If I could turn back time........

Obviously thinks change and, apart from the increase in population without the matching betterment of infrastructure, improved technology has done a lot of good but is also responsible for many bad things.

I agree with @clueless1 that texting is an abomination. Admittedly, there are times where it's helpful but it certainly doesn't help personal and social interaction. What appears to be the worst thing about texting is that people think it demands an immediate response, which seems to put it in control instead of the person being in control.

There are now some new names coming into the language for what is commonly grouped under one heading of 'Cell Phone Syndrome'. Some are physical and some are psychological. Younger people tend to be more affected by these and it's a worrying thing. Psychological dependence on the cell phone is now a well researched phenomena and they're even getting 'phantom vibration syndrome' where people think that their phone is vibrating when it isn't. This, apparently, is caused by the person feeling that they are being left out of communications so they 'think' their phone is vibrating to tell them they have a message.

Also, very worrying, is the emergence of 'text claw', 'text neck', 'cell phone elbow', an increase in carpal tunnel syndrome, back problems and eye strain. That's apart from lack of sleep, and its attendant problems, cause by late night texting.

Texting is banned in the Shiney house . That's not for Mrs S and myself, as we don't do it anyway, but for guests. I also ban texting when I'm leading people on walks in the Lake District. I do have a mobile phone for emergencies but I have not quite spent £1 in the last few years on calls.

 

Re Sunday shopping:-
I was involved in the original discussions over whether it should be allowed (not the religious side of it) and it required quite a lot of adjustment to the proposed laws to make it acceptable to shops and unions. It was mainly to do with shops and had little effect on other industries. Some industries never did go over seven day trading (most offices stayed at five days) and others, such as farming, hospitality and tourism, were always seven days.

With a higher population and a much wider range of goods there is a reasonable argument for trying to spread things over more days (not sure that argument was valid at the time).

There are parts of the country that still don't have many shops open on Sundays (as @daitheplant has demonstrated) but the majority of the country is open on Sundays. All supermarkets, all shopping malls and a lot of pedestrianised shopping streets throughout the country tend to be open. Some small shops also open on Sundays. We live in a village and our village shop is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. 365 days a year. Even the village post office is open on Sunday mornings (almost directly opposite the church ) and a lot of church goers pop in on their way to and from the church.

Self-checkouts:-
I was opposed to them originally because of the possible effect on jobs but, after three years, I discussed it with the staff at my local Sainsbury's (management allow me to talk to them because of one of the organisations I represent) and they said that nobody lost their jobs (don't know if other jobs would have been developed ).

I, now, tend to use them because it's much quicker for me. I use the store very regularly and almost never have a problem. The only occasional problem is when the scanner doesn't recognise the bar code because it's damaged. All other problems I can deal with myself. Also, I prefer to do it myself because I scan things in the order I want them to go into my bags (if I go to a checkout and put them on in that order the assistant never scans them in that order ).

Mrs Shiney almost never comes shopping with me because I'm 'too organised' . My shopping list is written out in the order of the way they are displayed in the store and the bag packing is done in the order that I need to unpack them (things for the fridge in one bag, for the store cupboard in the hall in another bag etc.). OCD - probably. It's certainly much quicker.

 

Good afternoon I would go back to living in a Vardo and waking up down Hopping every morning,with the aroma of the smokey fire drifting past woo's beakThose were the days(Mary Hopkins)