As one might expect, the US is in general a paradise for the technologically minded. Whether it be wi-fi or HDTV, there is every gadget under the sun available here to make life just that little bit smoother.
But there are a number of areas where the US seems to lag strangely behind the rest of the developed world. One of these is telephones. Wandering the streets of even the smallest provincial town in Britain or France one can find payphones which take any credit card, and which frequently allow you to check your emails and surf the web. Here in the States, payphones are still of the type that went out of fashion in Europe some decades ago: coin only - and the largest denomination they accept is a quarter (ie, about 15p). Try phoning your friend in Leipzig for longer than 3 seconds...
More striking still is the difference in mobile phone technology. For reasons best known to itself, the US chose a different standard for mobile (or cell) phones from the rest of the world. As a result, the technology is not compatible and the developments taking place elsewhere only emerge here with a considerable time-lag.
Also, billing methods are different. The most shocking difference to a European being that calls cost just as much to receive as they do to make.
As result of all this is that the number of mobiles per head of the population is much lower here and, crucially, the number held by children and teenagers lower still. Texting is still very much a minority sport (so that the US equivalent of Pop Idol has to broadcast instructions at the end of every episode on how this strange Euro thing is done). So bullying by text message, a real problem in the UK, is unheard of here (unlike bullying by computer-based instant messaging, which is very popular).
Another result of the US's technological primitivism in this area is that video messaging is the preserve of only a very elite few. So the grotesque new UK craze of 'happy slapping', where hapless bystanders are 'slapped' and have this 'happy' event beamed from mobile to mobile has yet to enter the public consciousness here. Not because Americans are morally superior to the British, but because they simply don't have access to the technology. Yet.
It reminds me of a scene in one of Thomas Hardy's novels (Return of the Native, I think). One of the old country codgers bemoans the rise of modern technology (in this instance, chalk and literacy), as in his eyes it has led only to obscene graffiti being scrawled on walls and gates. The ingenuity of youth in finding wicked ends for what might seem positive developments is without bounds.
My law firm does a lot of work with small law firms in mid-America and many of them don't have e-mail or a web site.
Posted by: The Digester | 23 June 2005 at 01:54 PM
That struck me when I was in the States too. Also, their washing machines, kettles and other household appliances look quite primitive comapred to European ones.
Posted by: Shuggy | 24 June 2005 at 04:16 AM
"computer-based instant messaging, which is very popular"
Nail on the head there. This is why teenagers don't crave and depend on mobiles phones and texts so much. Many more home internet connections earlier and a free service like this were in place before the post 9/11 cell phone boom. IM is what they use, even on their phones...Even then, the way US phone companies price the texts is awkward. My thesis topic (aim and discourse) would have been a lot less interesting in britain.
And the US uses the web much more effectively than europe. They're streets ahead in e-commerce, which is still viewed with extreme suspicion here in France. Online advertising is considered ineffective.
In the States, I did everything online - checking grades, register for classes, paying bills, even some courses. Libraries have e-journals and e-reference guides online in every university. If I need a book from the NY public library at my university in NC, I can order it online and it will be there on campus for me to pick up, with the same lending restrictions as a book from our own stacks. I can order pizza online.
The largest reference library in Europe, the Mitchell library in glasgow, has online resources consisting of a) a catalogue and b) pictures of glasgow streets 150 years ago. Not good. Bit behind there.
Posted by: Katie | 24 June 2005 at 04:27 AM
"I can order it online and it will be there on campus for me to pick up, with the same lending restrictions as a book from our own stacks. I can order pizza online."
Hey - we have all this in sunny Glasgow too, y'know...
Posted by: Shuggy | 24 June 2005 at 08:01 AM
"And the US uses the web much more effectively than europe. They're streets ahead in e-commerce, which is still viewed with extreme suspicion here in France"
Have you tried "Priceminister"? It looks like a very good ebay-like site for unloading all sorts of kit. I get obscure Eddy Louiss albums from it..
Posted by: dave heasman | 24 June 2005 at 09:35 AM
Following that up, www.abritel.com is where we book our holidays - very good, quite French. And I buy most of my records from www.zweitausendeins.de, but that's not so French.
Posted by: dave heasman | 27 June 2005 at 09:39 AM
When I first went to the US in 1966, it was the banks and the advertising that looked v primitive vs the UK. Practically everything else was in advance.
Posted by: dearieme | 29 June 2005 at 10:27 AM
When people travel to their home town, to their "alma mater", or to their home country after a prolonged absence, they often expect (or want) to see that everything is just as it was. In contrast, when I travel back to the States, I am often struck by how many things have not changed at all. Apart from what I see as American reluctance to adopt "not-invented-here" technologies, I suspect at least part of the reason for some differences is the age of the system.
Cell phones started to become popular in the US before they did in Europe, and therefore did so with an older technology. The difficulty in changing is akin to that of overhauling US industrial facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, when American factories were far behind their spanking-new post-WW2 German counterparts.
You can add credit card technology to your list. The US system, as I'm sure you know, still does not use smart cards. When credit card use was becoming more popular in Europe, telephone communications were not as rapid or reliable or as they were in the States. So the smart card was developed to enable transactions under a certain amount to be authorised via PIN-code, obviating the need to call in for an authorisation code on every purchase. Of course, since then smart card technology has advanced even further, and the US system will ultimately be obliged to adopt it, if only to thwart credit card fraud, which we all pay for in the form of higher credit card fees to merchants and hence higher prices.
Posted by: Steve | 04 July 2005 at 06:36 AM
Being an early-adopter always has negative consequences down-the-road. Us Brits starting the Industrial revolution, universal education and healthcare meant by 1950 all our schools, hopsitals and factories were out-of-date, and by the 1990s they were somewhat primitive and the butt of jokes in the New World.
Now Americans are beginning to find their awesome hospitals of the 70s and 80s are beginning to look old-fashioned compared with the new ones in SE Asia and the Arabian peninsular. And no doubt by 2020 we'll all be gasping and envying the hospitals and schools in China and Africa.
The one up-side to the US pricing plan is often mobile (cell) call rates are not much different to landline rates, and my girlfriend in NC for $60/mth could make/receive unlimited calls to her cellular phone. For us Brits still stupidly paying about 20c/min (8-12p or more) - that was also a shock.
Posted by: Monjo | 11 July 2005 at 01:29 PM