Indeed. No conspiracy theory is needed - people took every opportunity to acquire power and wealth, and the already powerful and wealthy were the most equipped to do so.
Or I can decide that “forward” is bad and go somewhere else. Let’s not forget that those pushing apps and smart devices care only for sales and profits.
Movement is not self-justifying. Have you weighed the pros and cons of what movement there has been in the last 5 years due to smart phones?
>traditional cellular phone and SMS system is only slightly more useful than the telegraph (especially outside of the USA).
I can phone or message almost anyone in the world at any moment. Have we forgotten what a magical power that is? Countering your last statement, I count myself lucky to live outside the US , where a smartphone-free life is still very practical for more than just a few die-hard holdouts (a bit like car ownership).
The statistics for where I live (Wales, UK) show a horrifying post-COVID gap in school attendance for socioeconomically deprived families. We have probably lost the cultural norm that all kids at least attend school.
I don’t think that a parent’s desire to go to a particular restaurant at a particular time justifies using mind-numbing pacifiers on their kids. I say this as a parent of young children. We solve this by taking our kids to appropriate venues at appropriate times.
Funny how people don’t like mechanisms explicitly designed to combat the tyranny of the simple majority and to protect minority interests when it doesn’t suit them.
To maintain the level of throughput we expect and need, trains have to run to a rigid schedule. If things were re-jigged so that trains could leave a bit late for some reason or other, the resulting reduction in throughput and corresponding passenger miles would outweigh your inconvenience. After all, trains drove the mass adoption of accurate timekeeping.