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Do Cell Phones Make Us Stupid?
Noodleroni writes "I came across this article on MSNBC that discusses why it seems cell phone users are so stupid sometimes. A very interesting read." Absolutely no scientific basis in this - 'cept for the DoCoMo study, but it still seems true.
I would like to thank all of my fans, god, and everyone who supported me through the years. I could not have got this fp without all of your support. Thanks
~~~
Real intelligent people live with & near those they need to speak with. Think about it.
Cell phones don't make people stupid, they just bring a lot of them to light.
This really is news for once.
Most of all of you other Slashdot posters must have been posting from a internet enabled cell phone these past few months.
I wrote a thought of the day about cell phone usage a few months ago. You can check it out here.
Less so on the cell phone since I tend to avoid the phone whenever I can. But with the internet, wireless PDAs, computers, and I guess the cell phones - they have taken over pretty much all thought for me. If I need to know anything, there is no real need for me to memorize it, I just have to remember a pointer to where I can find that info in the future.
This of course allows waaaay more information for me to try to keep track of - or rather the pointers.
I attribute that to my constant desire to sleep.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Duh! What was da question?
Mostly, when you were at the grocery store before cell phones, you had an inkling that other folks were dumb, but they mostly kept silent.
Now with phones, you actually can hear them talk and they've removed any doubt about their intellect.
... not paying attention to the world around them makes them appear to be stupid. Mobiles phones are the enabler. The real cause is their parents. Think about it. Fat parents have fat kids.
Speak truth to power.
dis iz gay i USZEE CEll fonnes ALL THE TIme nd I ARENT sTUpid!!!!!1111
chdir("c:\\con\\con");
When Bob Dylan performed Ballad of a Thin Man live on his 1966 world tour he changed the last lyric from "earphones" to "telephone" like thus:
Well, you walk into the room
Like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket
And your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law
Against you comin' around
You should be made
To always be wearing a telephone
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
How prophetic, eh?
My name is Carlos Montoya. You share files of my music. Prepare to die.
Cell phones make us stupid? I'd agree with that, but they certainly have some other nasty effects on us:
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Lab rats were found to have their short term memory impaired after being exposed to electromagnetic radiation (EM) at frequencies and amplitudes common in portable phones, markedly affecting their performance in a maze after 1 hour/day periods of EM exposure. In a second experiment designed to measure the time needed to complete a maze task, it was estimated that exposed animals required approximately one third more time than the control rats. {1}
Using an apparatus which tested for object recognition, researchers found that exposed rats suffered observable memory loss after EM radiation exposure. This test was done in 1994 specifically testing the effects of portable phones. {2}
The blood-brain barrier in test animals is made permeable to foriegn substances in the blood which would not normally be allowed to pass through brain cell walls. This, according to one group of researchers, was discovered when dye was injected into the blood stream of test rats and found to be absorbed by brain cells in exposed rats after twenty minutes, but not by those in the unexposed control group.{3}
The general effect of EM on the endochrine system, (the system of glands throughout the body, including the adrenal, thyroid and pancreatic among others,) is also noteworthy. The results from a variety of studies were lengthy and, frankly, difficult to briefly document as it seems different glands react to different frequencies and power levels in a wide variety of ways, sometimes having opposite effects simply by changing the pulse rate of a given wave form. Research only scratches the surface, and it seems that the potential for further study is enormous. Essentially, EM radiation as emitted from Cell Phones, pagers, wireless computer hardware and computer monitors does a wide range of strange things to the human body. One researcher simply summed up the overall effect of EM on the glandular system as resulting in, 'general stress disorder'. {4}
Delta Wave sleep patterns of test subjects were found to be inhibited after regular exposure, (one hour per day), to frequencies and power levels commonly emitted from computer monitors and in other tests, higher frequency portable phones. {5}
--With a drive for faster, cheaper and higher power wireless digital equipment, the general public might be well advised to remain cautious of the possible health hazards associated with the increased use of microwave active devices.
In the few instances where the large telecommunications companies have been challenged regarding the safety of their products, it is interesting to note that their public relations stances have been remarkably similar to those once commonly employed by the cigarette industry concerning tobacco use. It will be interesting to observe the direction and ultimate outcome of these trends.
References:
1. Henry Lai, 1998. Neurological effects of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation Presented to the Workshop on possible biological and health effects of RF electromagnetic fields. Project team: Mobile Phones and Health, Symposium, October 25-28, 1998, University of Vienna, Austria. http:// pages.britishlibrary.net/orange/henrylai.htm
2. James C. Lin, 2000. Effects of microwave and mobile telephone exposure on memory and memory processes. University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA http://www.eecs.uic.edu/eecspeople/lin_ieee42_3.h
3. Frey A.H., Feld S, Frey B. Neural function and behavior: defining the relationship. Ann NY Acad Sci 247:433-438
4. Dr. Robert Becker & Dr. Andrew Marino paper, "Electromagnetism & Life" http://www.ortho.lsumc.edu/Faculty/Marino/EL/ELTO
5. Drumanskiy, Yu.D., Sandala, M.G. 1974. The biologic action and hygenic significance of electromagnetic fields of superhigh and ultrahigh frequencies in densely populated areas. In Biologic effects and health hazards of microwave radiation, p. 289. Warsaw: Polish Medical Publishers.
But the most annoying one:
".ahh yeah im on the train now..
I can get this obvious article proven scientifically.
Karma whorin' since 1999
A person on a cell phone in a store, mall, or on the street draws attention to themself. Maybe as we gaze in their direction, we're just noticing the stupid things that people do everyday -- but when they're without a cell phone in hand, nobody's watching them.
Maybe they mean distracted, I doubt that cell phones literally lower your IQ when you use them. Besides, I know alot of intelligent people who use cell phones, and it hasn't seemed to affect their overall intelligence.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
The corelation is valid, but the direction of causality is backwards.... cell phone uses doesn't cause stupidity... stupidity causes cell phone use!
This is much more plausible, although I'm open to the possibility that cell phone use by the stupid, leads to deeper levels of stupdity over time...
Did you notice those Star Wars source forge ads never have a White man in them??? I guess they are trying to tap into the affirmative action minority market.
Honorable Mention: (un)Armed and Dangerous
Call Girl
Sinking Feeling
I know most of us can walk and chew gum at the same time but there is something different about using cell phones. We just can't seem to use them and do anything else at the same time. Just as bad is going out for dinner and having to listen to some ultra-annoying tune blasting out of some idiots cell phone. Do you really need to be in communication 24-7?
#1 - People were just as empty and banal before they got cellphones, but now they're talking about it so you can hear them.
...
#2 - Some other factor, not owning a cell phone, causes children with cell phones to do worse in school; I recall a study showing that sexually active teenagers do worse in school (now I can't find it). Sex doesn't make you stupid, teenagers with active sex lives get lower grades for some other reason. Personally, I've never observed much relationship between grades and intelligence, but that is another issue.
#3 - remember when we were kids? Back in the day, young people NEVER crossed against the light and then were blaze when a car almost hit them. Nope; that is one thing I can say with confidence never happened ever.
Absolutely no scientific basis in this
but it still seems true
Here's my prejudice:
no scientific basis = seems false.
It's a simple rule that prevents me from believing that aliens visit earth and give people enemas.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Cell phones don't make you stupid. Owning a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) makes you stupid, which then causes you to go out and buy a cell phone due to your dramatically decreased intelligence.
Just what is it about the combination of blonde hair, motherhood, a cell phone, and a big gas-guzzling SUV that destroys brain cells so completely? I'm not being arbitrary here, I had to fish one of these bimbos out of my front lawn last week... she didn't see the stopped schoolbus at the corner in time so she used my hedge as a deceleration device. She was still on the phone when the cops came.
Correlation in no way whatsoever leads or is related to causation.
That is all.
I first came up with this theory when I was in a running club years ago. Someone made the mistake of bringing a walkman to us while running. The coach said that you couldn't use that if you were "serious". This got me to thinking about why some people need to just zone out.
It would seem that some people just need to zone out. They just can't handle actually being alone with themselves, their only company being their own thoughts. This must make some people lonely. These people seek refuge in a walkman while running, cell phones while driving and blathering on about nothing when face to face with someone.
I think this is also a reason some people speed, they can't keep themselves mentally stimulated without increasing the speed.
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I was on a train recently when the cellphone in my pocket started vibrating ("is that a cell phone in your pocket...") an alert to me. Anyways, as I was pulling it to read the display (which ended up being a voicemail indication) I noticed the man in the opposing seat wagging his head back and forth in utter disgust, apparently, that I was using a cellphone. Other times I've spoken to my wife as I approached the station to see if she's waiting, and again I've noticed the moral superiors wagging their heads at the use of a cellphone. Note that I am a _very_ quiet cell phone talker (I long ago realized that the compression technology in modern cell phones make whispering functionally equal to yelling, and hence the latter is just a sign of a low intelligence ignorant brute), and me lightly talking to my wife is absolutely eclipsed by the sounds of shuffing newspapers, people clearing their throats, and just general conversations going on throughout the train.
I guess my point is this: I will concede, without any doubt, that the same social morons and ignoramuses still exist, and now rather than just talking to the person beside them at 96dbA, now they do it into a cellphone. I also will concede that it is unbelievably irritating hearing an endless chorus of ringtones by people who don't realize that yes, there is a volume setting other than superloud. At the same time though a lot of the anti-cellphone rage just seems to be redirected anger: People just simply can't stand each other nowadays, and cell phones give us an easy target.
"Why Do Articles That Claim To Be About Cell Phones But Actually Read Like Second-Rate Sex And The City Gossiping Make Us Look Stupid?"
american culture makes the masses stupid. the masses are the ones who fall for the "follow the herd" marketing ploys of corperate america, hence stupid people buy cell phones.
honestly in my opinion, we have always been a bunch of collective morons...now were just trying to find excuses as to why...so its more than just a little ironic that its a dumb excuse.
dude.
No scientific evidence here either, but my opinion on the issue of cell phones is one of status. These people aren't made stupid BY the cell phone, they were stupid to begin with. Of course, stupid isn't really the right word. Its more like an inability to concentrate on two things at once. They spend all their cognitive efforts on maintaining the conversation that they tune out the rest of the world. Sure, they can keep an eye on what's going on in front of them, but someone could run them over from the side and they'd never see it coming, hence the first example in the article.
Up until a few years ago, if someone wanted to talk on the phone, they'd be safely in their homes, confined to a single room, or within 3 feet of a payphone booth. The opportunities for trouble due to their all-consuming conversation were minimal. Cordless phones allowed them to wander so the phone wouldn't hold them by a leash any longer, but they were still confined to the house. Cell phones solved that "problem". Now they can wander freely, not paying attention to ANYTHING.
And not only an issue of convienence, it might also be one of status. 10 years ago, some people had cell phones, but the majority of the public was still somewhat in awe of them. Most people with cell phones back then didn't wander around conversing about the products on the grocery store shelves because it was TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE. They kept the conversations to important, serious things. Others in public that witnessed this equated cell phones with an artifical importantance. If only they could get one of their very own.....
And eventually the phones became economical for everyone and their dog to have one, or two or three. And with the average plan including enough minutes to pretty much occupy all waking hours of the month, and even some of the sleeping hours, there was no reason NOT to jabber aimlessly at all hours of the day. And since once upon a time only important people had cell phones in public, they figured the best way to look important is to talk on their cell phone in public. AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Movie theatres, restaurants, anywhere is acceptable to take that important call about who's dating who at that particular moment. I mean, this kind of information simply CAN'T WAIT.
Still, I think the most appropriate comment I saw once was a cartoon of someone sitting in an outside diner, talking on his phone and he says "Sorry, I need to let you go now. Nobody can see me talking on the phone"
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
What amazes me are the people who dont realize it's their phone that's ringing. During lecture once last winter, a student's phone started ringing very loudly. The prof normally ignores these, as they usually silence in about 2.4 seconds.
After about 10 secnods, he started to get annoyed. Finally, someone front row center leans over to her bookbag, and takes her sweet time shutting the phone off. The look on her face was "oh, that's my phone!"
The person was in other classes of mine that semester, and was the first of many "oh, that's me" moments. I dont think she made any attempt all term to shut off her phone in a timely manner. We all leave the ringer on every now and then and get a call, but good grief! At least make the effort to shut it off when it does!
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
The last bit of the article made me think...
Is it
a) Cell phones make people act stupid?
or
b) Stupid people use cell phone a lot?
Many people miss the concept to cause-effect in many cases. The mainstream media often does not realize that if effect A and effect B are related it may be A causes B OR B causes A
The classic one is Marijuana and Schizophrenia. There have been studies that linked Marijuana use to schizophrenia. They have decided if Marijuana use causes Schizophrenia or Schizoprenics are more likely to use Marijuana.
You know, cell phone users are prob stupid from all the bops on the head they get when in car accidents.
*vodak drive on the highway like a madman on his phone, eating, and bitching at Hoawrd Stern for making fun of O&A.
At my university, the business college is in a building that is separated by the rest of campus by a road. Every Friday, all the business majors play dress up (the department has a policy that they all have to wear suits on Fridays).
They all have laptops and cell phones. They circle around tables in the building with their laptops open, busy hammering out assignments in Excel and taking important calls.
And they narrowly avoid getting sqashed on the crosswalk between the business building and the rest of campus. I see it almost every day with my own two eyes: a young man in a suit, busily yapping away on his cell phone, totally ambivilous to the fact that he is crossing against a green light. I saw a guy almost get creamed once; the driver slammed on his brakes and honked, stopping just inches from the business major. The business major didn't skip a beat in his conversation. He just waved and kept on chatting away as he crossed.
Someday, someone is going to get a "wake up call."
An unjust law is no law at all. - St. Augustine
not an article. Hard up for news today, ./ guys?
:)
The only thing related to cellphones that may make you stupid (or look stupid, at least) is walking around with the full headset on, without talking, like a complete tool. Many of you know who I'm talking about.
Yes, cell phones make YOU dumber.
;- )
Either that, or I'm getting smarter
You can't take the sky from me...
Because all of these are so convenient, the message is sent before it is even thought out at all, much less thought out fully. Convenience is good. As long as I'm at my computer and thinking about someone, I can mail them. No getting paper or a stamp or walking to the mailbox. Email is so easy that today's kids (the few that actually know how) rarely bother to spell anything correctly. With a phone's address book, 3 or 4 buttons are all that stand between one and a rambling, meaningless conversation.
What it boils down to is this: the inability to complete a thought is stupidity.
All of our wonderful commo toys make it too easy to concentrate on the act of communicating even when we have nothing at all to say. They are making us more stupid even before you look at the dangerous driver/ pedestrian problems.
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
I had an interesting revelation the other night. You see, I'd just gotten my cell phone. I didn't buy it; my mother did, because she wanted me to have it "so she could always get in touch if she had to". I'd previously avoided owning one, but it was free (for me). I'd also thought that it was the other people who couldn't handle using one in parallel with another process.
Anyway, my girlfriend and my mother and I were all sitting around playing Monopoly when a friend called on my cell. I answered and started to chat. It was a very light conversation, no deep thinking, but I kept playing Monopoly as I talked.
Bad move.
We played two complete turns, with my opponents landing on a property owned by me EVERY TIME. Guess what? I didn't even notice. In my mind, I was playing just as well. Of course, I was seriously mistaken. I lost something like $2000 in that short time.
I took it as a serious lesson. Before, I had "kept the talking/driving to a minimum." Now I won't EVER talk while I drive. Do cell phones make people stupid? No, but it's most certainly a distraction, "hands-free" or not, and those little details that slip one's preoccupied mind are often the most important ones.
Brandon
cell phones arent making us morons or whatever in that way, some ppl need cell phones to call their friends, or to be join wherever, when those morons are in their flashy period, when they need to be surrounded by little kids like: Oh my god, u have a cell phone, u must be important.. So they are morons before having a cellphone :)
I don't know, but I know Linux does.
Here's my prejudice:
... but it still seems true
no scientific basis = seems false
You must not be religious either.
Score one point for your team!
By the way, have you ever noticed how "everyone" always says everyone else is stupid/an idiot/bad driver/etc? I'll be the first to say, though, that I may be that idiot on occasion. My problem is that most people who think they're "frickin' geniuses" are, sadly, not.
I'm a firm believer in the fact that the human race as a whole has a very low average intelligence (which can be lowered further when multiple low-intelligence individuals are placed in proximity). Thankfully, there are some people who decide to use their intellect for more productive purposes, one of which would be not posting this article on Slashdot.
Absolutely no scientific basis in this
Translation: Either you're not smart enough to understand what you're doing (go ask someone smart), or you're grasping at straws, trying to renew your grant money. At least try to be creative!
If cell phones are waht make people stupid, where's MY excuse?
Esse quam vederi.
Finally! I've proven that NP problems can be...*nokia ringing*... Oh sorry, one sec please...
I'm back. As I was saying, P!=NP, since there's an extra letter there.
Slightly OT but this reminds me of my first intro to college geekdom. picture the computer lab. Dark.. silent.. about 15 or so geeks basking in the glow of z29 terminals... when suddenly I realize omg THEY ARE ALL TALKING TO EACH OTHER!
don't now whether to run screaming or join the crowd!
must... stay... awake...
..All of our wonderful commo toys make it too easy to concentrate on the act of communicating even when we have nothing at all to say.
You do have a mouth, don't you? And when you speak to someone, is it a long, drawn out silence followed by "the final word"?
Instant messaging, email, and even cellphones, all enable something called conversation where two or more people exchange ideas back and forth, neither making any grand claims about what they're saying being the final word, but rather an eventual conclusion is drawn out of the ether (or, in other cases, it isn't because it shouldn't be).
DoCoMo found that kids who carry cell phones do worse on tests than kids who don't carry phones.
Did it ever occur to them that maybe the kids with cell phones might have more active social lives and thus spend less time focused on school work? I know the chatty little social butterflies where I grew up were dumbasses. Or on the contraverse, smarter kids choose not to use cell phones to call their friends all the time because they know they'll talk to them eventually.
I study done by a real sociologist should have a lot more data than those two variables. No statistician worth his/her salt would be proud of that relation without additional supporting data.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
No. Your're just naturally stupid. Sort of goes withoutr saying but I felt that I really should.
Stoptional
Posting anonomously because I don't want my employer (or my mom) to see this.
I swear I'm a bigger danger behind the wheel with my cell phone than I am legally intoxicated. If I drink and drive, yes, my reaction times are slower, but I take that into account with my driving style. I keep extra space between me and the next car, both hands on the wheel, and don't do anything stupid (besides drinking/driving) Yes, it's dumb to drink and drive, but if you see me talking on the phone keep your distance, and Watch out!!!
This was on MSNBC today. Seems that although earlier they said that cell phone users are stupider, aparently now they are more polite.
Favorite quote from article: "the survey indicated 39 percent say it's OK to make a mobile call when in the bathroom, down just slightly from 47 percent two years ago."
From the article:
But I cop to it: The use of the cell phone made me temporarily insane.
Er.. ah.. hey, works for me!
Judge: You are on trial today for killing 40 pedestrians while driving. How do you plead?
Defendant: Well, you see, Judge, I was on my cell phone at the time..
Judge: Ohhh.. our mistake. You're free to go.
slashdot!=valid HTML
i can't even fucking remember my home phone number anymore. stupid speed dial!
my friend asked me for my home number a few days ago. i just looked at her weird wondering why anyone would ask me that. everyone knows you just hold down "1" on your phone and it dials my number..
your driving and not looking where you ought to...
"The morons with cell phones were morons before they got them" Now they are morons that talk really loudly.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
"So, whatta ya doin'?"
"Nuthin. Whatta you doin'?"
"Nuthin..."
Japs are dumber than rocks, its a well-known fact.
Japs recent generation of camera-taking phones could only be coming from the society with long history of taking pictures of under schoolgirls skirts on a busy train.
No cel phone article would be complete without a link to phone bashing, where you can watch videos of people in giant foam rubber cel phone suits snatch people's phones and destroy them.
I have seen the same behaviour among people with these things called children. I think they are called parents.
.... :-)
It is disgusting sometimes: people bring them to the movies, restaurants, and other places with total disregard for anyone else.
You can almost replace cell phone with child in the article. Kinda scary
i use a cell phone all of the time and i tortotally regredit this articles.
Slashdot moderators Must use cell phones 24/7. How else to explain how a lame article like this makes it onto slash dot when my insightful and inciteful suggestions go rejected. sigh. what's the trick to getting a submission accepted?
Yes.
In my early 20s I worked as a courier. We had radios in our cars. No full duplex. You had to key the mike and "capture" the channel. On more than one occasion, I was asked to change routes, rendezvous with other drivers, or even take a different exit while driving. This was an inherently dangerous and stressful business. I had two accidents, neither of which I attribute directly to use of the radio.
The first one was caused by speeding and an oil slick. The lady I rear-ended even slipped on the oil as she got out of her SUV and commented about it. Damage to my beat-up little 4-cylinder Mustang? $600. Damage to her SUV? $600.
The second time I was going through a parking lot and this woman backed out. She said I was speeding, I said she was an idiot not to look back before reversing. Insurance said neither party was at fault, so I had no access to her damage figure. Mine was $1100 because she scraped 3 side panels.
Although I wasn't talking on the radio during either of these accidents, the stress of the job pushed me to drive in an unsafe manner. The radio was part of that stress. Since I no longer do that job, I have had no moving violations and more importantly, no accidents.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Statistics show that roughly half of the people bad-mouthing cell phone users in this thread do, in fact, have cell phones.
talking completely uses up one's Phonological Loop, borrows a ton of resources from one's Visual Spatial Sketch Pad (to do some visual planning of what to say next) and drains the search engines that match relavance to what you are about to say with the semantically coded memories in your Long Term Memory (LTM = what you said anywhere from a minute ago to when you were about three.)
You max out the components of your Working Memory so that immediate sensory information can't get the attention from you it deserves.
anyways that's what cognitive science will tell you through cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience
You know the Microsoft destroys the night, Linux devides the day...
People who walk and talk on cell phones are crazy. They should instead do what I do when walking through town - read a book.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Is this topic true? It is WAY true. I was at the mall today and a woman on the phone very nearly walked straight into me. At 6', and in broad daylight, i wasn't exactly blending in to the background, but she got about a foot away from ramming me before clumsily veering off. This avgerage, perfectly intelligent woman was turned into a veering idiot by a cellphone, somehow. Very weird.
Thus, now that the War on Terror is over (we never would have won anyway), I declare that the full might of the USA will be directed towards stopping the traffic in Cell phones. Anyone caught using one in this great nation will be shut up in one of our great prisons; anyone caught with more than than one phone will be put away as a dealer.
The State department, after a marathon session of debate and nuclear-weapons threats, has convinced the rest of the world to enact legislation that bans the devices in their nations as well. Mexico will pass its version next week, Britan the week after.
So I say to you again: we will eradicate cell phones from this great nation of ours. I am a patient man - I will continue to fight this fight until it as one. I will not waver in my patience; my patience will not waver.
May the one true Anglican God bless you all.
My peeve with cell phones is that in the push to make them smaller, they have created a device with which it is impossible to have the earpiece close enough to your ear to hear it, while at the same time keeping the mouthpiece close enough to your mouth for it to pick up what you're saying. As a result, the user is forced to turn up the volume of the phone, so that everyone in the vicinity hears the buzz of the person on the other end, and he has to speak quite loudly to be heard.
It occurs to me that this may also contribute to the inability to multi-task while speaking on a cell phone. Most people don't have significant problems carrying on a conversation with another person while performing some other task: eating, walking, driving a car. But it's well-known that talking on a cell phone distracts from other tasks. This may be because the poor clarity requires the speaker to concentrate more on comprehending what is being said, and having to speak more deliberately to be understood.
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
it does seem of late that discussions topics like these are becoming more prevalant at /.
surely a company like msnbc loves when /. directs thousands+++ to their site to view their ads, etc?
Without directly accusing the moderators and owners of slashdot with forming partnerships that would be contrary to the user spirit of /., i would like to point out that power can corrupt, and sometimes slowly. /. has a history of presenting stories, ideas and tech, and presenting a forum that is educational, and inspirational. it is the perfect example of the modern townhall meeting, or better yet, the town square.
But history is in the past, and though past performances can indicate future performances, it is no guarantee. So please /. do not waver. This site has power because it is read by many, and in these dangerous times we need this tool to stay sharp and poignante.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
I'm a firm believer in the fact that the human race as a whole has a very low average intelligence
I think the human race as a whole has a specialization problem. People do what they find interesting. For us, it's mostly electronic shit, and sometimes physics. For motorheads, it's cars and bikes. For utter retards, it's drooling all over themselves while trying to tie their shoes (hurrah for vidiot references). For some people, these overlap, and people don't have to specialize in just one thing. Most don't.
The problem comes in because noone wants to learn about what they DON'T find interesting (e.g most people hate maths). They then become stupid in these subjects, because they fail to retain even the most basic fundamentals.
Yet, someone who appears to be an utter retard because of something they said (on a subject they don't understand) can surprise everyone by demonstrating amazing amounts of knowledge in another area.
I'm Seen it on Campus
;-)
Well, do you?
Much of your cited data seems to be conducted during the reign of first gen cellphones -- the analog variety. These older phones operate on different frequencies (obviously) and also require a much higher power output than the digital models used by 85% American cell phone owners today. How valid are these stats?
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
The new SUV for women to scare men with - they use that line or something like it in thier commercial...
amazing
The fact is that some people may not understand what the consequences of a cell phone are. It may be that understanding exists, and the decision is made to use the tool in spite of the risks. Or, the user of the tool may be stupid, and the best hope is that they do not take someone else out in the process. We are not going to change anything by calling all of them stupid.
And what about that pathetic attack of business majors on their cell phones. On most issues, I would say yea! I am all for bashing business majors and frat boys, but in this case, it seems kind of petty. Can you just imagine the business majors at party laughing at the stupid engineering people talking about Linux? Too stupid to use Microsoft. Too stupid to get an MBA. Too stupid to learn to dance. Too stupid to get laid. Dumb geeks.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The older I get the more I appreciate his comment.
The Duke of Wellington opposed the construction of railroads in Britain because they would, he said, "only encourage the common people to move about needlessly."
Replace "railroads" with "cell phones" and "move about" with "yammer", and welcome to the 21st century.
The other posters are right, though. They were stupid before they got the phones, they just now have a much more public way to demonstrate their idiocy. Their sphere of awareness extends two feet from their body and 5 seconds into the future.
It seems to me the real cause of the writer's grief isn't people using cell phones, but people using cell phones while trying to do something else at the same time. There seems to be a belief that you can split your attention between a phone conversation and (driving/walking/unicycling/etc) without any adverse effects, but of course it isn't so. Perhaps we just need a law that says you must be stationary whenever a cell phone is pressed to your ear.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The existance of a "Hello Kitty" 'faceplate' for phones is more than enough evidence in my book to prove this point.
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
I was sitting in class today and a woman's cell phone went off. It wasn't too annoying at first. Then she pulled her purse out of her backpack, and it got louder. Then she pulled the phone out of her purse, and it might as well have been a goddamn fire alarm. All in all, it took 30 seconds or so for her to turn it off, and it completely interrupted everyone's train of thought. When I see someone on a cellphone, this is the type of experience that immediately comes to mind - not the guy who I didn't even notice because he was speaking softly into his phone as I passed him on the walkway.
Think of SUVs, a good example since they've already been mentioned once in this thread. SUVs seem to carry similar connotations. Many people, myself included, see someone driving an SUV and often think "road hogging, gas guzzling, polluting idiot!" Of course that's not true in all cases. My dad's been driving an Explorer since '96 or so. He's never had a wreck in his life, he's never even had so much as a speeding ticket; he's a very safe and astute driver. Perhaps "gas guzzling" and "polluting" still apply, but he's not a road hog and he's no idiot. Yet I'm sure there are plenty of people who think that when they see him driving down the road.
It's just a stereotype. People have come to associate cellphones with rude, inconsiderate behavior (and for a good reason). They salivate when the bell rings, you can't expect anything else.
Shaun
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
...but I can't remember telephone numbers any more.
My parents. My brother. My best friends. I couldn't tell you what they're phone numbers are. Even if I'm calling on a land line, I need to get the cell phone out and look up the number. It's like my brain can't be bothered with the task anymore. Really scary stuff.
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
Cell phone use make the users stand out. What's so difficult? Get a life.
C'mon people - no one thinks you're talking to the special commando force perched in the Huey just because you hold it sideways away from and in front of, your face. You just look retarded.
..another example of why to ignore 99% of news articles..try to juggle while riding a bike..same comparison
Wow, you find ambiguous antecedents not only comment-worthy but amusing. Congratulations; you are a true GrammrrNrrd(tm). Oh, by the way, everyone hates you.
Can't remember the source right now (must be that I'm typing on my cellphone whilst driving at 100 mph right now ...:). The study looked at the number of nodes (?term) used by a person's brain during a task. Driving took up about 70 nodes. Talking on the cell phone, about 50 nodes. Doing the two at the same time? (Simulated by a computer driving game) 60 nodes. We aren't as capable at multitasking as we think.
People who spend more time talking on cell phones seemingly need stimulation beyond the world around them. If people can't become engaged in what's happening around them and feel the need to be somewhere else with someone else. They can't be bothered to stop and smell the roses, blah blah blah... That, or they should have thought about being at that somewhere else to begin with.
Cell phones don't make people stupid. They're already stupid for thinking they need to use it. They rank right on up there with people who "need" television.
Is the COmmunications revolution resulting in decreased communication skills?
/. guys in person next time they come to Australia... I am sure I will learn more in five minutes face to face than I have from reading their musings on /. for the last 3 years.
We have mobile phones, email, irc, and slashdot. These communication mediums are meant to be part of the communications revolution, but are we losing the art of effective communication?
How often do you send 5 or six emails for what could be covered off in a 1 minute phone call? With email people miss your mood, tone, and oftne misinterpret what you mean.
How important is a face to face meeting? Meeting people face to face allows you to project senses that you just can't with a phone call or email. You get to guage each others body lnaguage and alter your communication to meet the changing mood. This is much harder on the phone, and almost impossible on email...
So mobile phones probably are making us more stupid, I also switch off to the world in a similar manner when I am writing emails, so email is also making more stupid.
Note to self, must meet the
lounge around on the blue couch
What I see going on, and it comes from regular phones as well, is that people are becoming too dependent on others.
Rather than research a subject or situation, and solve it themselves, they are calling someone else to provide a solution.
Tp illustrate, some years ago a student in a public school had to go to the Principals office to make or receive a call. The extra 'cost' of the procedure to make a call etc encouraged problem solving by the student. Students tended to remember to bring things they needed each day.
But now with cell phones, no one seems to have any decisive abilities. Children (and adults) call parents and others to ask the most trivial things. What to wear, what to eat, where is the sugar, can't find the peanut butter, should I buy this (insert some inconsequential object), etc.
It seems the power of reasoning and decision has all but disappeared.
And, wasn't that what school was all about? Getting away from home and learning to survive and prosper on ones' own?
Well, for what it's worth, my ex-wife works for a cell phone company, doing customer service work. She maintains that owning a cell phone automatically drops your IQ by 10 points...
Owning a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) makes you stupid, which then causes you to go out and buy a cell phone due to your dramatically decreased intelligence.
Well, let's break it down. I'm driving a 6 ton behemoth with a huge V8 motor, massive steel frame, and a height second only to mac trucks. You are driving a little lightweight scooter-car with a puny motor and crush zones that crush when a leaf falls on the door.
So who was the idiot again?
people make people stupid
who's the asshole?
the guy in a fucking suv.
The worst, the absolute worst, is an afternoon rushhour on a crowded NYC commuter bus. People get on, and the phones come out. Dozens of them, inches from your head. It's like sitting in a moving bee-hive. I've started to walk home to avoid it.
One terriffic anecdote tho - I was coming home one night and the woman sitting in front of me was talking to her friend sitting beside her, and the conversation was making a lot of people on the bus try not to laugh. It doesn't matter what it was about, the point is that her cel went off and she started to tell whoever called the same stupid story. The greatest thing was her ringtone - "If I Only Had A Brain." She really couldn't understand why she was getting such strange looks.
Triv
Well, OK, but I was a student back then and these things _were_ funny...
.02
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
Except for an emergency (as defined in the State Codes,
e.g., you'd be prepared to explain the nature of your emergency to
a cop and a judge), using a portable phone while operating
a motor vehicle on a public roadway constitutes a moving violation.
Exceptions could be provided for licensed amateur radio
operators, service personnel, security guards, etc.
Violators to be fined heavily -- as a moving violation.
One that raises your insurance rates, carries substantial fines,
and can cause you to forfeit your license to drive
AND your cell phone after multiple violations.
Let's make it worthwhile: a $500-1000 fine for the
first offense, which will generally be waived AFTER a
court appearence, on the condition that the violator will sit
through an uncomfortable class or do some service work.
I'm totally 100% serious here. You can still squawk on the
phone while driving if you have an emergency (what the
LAW says is an emergency, not necessarily what YOU say),
and you can still get a special license that will allow you
to do it after passing some tests that show you're capable...
But the routine, always-on nature of the doofuses out there
who *are* contributing to highway problems has got to stop.
You want to hear my views on road rage, and my
ideas of how to stop the trend?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
There's an interesting article in Wired that sheds light on this problem, sort of. The article is relevant because the problem is similar: being dangerously distracted.
Basically, it boils down to concentration. People walking around talking on a phone aren't paying attention to the important things, like who is about to squash them. People can't multi-task nearly as well as they assume, which is why people get into these stupid situations.
To me, the biggest indicator of stupidity is
when people think it's somehow appropriate or
nice to have the monotonic rendition of a mozart
aria or bach partita as their ringer. As if that
makes them sophisticated somehow. It literally
makes me want to kill the owner of the phone.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Yeah, between that and cornrows. Or those damn stinky dreadlocks.
I'd rather be a live asshole in an SUV than a dead fool in a scooter.
...in the people who revel at putting down anything that is popular.
If this is a valid slashdot story, then you guys should just post everything! :)
http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/computerbad.html
"and i was like OH MY GOD! and she was like NO WAY...." Unfortunatly people are turning into this... and its not coming from the valley neccessarily.
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
http://www.rolloverlawyer.com/explorer/Default.htm p or ts/suv/risks.htm
http://www.insweb.com/learningcenter/special-re
You mean you'd rather die due to a rollover than other causes?
Not willingly, I keep on trying to lose the damn thing.
I keep it off at all times though, the way I see it the only reason that ANYBODY would EVER want to contact me is if somebody in my family is in the hospital and then quite frankly I don't really want to hear about it until I absolutely have to.
If I want to call somebody I find a nice quite niche to hide, blush deeply, and talk VEEERY SOFTLY.
I also make sure that all calls are purely functional, formal, quick short and to the point.
Then again I hate 'social calls' any ways, if I want to socialize I'll meet somebody face to friggin face and talk to them.
About the only long phone conversations that I ever have are the ones to my friend who I have known since I was in the first grade, ever 3 to 6 months one of us calls the other one up and we talk for an hour or two. So freakin sue me, that is about all the telephone time I get in period. Well except for time on hold calling businesses for various things. . . . eeesh and ick!
Cell phone suck, period. Annoying buggers, NO REASON TO HAVE THEM OUT WHEN YOU ARE PHYSICALLY MOBIL. Sit your ass down or stand still, find some little niche, AND GIVE THE REST OF US SOME PEACE AND QUIET YOU DUMB FUCK.
Oh yah, and kids on cell phones? Dumb fucks, every last one of them. Time wasted socializing is time that would have been better spent studying.
Of course I say that about all social events so. . . . heh.
--- is in the 'school dances should be banned' catagory.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
No Mobile Phone. Dont want, dont need.
No laptop
Don't Drink
Don't smoke
Don't play sport
Don't participate in any formal religion :).
Funnily enough, not drinking is usually percieved as the worst offence, and assumes the last point is incorrect.
Yesterday after a rather hectic day at the mine, one of the managers was offering to shout a round. Lots of calls of "VB" , "MB", "Bundy & coke", when I said "Make Mine Solo", one smart arse piped up "We want your drink, not your lifestyle"
I'll just go off and find a real phone and talk to someone quietly whilst drinking my can of "Solo"
When you talk to the phone you hear the sound only on the other ear. Usually this is the right ear. The phone is usually loud. Then, when you stop you might feel a bit out of it for a while, especially after long talks.
But I think this is similar to the effect of using a headphone with the right part only. Try asking a DJ to do some math in the middle of mixing.
I don't know if there's any amplifying effects or effects at all from EM radiaion..
Always fashionable to pile on the cellphone users. Here's my contributions:
People were the same way at the dawn of the automobile age. The funny part is, they were mostly right. Cars are more dangerous[1] than horses and buggies, and an annoyance to civilized society. They also transformed civilization, in most ways for the better. (Try taking someone to the hospital on a horse sometime and see how it works out.)
The cellphone is here to stay. If costs come down just a bit more, everyone in the civilized world will have one. Might as well just enjoy it. If the conversations of those around you are bugging you, call a friend of your own and drown it out, or listen to that next technological marvel: the portable MP3 player.
-------------
1. Although folks forget how dangerous horses and buggies were, per road mile travelled. Horses are irrational: they buck riders off, run away with carriages, etc. It would actually be interesting to see a risk study sometime.
Cell phone users = Everybody at some countries
"All humans of several countries are stupid"
I luv my cell phone, it's really good, and has flashy lights and lots of ring tones, and I can even program my own ones, it's really good. I have got the latest handset and it's much better than the ones my mates have got, yeah, they have less flashy light things. My fone has a bigger screeny-weeny thingy as well, and I really like my phone. My fone is my best friend.
...and I am not stupid.
I think we have an unwitting participant here.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
New technologies have always scared people at first. When electricity came in the households old people feared that it would leak out of the plugs.
Your fear measures your fear of change.
that shoe phones make Max Smart?
Bluetooth - the phone can stay in your pocket. No wires either.
Custom ringtones. The superloud volume setting doesn't help anything, but even at low volume, hearing the first four bars of the chorus to "Ode to Joy", "Ramblin' Man", or anything by N'Sync played over and over on what sounds like a PC Squeaker is enough to make seriously consider my opinions on public execution and eugenics programs.
The reason why humans talk so much is because of the danger that if their lips stop moving, their brains might start moving.
I think this explains it all. . .
Cellphones don't make people stupid. Talking on one does distract one from whatever else one is doing, such as walking, paying attention to traffic or driving. But so does an intense conversation to a friend, or listening to involving music, or spotting that ever-so-attractive person-of-the-appropriate-gender who just walked past. I've seen all of the above cause people to walk off pavements (sidewalks to you colonials) at inappropriate times :-)
Anna B
Uh huh. And you state that with such authority, too! I almost don't think you're a tard!
None are considered credible in the scientific community.
Bzzt! Wrong. That's just what you've been told by the pretty talking heads on TEE VEE. There are two steps required to hoodwink a nation about some off-kilter science lie: a) Fund a dumb-ass study which distorts and supports, b) Fund a promotions campaign to sell the results to the public through the major media outlets, (which are mostly owned by telecommunications interests.).
There have been HUNDREDS of rational studies done by serious scientists looking to know the truth about these matters. Hundreds, done by such unreliable groups as the American military in conjunction with the New York department responsible for supplying Manhattan and the state of New York with electricty. --With damning results, which were then quickly muttered down and buried. You won't find this easily on the web. (Wonder why?) You have to, (horrors!) go look it up in a bricks and mortar library. There have been HUNDREDS of damning studies by real scientists the world over who wanted to know the truth, and who now know that there is more to the question of EM/human interaction than is sold to us by the tobacco, er I mean, the telecommunications industry. But only those $tudie$ which make $en$e to certain partie$ get the PR budgets and the media required to become de-facto truth with all the nerds and stupid people who believe the calm and rational voice from the TEE VEE which tells us all what to think.
Piece of advice: Get your head pulled out. There's shit in your ears.
Maybe she was just insane?
Remeber the first time you saw someone using a hands free set on the street? If your experience was anything like mine, you imediately drew the conclusion that this is a man with a few screws loose.
Now-a-days people are used to guys on the subway staring blankly into infinity while having conversations with people who aren't there.
This has lead to an interesting trend I have begun to notice recently:
Over the last few years there has been an alarming increase in people talking incoherently into the air, without actually using a phone. I spot one on the average every two weeks. I blame hands free for legitimizing it.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Think about it. Most of the common rudness you encounter on a daily basis comes from people who simply don't think about people around them...or if they do, they regard them as obstacles. Driving aggressively, taking more than 7 items through the express checkout lane, playing stereos loudly at 3am, talking on a cell phone during a movie...all of it comes from people not considering the other people around them. And in modern culture, this is a common habit.
Cell phones don't make people stupid. They just reinforce their rude habits.
"cell phone users"? as opposed to which group of people exactly? luddites?
Ever go out to meet some friends and find that most of the night you're only listening to them talk on their mobiles to other friends?
Customer: Damn, where is my cell phone? Hey did you see my cell phone?
Shop-assistant: Here is mine, just ring it, and we find it right away.
Customer: Uh. Oh. I don't remember my own number. But I'm sure it was in my backpack, that I left here in the corner.
Shop-assistant: Well, it's not there. Perhaps the guy that walked out five minutes ago stole it.
Customer: Oh my god. I'm going to call my husband right away! He is a cop you know... Wait, I don't remember his number I had it in my cell phone ...
Google has the answer:
:)
Searched the web for stupid cell phone users. Results 1 - 10 of about 29,400. Search took 0.09 seconds.
Does that answer your question?
They do, I swear, affect short term memory.
I have mine on now, its a little Nokia number with the changeable facia. Today its got its light blue facia, but maybe I'll switch to the tiger stripe facia tomorrow. Don't you just hate people who wear tiger stripes and leopard skin clothes? Its not the fur problem, even when the fur is fake it just looks sooo tacky. Speaking of which I spilled some curry on my desk and its still tacky, I'm hoping it will dry tomorrow. Maybe it will rain like today.
Oh, sorry, what were we talking about again?
If people don't keep talking to each other, their _brains_ start working.
We can see you're not married then...
75% of all stats are made up on the spot.
In Alabama it's legal to install a television set in an automobile dashboard. So the next time you see a driver from the Heart of Dixie who's yakking on a cell phone, just remember: he might also be watching "Wheel of Fortune".
[this
They make you stupid because they are eroding the art of conversation, filling the air with the banal.
I've read the same nonsense about email destroying the art of letter writing. It's simply not true. I like to (try to) write witty, poignant, eloquently phrased emails as much as possible, and I receive many like this. I even see a lot of extremely well put together Slashdot posts! Just because most email is functional ("Meeting in Room 3 at 4pm") doesn't mean any art is being lost.It's the same with mobile phones. Most people use their phones to tell people they're going to be late, or make some kind of arrangements - not much scope for Oscar winning material there. A great proportion of every day conversation is at least mundane, a lot is banal. It's always been this way and cell phones don't change anything.
Cellphones just give the opportunity to demonstrate this fact.
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
When i pull up to a traffic light, and see the driver in front of me [who just cut me off, or TOTALLY failed to see me and almost side swiped me - Although im not sure HOW you can just 'totally miss' a 1200cc Harley rumbling next to you.] I take great pleasure in reaching down the side of my bike .. and pulling the choke out.
.. and did I have to make so much noise.
It becomes very difficult for them to hear , and thus eliminates the problem of a 'distracted' driver on their cel-phone.
Only one lady so far has actually had the audacity to point out she was trying to make a call on her phone
I replied "This is only about 1/2 the noise I was making when you almost side swiped me 50 seconds ago, and it looked to me like you were having NO problems talking on your phone then."
[She had the good graces to look embarrised then.]
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
Indeed. Let's get back on topic: the dumbening of cell-phone users. Wait a minute - "dumbening?". That's not even a word!
Actually this could all be a good thing for mankind, if Lisa's graph of intelligence v. happiness is right.
-- What do you need?
-- Gnus. Lots of Gnus.
It makes drivers drive worse for sure.
Me? I like it when someone nearby starts chatting into there phone. I make sure I participate. They say something. I respond.
Personally Id love to get one of those cguard cellular firewalls on a battery pack. That would be fun.
I have a cell phone but its the only way I can have a phone. I dont take it out of my RV and dont use when im driving. The phones are not the problem. The natural idiots are. The problem is there are too many natural idiots which is evidenced by the number of AOL subscribers there are. Not really there fault. They own TV's. TV's are what create idiots.
--- Always remember. 99.36% of all statistics are inaccurate.
I used to believe people spend so much time on their cell phone because they can't stand being alone. Then I saw something that threw that idea out the window. I saw a group of "kids" around 16-18 years old walking through the mall. There were 3 boys and 3 girls. All 3 of the guys were talking on their respective cell phones while all 3 of the girls were beside their respective boyfriends. The only talking going on was into the phones. Hmm...you're with a couple of your friends and 3 girls and you spend your time on the phone? Stupid, obsessed, or trying to show off using what used to be a status symbol, but now only shows how tied down you are.
But why is the rum gone?
When I was at a previous job my boss often made the comment that our Nextel phones (instant 2-way communicators, like a walkie-talkie with cell capability) created a generation of managers that cant make decisions on their own. Everyone was always chatting people up on their nextel before doing or saying anything.
siri
That way there would be one less stupid person in this world. There are MANY stupid people in this world and most of them are probably better off dead. So I propose that a movie be made that is sort of like beavis & butthead, South Park, etc... But have a disclaimer at the beginning that tells you "DO NOT PERFORM THESE STUNTS OR YOU WILL DIE!" this of course will make the stupid people want to do them even more. I want it to contain things like the deleted scene from "The Program" where the kid lays down in the center of traffic to 'relax'. Some idiot got killed doing this, and they had to remove the scene. Now IMO, if you are stupid enough to lay in TRAFFIC, then the world is better off without you. It may be a bit elitist, but I dont care. Just an opinion from someone who thinks cell phones should be like a drivers license, or a CCW permit.
That's what I always thought about people driving SUVs.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Coincidence? You be the judge!
Bush should have died, not Reagan -- Morrissey
Morrissey rides a cockhorse -- The Warlock Pinchers
These are the following reasons I got rid of my cell phone: 1) I drive a stick. My wife got angry with me because she would call me on my cell phone and I would put it down when I had to shift, traffic got tight, or I had to concentrate on the driving for some reason or another. I explained to her in the beginning that driving home safely is much more important than any conversion in the car. 2) I told everyone that the cell phone was for EMERGENCY USE ONLY. Suddenly emergency calls were "just checking up. Want to make sure you're OK" calls. Especially from my wife. Her family has this whole weird thing with phones that's a whole different world, although that's beside the point. The point is that people do not respect what emergency use means when it's just so convenient and "it'll only take a minute". Also, both my wife and I got a phone, and we said it was only for if the car breaks down or some emergency like that. It didn't take her very long to call because she had to ask some one a quick question and she should call while she's thinking about it before she gets home. 3) It's nice to be disconnected. It's really, really nice to be someplace where no one can reach you. No one can bother you. You're all alone. Obviously I'm in the minority with this opinion. People don't respect private time when you have a cell phone. If they can call you, they will. 4) My wife seems to concentrate on anything except driving while she's driving. She almost rear-ended four people yesterday alone. Especially with the cell phone. 5) C-- You H--- -- -ow? Sentences MUST be short and sweet along with the conversations because you don't know when your cell phone is going to conk out on you. I used to have Verison. That sucked. My father in law has Nextel. That sucks. My wife (she can't live without one, she says) now has SprintPCS. Not very clear, although all of these may be where I live. I hated every minute of having a cell phone. I got it originally for the purpose of if I got stuck somewhere I could call for help. When I go to work there is a whole lotta nothing between home and work, and it's even worse for some of my side consulting jobs. The price wasn't worth it. To have the (what I consider) proper cell phone attitude is to be totally frustrated all the time with everyone you know.
And what about the (real) books:
A Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet
Internet for Dummies
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
The CEO of my company was holding a meeting for the whole company and told everyone to turn off their cell phones (salesmen included) because if it rang they'd have to stand in the corner.
Of course someone's did ring and they were made to stand in the corner.
About 6 months later at another company wide meeting. Someone was speaking and a cell phone rings. Turns out it was his the CEO's.
He turned it off and went and stood in the corner.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
80% of people think 80% of people are rude.
Unfortunately, they're right.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
No wonder people think you're an asshole. If you're pulling into the station, you can find out if your wife is waiting by stepping off the fucking train and looking around. You don't really need to make a call for that.
You're like the idiots on the plane who, as soon as it pulls into the gate, call their friend who's standing in the freaking terminal to tell them that the plane just arrived. How did we ever manage to find each other without cell phones?
in the white jackets. Don't worry, they'll make sure your tinfoil hat isn't damaged.
You should really lay off the amphetamines dude.
"Which came first -- stupidity or the cell phone?"
It doesn't matter: cell phones are stupidity amplifiers. At least people used to hide idiocy by keeping quiet -- following the old "better to remain quiet and be thought and idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" saw. Now the idiots forget that they are in public when talking on the phone. There in lies the amplification: most cell phone morons think they can have private conversations in public. Would they have the same conversation at the same levels if the person at the other end were standing next to them?
All kidding aside, I really didn't need to know that the very pregnant lady on the bus next to me a few days ago felt that her husband had a better than 90% chance of being the babies father and that he needed to stop fooling around with the waitress at the coffee shop. (No I'm not making this up!)
Fat parents have fat kids.
Just to let you know, this isn't exactly true. I was a fat kid, now I am a fat man. My parents were not fat, though my dad has put on a little weight over the past few years he still isn't all that large. I am losing weight finally because I got tired of it, not because everyone nagged me about my weight. If it was the nagging that made me lose weight, I would have started losing decades ago.
Generalizations make you appear stupid.
Cell phones have been proven to cause brain cancer, if they are used for more than 2 hours a day. Well, most people use it to at least 3 to 4 hours a day.
When I was in high school I read a Ray Bradbury story that really impressed me, and that right now seems really prophetic. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the story, but I can attempt to summarize it, badly:
There is a man who goes crazy, and declares war on the two-way radios (cellphones) everyone is using. He puts ice cream in the two-way radio in his car. He goes on a bus with a diathermy machine in a briefcase and jams all the radio transmissions so that all the people on the bus, all of whom are using their cellphones, are forced to talk to each other. The police capture him. There was more to it, but I can't remember it.
The point was the man went crazy because he was forced to always be in touch with anyone who wanted to talk to him. There was no place he could go to get away.
I don't own a cellphone and this very badly remembered story probably influenced me not to get one.
seems different glands react to different frequencies and power levels in a wide variety of ways...
Does this mean that in some people the cellphone might make you extremely horny. I thought that was just the vibe-alert, but it might be the radiation too?
Somebody, anyone, please call me! I'm single but I have a vibrating Li battery!
I have nothing to say.
You mean you'd rather die due to a rollover than other causes?
That there are idiots who don't know how to drive and take corners in their SUV like some sub-compact car doesn't mean that I do the same. Got news for you: SUVs don't just spontaneously rollover for no apparent reason. "Jaysus Christ! I wuz just sittin' at th' light, and it jus' durn flipped over!"
(A little offtopic)
At one time in my life I had a cell phone, thought it would be much cheaper than having a regular land line. Anyway, I was waiting for a call from some of my family, but I still had many things to do. One of these activities was changing the battery in my car. I had been to class earlier (I'm still a student in college), and since I really hate having the ringer go off, I set it on vibrator. (OK we already know enough jokes/puns/etc about vibrators...) I was working on my car and as I started pulling the battery out I get this tingling sensation in my leg.
"Oh God, I'm electrocuting myself!!!!" I thought. But then it stopped, and as I set the battery down again, it started again. Then I realized that it was my damned phone. I learned a moral from this, never put your cell phone on vibrator when playing with electricity.
Now that I think about it, this would be a fun joke to pull. Too bad I got rid of my cell phone.
I think the author is "stupid" for downplaying the serious dangers of driving while absorbed in cell-phone conversation. She playfully substitutes the cuddly word, "squished", for "manslaughter", probably to help her cope with the fact that she was almost guilty of this crime herself. People like her , who don't know when to stop talking and pay attention to the friggin road, are no better than drunk drivers, and should be handled by the law in the same manner.
And I just love it when people like you drive your "1200cc Harley" through residential neighborhoods. Or, decide to let it rip while driving down a very busy commercial street.
I'm sure driving one [harley] is fun, but the drivers are very inconsiderate when it comes to the people around them and the noise the things make. There are laws for mufflers on cars, bikes should be the same.
I know this is off-topic or flaimbait, but I have to comment.
See subject, pointer-boy.
people who feel the need to have the speakerphone on their Nextels so loud as to alert a four block radius of their conversation I can understand the desire (NOTE: desire not need) to have them super loud at work if the person has a job that tends to me noisy, like construction. But some people seem to derive some strange life force from the volume of their phone. These people should realize the being excessively loud is not a good way to mask ones ignorance.
Insert sig here (slashdot) Insert cig here (Lewinsky)
I don't have a cell phone and, unless my boss gives me one for work related purposes, I won't have one.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
My phone is almost always in the "one ring" profile, which means that when someone calls me, the phone will ring once and then stop nagging me (but will continue to blink). This way, I don't have to answer if I'm busy speaking to someone else, or in the toilet - like the thing that happened to the author of the linked story.
I do it because I want to give the people in the foreground priority over the cellular phone. The phone can wait..
Unfortunately, only Nokia phones support the "one ring" mode for some reason.. and they are usually low on other lovely features that other phones have (like unlimited caller groups or bigger memory for SMS messages).
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
Actually, any phone usage makes users stupid. People with cell phones just use them more often. It must have something to do with that 60-cycle hum you hear from every phone line on the planet.
Phones also make us poor. After I open dresser this morning I pick up phone bill , I read phone bill , and discovered it was $1138!
See ya!
I don't think it has anything to do with cell phones or technology. These people would be stupid without their cell phones. Due to the mobility of the cell phone, they just get to be stupid in public.
Remember, in a large normally distributed sample, the average becomes the median. Therefore, it isn't surprising that half the population of the world has a below average IQ.
You have to listen to these conversations.
"Yes
It's not the sound of stupidity, it's the sound of blokes' dignity whimpering softly, circling the drain.
With technology turning an ever more-sharply-focused light on that previously ineffable thing within us all...
...who will be so foolish as to imply the ones around them are the ones with the problems?
As we get to know the true nature of humankind better, the misanthropist club seems to be getting a lot of new members.
If you think of a mobile phone as a social experiment, don't forget- they kill the control rats at the end of the study, too.
So I propose that a movie be made that is sort of like beavis & butthead, South Park, etc... But have a disclaimer at the beginning that tells you "DO NOT PERFORM THESE STUNTS OR YOU WILL DIE!" this of course will make the stupid people want to do them even more.
Be careful what you wish for: Coming soon to a theater near you.
I love how gadget fans deny ANY possible danger from their toys....
I'm sure smokers used to say cigarettes weren't bad for you too.
The fact is, humans were never built to carry around powerful microwave transmitters on their thigh.
Even energies (like cosmic rays) that we have been subjected to millions of years STILL cause bodily damage.
Given millions of years, the body still hasn't evolved proper defenses against these energies.
Considering that humans' bodies don't seem to feel the need to grow any kind of protection,
we should change the technology we use to communicate.
There must be another way to broadcast intelligible signals across long distances
to others without the nasty side effect of cooking the sender.
You are so very very wrong. Let me see if I can explain with some physics, and then follow up with personal observations.
Think of congested traffic as though it were a fluid mechanics problem, molecules of liquid passing through a pipe whose diameter (number of lanes) changes. The molecules fill every portion of the pipe. They don't artificially contract into a smaller stream a quarter of a mile before the pipe restriction.
A real life example from Missouri, where we have the most polite and completely incompetent drivers in the world: Travelling down the three lane interstate one evening in the leftmost lane, I saw a orange construction sign indicating that the left lane was closed ahead. I could not yet see the lane closure ahead, so I continued in the left lane. Other drivers slowed almost to a halt to merge into the crowded center lane. Once around them, I passed a full mile of vehicles crawling along in the two rightmost lanes to find that the left lane wasn't restricted at all. The sign was in error, but a traffic jam ensued because drivers were attempting to merge into the rightmost lanes far before they needed to. Merging early was the entire cause of that traffic problem.
In the New York City area, thought by many to be the home of the rudest most aggressive drivers, this problem might not have ever happened. I have been a passenger in a speeding cab that hurtled right up to a stalled and burning vehicle in the left lane on a bridge(!) and merged at the very last moment. Other vehicles did the same thing. What I noticed was that traffic didn't slow down much at all. The NYC drivers used every available bit of asphalt, and it kept the traffic moving. All it takes in Missouri to cause a traffic jam is the mere hint of a lane closure! Big difference!
Finally, an observation on motorcycles and lane-splitting: Throughout Europe and in California, it is legal, in fact even encouraged, for motorcyclists to filter through slow or stopped traffic by travelling between the cars. It's not legal in other states, and even trying it is likely to get a motorcyclist killed by a vengeful automobile driver. If car drivers cared at all about reducing traffic congestion, they would be happy to have the motorcycles filter past rush hour traffic and move to the front of a line at traffic signals. Getting the motorcycles out of the way frees up space for the automobiles. Making the motorcycle use up just as much space as a car only makes the congestion problem worse. (Think Tetris, played badly) But, The majority of automobile driving Americans are infuriated when a motorcycle passes them in rush hour traffic. It goes to show that our culture prizes a sort of equality of suffering over problem resolution.
Certain activities utilize more of our concentration than others. Cell phones are one of these things. Maybe it is because the communication is happening from a centralized location, but communication over a cell phone differs from normal social interaction. It takes alot of controlled thought to use one. This absorbtion into the cell phone makes it a huge distraction when doing other tasks (which is why I hate drivers who use them)
Magius_AR
A program I saw recently made an interesting point: People who are with you in a car or whatnot, can see you're entering a dangerous situation, and will stop talking to allow you to handle it. People jabbering on a cell cannot see the out of control lorry or red pedestrian crossing, and will continue to take your concentration.
Cell phones lower the bar of inconvenience in commnuication. Nextels are worse. Radios are scary. Emails suck, and don't even mention "text messages" (isn't that what an email is?)
Funny, i usually see communication as a good thing. We use Nextels where I work now - a college helpdesk - and it's a great way to dispatch techs, clarify tickets, ect. No more paging and waiting for someone to find a phone and call back. Sure it's abused (actual conversation today - (chirp) What are you doing for lunch (chirp), but it's also delivered better service. So it's not "worse" or "scary".
Clicking on the link gives me:
/ads/managers/bantopspons_mgr.txt, line 61
Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a0400'
Expected statement
Case "DIGDISEASE"
^
GOOD ONE
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
I didn't point this out before because I was overcome by the need to ridicule, (sorry about that. Bad form, I know.), but I'll point it out now, even though it is a niggly bit of exactly the kind of hair-splitting which bugs me.
The word 'pager' was used by the poster and NOT by the scientists being quoted in regard to the behavior of the endochrine system. Read the original post again and you'll see what I mean. So if you must, then take the poster to task, (who was writing in the current day where two-way pagers are a reality), and not the scientist.
The problem with your logic is two-fold. Firstly, you seem willing to admit that there may in fact be an effect on rodents but that because rodents are smaller than people and that, "The dose makes the poison," people should ignore the implications of such studies entirely, and further, possibly even scorn those who do take interest. This seems like head-in-the-sand thinking to me, and I definitely take people to task on it whenever I see it. Sorry.
Secondly. . . In much of the literature I've read, The dose which makes the poison, is in fact identical for all brain sizes since the effect is not caused by mechanical heating or similar effects of EM radiation where absorbtion rates count, but rather by individual cellular reactions which occur regardless of how many cells happen to be exposed. --This makes all the difference in the world. Many tests have been done with cell specimines in pietri dishes.
And yet, amazingly, I'm not making this stuff up. If you own an oscilloscope, then you must understand what is meant by 'modulation' versus 'carrier frequency'. Right? Good. So then you understand that while the frequency of the cell phone carrier may be 900Mhz, the actual audio voice information being sent along it only vibrates at about 16-30 htz, (depending on the quality of the phone's pick-up and speaker.) Yes, 16 htz seems low, but it's all our human ears are capable of working with.
Well, you're about half right in fairly broken way.
Things to keep in mind:
1. Distance from the source makes a big difference; i.e., a cellphone next to your head transmitting modulated ELF signal on a microwave carrier frequency is going to have significantly more effect than a distant powerline transmitting ELF signal on an ELF carrier.
2. Believe it or not, 60htz powerlines are part of the same problem, and they do have an effect, albeit, a somewhat muted one as compared to cellphones.
Essentially, the causative mechanic by which EM affects the brain has been demonstrated. It is not heating. It is due to an effect called cyclotronic resonance (look it up). Essentially, when you have an oscillating electric field at an angle (other than a right-angle) to a steady magnetic field, (the earth's), you cause resonating particles, (at 60 htz and
Perhaps I should post the data for that experiment in a more easily digestible form. It's really quite fascinating stuff, for those who don't like to cling to safe denial structures.
Please. I have no idea who you are, but I'm willing to bet you're capable of far less ignorant/arrogant comments.
-Fantastic Lad
I thought it said "Do Cell Phones Make U Stupid?"
and that was be4 I read that Prince-article.
Time to put away my cellphone I guess.
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
What the hell should people care if somebody is talking on a cell phone in a restraunt or bus, or train. It's no more or less distracting than if they were talking to the person next to them.
Cell Phone don't make us stupid, articles like this make us stupid.
>The word 'pager' was used by the poster and NOT by the scientists being quoted in regard to the behavior of the endochrine system.
:-)
:-)
Okay, I'll give you that one. However, a study from 1982 is still outdated, but I do take back what I said about the doctor, but I don't consider it all my own fault.
> Firstly, you seem willing to admit that there may in fact be an effect on rodents but that because rodents are smaller than people and that, "The dose makes the poison," people should ignore the implications of such studies entirely, and further, possibly even scorn those who do take interest.
I'm not trying to practice head-in-the-sand thinking here, just trying to avoid the paranoia that always permeates discussions like this. I could, for example, prove to you that Nutrasweet is deadly to humans (it turns into formaldehyde at certain temperatures, such as the ones in people's guts) but only rats can eat enough Nutrasweet through regular food to kill themselves with it. The dose makes the poison, and I am willing to notice the effect on rats, but before I am willing to validate that it applies to humans there needs to be far more study on what the "deadly" dosage to humans acually is, and if there's even a remote chance that a human using a cellphone can experience it.
>The dose which makes the poison, is in fact identical for all brain sizes since the effect is not caused by mechanical heating or similar effects of EM radiation where absorbtion rates count, but rather by individual cellular reactions which occur regardless of how many cells happen to be exposed.
Okay, query me this: In that case will I still be harmed the same when I hold the phone a foot from my ear? I sorta doubt it, because of the law of inverse squares that applies to EM waves, and _that's_ my beef with studies on rats.
>Yes, 16 htz seems low, but it's all our human ears are capable of working with.
Sorry to break it to you, but the average human ear cannot hear much at all below 25 Hz. Not to mention all landline telephones are designed to cut off at 300 Hz, _and_ considering cellphones make more compromises in audio quality than regular phones (try hooking up a modem to your cell to prove this) they'll cut off at a higher frequency, not a lower one.
>1. Distance from the source makes a big difference; i.e., a cellphone next to your head transmitting modulated ELF signal on a microwave carrier frequency is going to have significantly more effect than a distant powerline transmitting ELF signal on an ELF carrier.
I'm sorry, but I just disagree with this notion that cell phones emit ELF... I think I'd really need to see evidence of this, sorry mate. Maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree here.
>2. Believe it or not, 60htz powerlines are part of the same problem, and they do have an effect, albeit, a somewhat muted one as compared to cellphones.
Well, I have seen all sorts of half-baked studies, but I've never checked for anything conclusive. Either way, though, like I said, I just don't think this is relevant to cell phones.
>Perhaps I should post the data for that experiment in a more easily digestible form. It's really quite fascinating stuff, for those who don't like to cling to safe denial structures.
Now that would be nice. I'd like to see a decent study on the effect of power line frequencies on the brain -- the best I've seen were the usual "there's a 5% higher rate of cancer in this area near the power distribution center" studies that really don't prove anything conclusively.
>Please. I have no idea who you are, but I'm willing to bet you're capable of far less ignorant/arrogant comments.
True. It's my bad for assuming what the original poster said was the truth -- I should have researched a little more before I wrote any insults down like that.
Its just old-school pagers, jeez, if they're emitting anything then you'd have the FCC knocking at your door.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC