John.
This is an interesting comment IMHO:
Why not stay at home and play on your PC?
Expensive toys that separate you from the great outdoors (where no phone is wanted except in an emergenc)!
(Banter mode ON) Can I ask where you you typed that comment....Wouldn't be a t a PC would it?
Do I also take it that you never use a camera, maps, compasses or any form of guide book while outdoors (noting that you already think a phone is good to carry for emergencies). Obviously you can carry whatever you choose, but personally I like to have safety gear with me, as well as a camera, and guide books on a regular basis. In mountain terrain, and especially when it is very foggy and at night, I find maps useful too, as well as a GPS for back up. Luckily, I can have all these things at my finger tips with one item (as well as it being a back up to the main compass, maps etc).
I am only curious, nothing more, but will say that I find some of the comments regarding smart phones quite funny TBH. Especially when some of the Luddites (not wanting 'new technology' to make things easier/faster) will also be carrying lighters, knives, bivi's, tarps, and torches (especially high tech ones), rather than use traditional methods. Oh, and will often be carrying a camera and mobile anyway lol).
As per above, we can ALL carry and use exactly what we want when we go outdoors, but am I the only one seeing the irony in folks poo pooing new technology, by typing messages on their PC over an INTERNET forum!
There is no irony at all...
When at home I use "new technology" to keep me in contact with the "modern" world - the one that I am forced to exist in - when out in the wilds I carry a paper map (a quite old technology realy) and a phone (switched off)that is probably as old as some of the site members grandchildren plus a compas (again ...quite and old technology - only a few hundred years old realy) plus a lot of knowledge I carry in my head.
I take a camera with me as well - to record and take the wilds back home.
When out I try to get away from the modern world with all its pressures and slip into a slower pace of life - what I don't want is some inconciderate twongle next to me (never mine doing this myself!) with his phone on all the time which plays its poorly chosen ringtone that scares off the wildlife and brings the "modern" world just to let his boss know that he will be in the office on Monday as planned to deliver a presentation that has been prepared for months!
Instead of expensive phones with Apps for this and that I would prefer books (old technology again) that allow contemplative study. Using one little sensitive piece of electronics for all your safety requirements is a little risky in my eyes...batteries fail, water causes shorts, clumsyness causes gear to fall down cliffs etc and if it is all in one Smart (huh!) package then you could be truely stuffed....
Yup folks can take what they like into the woods, but for me Smart phones can stay at home next to the PC (they are probably more powerful than my PC anyway!) - in the modern - world while I relax in the wilds as close to nature as possible using old technologies, years of experience and bushcrafting skills to get me were I am going!
Electronic gizzmos such as Smart Phonescan stay at home where they prove useful, not only for day to day living, but help reconect me to the wilds when I cannot get there in person.
I would like to test the advantages of old technology against a Smart Phone in the Wilds - and next time I hear young Herberts phone going "bingley- bangly bong" out in the woods I may pit forged axe steel against Smart Phone casing to compare strengthof metals....
:viking:
