"sure, you can exist with old stuff - you can exist without even...

"sure, you can exist with old stuff - you can exist without even a smart phone ------------ but, what a bloody retarded way to operate in this world that is"

Are you calling our senior generation 'retarded' for not using smart phones? Life was not retarded for them when there were no smart phones. For most of them now they are struggling to stay engaged with life in our society. Banks don't want them and wont give them access without a digital device yet those devices are so foreign to them that they are unable to engage. Centrelink wants them to engage digitally yet they can't do that without assistance from children or younger friends. Landlines are disappearing and elderly people are being isolated. They are not "retarded" as you allege, they are victims of societal change which is leaving behind many people. Is life better for them now or not? I guess it's not and you simply call them "retarded". Life now is "retarded" compared to how it was when people engaged with each other and didn't hide behind digital devices like you do there in France.

Let's hope when you need your nappy changed that someone doesn't call you "retarded" and walk away telling you to do it yourself. Bonjour.