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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
You have hit upon The Myth of Progess, one of the necessary elements of Western Civilization. Or as Voltaire would say "This is the best of all possible worlds!" (from Candide, for those who haven't read it.)
Did you know that kids in school NEED their cell phones today? What's up with that? When I was a kid, which wasn't so long ago, if there was an emergency your parents would call the school and the school would track you down.
Sure, cellphones have had some positive benefits. For example, Finland has an economy now because of cellphones. But how are we actually BETTER OFF being able to instantly call anyone or be called anywhere?
Remember pay phones? They are dying faster than FreeBSD because noone needs them anymore, everyone has a cell phone.. Personally I liked pay phones, and you hackers should too since your 300bps acoustic coupled modem will get the job done anonymously from a pay phone.
Remember when if a pager went off in a movie or theater it was because the person getting paged was ACTUALLY A DOCTOR and had to do save someone's life right away? What makes ubiquitous synchronous communication So Freakin' Great That EVERYONE Has To Have It? I was on vacation a few weeks ago and it took me three days to really be at peace with not checking my email. What's up with that?
Cellphones might give us freedom, but then you lose your cell phone with everyone's phone numbers in it and you're back in the stone age. As much freedom as your phone gives you, it's that much of a tether too.
But don't take my word for it, listen to some Stereolab:
(insert HTML for mucical notes here)
We communicate more and more
In more defined ways than ever before
But no one has got anything to say
It's all very poor it's all just a bore
Someone has got to make the difference
Between the seeming and the meaning
The seeming over runs the meaning
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.
A passenger is also an extra pair of eyes and ears. If you have to put the conversation on hold, they will know why.
The synthetic voice over a cell phone is nowhere near as natural or easy to understand than a real voice.
I don't know about you, but my voice doesn't get choppy when I'm a little far from the cell tower.
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.
I'd agree with that, but they certainly have some other nasty effects on us ...and then you tell me about how they affect rats.
But you ignore the numerous longitudinal and statistical studies before and since on cell phone usage in humans, and the absolute LACK of increased cancer rates or other diseases relative to controls.
Besides, as Drumanskiy, et. all 1974 demonstrates, much more powerful electric fields have been around far longer, so the proximity of your cell phone to your brain is nothing compared to, say, sitting next to the air conditioner for an hour. (don't believe me? get a gaussometer and check)...or using one of those nifty electric vehicles. Or stepping onto an electric train (3rd rail, anyone?). Or standing next to a running automotive engine. Or having a transformer outside your room. Or sitting behind a CRT. Or being anywhere close to a lightning strike.
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.
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.