well, kind of, yes. I mean I am not a bauble collector, I have really expensive things I would never ruin, including dishes. I am surrounded by a big TV, expensive thinks I would never ruin and also inexpensive ones I'd never ruin because they have sentimental value. Example: A tomato plant I've nurtured from a seedling and have named 'Tommy-One Kenobi' because he is our only hope for growing tomatoes. Never would I toss him off the balcony! Of course, my character is not me. She'd do it in a second if she actually grew plants. However, she is a minimalist, like so many today.

Seriously, I think that these days (not trying to sound TOO old) things don't get tossed and ruined as easily as they used to. In a fit of anger, I would never trash my cell phone or iPod, they are too expensive. Throwing a CD against the wall, I can deal with, but who owns CDs anymore, except us old folks?

 

[TxRad]

Well, kind of, yes. I mean I am not a bauble collector, I have really expensive things I would never ruin, including dishes. I am surrounded by a big TV, expensive thinks I would never ruin and also inexpensive ones I'd never ruin because they have sentimental value. Example: A tomato plant I've nurtured from a seedling and have named 'Tommy-One Kenobi' because he is our only hope for growing tomatoes. Never would I toss him off the balcony! Of course, my character is not me. She'd do it in a second if she actually grew plants. However, she is a minimalist, like so many today.

Seriously, I think that these days (not trying to sound TOO old) things don't get tossed and ruined as easily as they used to. In a fit of anger, I would never trash my cell phone or iPod, they are too expensive. Throwing a CD against the wall, I can deal with, but who owns CDs anymore, except us old folks?

People look at me funny when they see the full sized body bag in my office, with gloves. It's usually one of those duh moments.

 

[3113]

Memory Stick?

Seriously, I think that these days (not trying to sound TOO old) things don't get tossed and ruined as easily as they used to. In a fit of anger, I would never trash my cell phone or iPod, they are too expensive. Throwing a CD against the wall, I can deal with, but who owns CDs anymore, except us old folks?

So the idea is the character hears a song that, say, reminds them of someone who did them wrong and wants to symbolically smash the song?

You're right. With today's technology that's tough to do. Any MP3 player represents a lot of songs not just that one. And fewer people own CD's. Erasing an e-mail with the music in it just doesn't have the same punch.

The only thing I can think of is this. That maybe song (songs?) are on a flash drive, a memory stick with maybe a gig on it. Like this:

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00YMsaZQjtOfrS/OEM-ODM-USB-Flash-Memory-Pen-Drive-Stick-FS-6F-.jpg

Our protagonist finds the forgotten stick, and, curious as to what's on it, rediscovers the songs, all tunes given to them via this stick by the one they loved but now hate. In a fury, they stomp on the flash drive, destroying the songs. That's the closest I can come. The stick isn't expensive, so said protagonist don't mind destroying it, it's smashable, emblematic of destroying the song(s) and whoever those songs represent.

The one thing it is not as compared to a record (alas!) is emblematic of music. Such sticks are emblematic of memories. They could as easily hold photos and e-mails as music. All three. But there you go. Our technology no longer distinguishes musical recordings from any other "recordings."