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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.
~~~
Cell phones don't make people stupid, they just bring a lot of them to light.
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.
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
#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.
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.
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
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
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
There are two reasons for this:
1.) Humans rely on hearing a lot more than people realize. This causes people to do stupid stuff like walk out into the street without looking. "Well, I dont hear anything, must be clear." In other words, we take hearing for granted. If you're listening to somebody on the phone, then you're not listening to stuff you typically hear.
2.) Holding a cell phone can lead to restricted head movement. You're not looking around as much. Couple that with point 1 and you start taking silly risks without even realizing it.
I'm sure people are drawing the conclusion that people burn up too much runtime while on the phone, but common sense should tell you that's not the case. Ppl talk and do stuff all the time and behave quite normally without cell phones. It's simply a matter of senses being disrupted. Use a hands-free kit and some of the problem goes away. I don't have an easy answer with the first point I made, though.
"Derp de derp."
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!
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.
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
"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.
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"?
However, the hands-free kit is more trouble than it's worth. I don't use the cell phone every time I get into a car, and even given that the hands-free kit is already set up (with lighter adaptor already plugged in), it still takes a bit of time to install the phone into the kit, and then to answer a call. You have to tune to a certain channel, and then hit the answer key on the phone. Nevermind trying to dial while driving...
Zodiac Survey
Statistics show that roughly half of the people bad-mouthing cell phone users in this thread do, in fact, have cell phones.
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.
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.
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"
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!
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.
Hmm. Maybe I used the wrong terminology?
I was thinking of an earpeace you stick in your ear and look like Sam Beckett while you're walking down the street.
Sorry, now that I think about it, I DID use the wrong terminology. Sorry to be confusing!
"Derp de derp."
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?
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.
...in the people who revel at putting down anything that is popular.
Or is the other way around? That you are interested in math because you are good at it? That people of low-intelligence hate school because they do poorly in it.
Something to think about.
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.
I think we have an unwitting participant here.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
that shoe phones make Max Smart?
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. . .
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.
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?
"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.
editors are rejecting your "inciteful" (sic) articles, no doubt because you can't spell
Whereas you, on the other hand, can't read. The word "inciteful" was deliberately spelled that way as would have been obvious if you had read the previous three words ("my", "insightful", "and")
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
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
I recall reading about a study that said that hands-free systems did not reduce the number of gaffes people made while driving and talking on the phone.
Studies have shown that the distraction of a driver's attention from the road contributes to accidents involving cellular phones and that handsfree devices do not reduce the incidence of accidents.
Hands-Free, But Dangerous
Cell Phones and Car Crashes
A lot more, but I don't feel like typing, you probably don't feel like reading, and you can just do a google search to find more.
People who use cell-phones always argue that they are 1-percenters, those in the one percent who might actually not be so stupid when using a cell phone. 99% of cellphone users think they are in that 1 percent and, of course, this is one of those 90% of statistics that was just made up by me, but that is sure what it seems like.
Everyone that uses a cellphone that I talk to says they are capable of driving while using a cellphone. Well, sure, everyone is capable of driving while using a cellphone, but how capable are you at avoiding an accident and driving defensively while using a cellphone? If it's any less than without, then don't do it.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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.
People who use cell-phones always argue that they are 1-percenters, those in the one percent who might actually not be so stupid when using a cell phone.
Reminds me of my favorite statistic I saw a few years back. 76% of all Americans think they are smarter than the average American.
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.
No, I don't really believe that. I don't think that millions of people find being a lawyer interesting... but that's not exactly evidence.
I do not have a great interest in computers, yet here I am. I would not set up a DNS server just for the fun of doing it (that's not to say it is torture). However, at around my early college years I discovered that, with very little effort on my part, I was far ahead of 99% of people that specalized in CS. So, my 'interest' in computers is merely the cash that jobs in computer related fields comes with.
In other words, when I make millions of dollars, and buy myself a private island, I don't plan on touching another computer. Strangely, I've found a few others that share my sentiment.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
This crap isn't insightful. You mean to tell me there's some kind of horrible conspiracy censoring the entire internet keeping studies it doesn't like off? That's moronic. A horrible conspiracy preventing funding of the studies in the first place--THAT I can believe. That they aren't broadcasted on television--THAT I can believe. TV is controlled by a few corporate interests. But once the studies are done, no corporation can order them off the internet. The only one who can prevent the study being on the internet is the author of the study.
And I'd also like to say that before the internet, people didn't look things up in the brick and mortar library, they just didn't look shit up!
"I think the cellphone-while driving danger is mostly due to the driver's attention being off the road and on the conversation. "
Why is a cell phone more distracting than a passenger?
I have a theory: It isnt. The problem is people trying to hold the cell phone, limiting their head turning radius.
"Derp de derp."
I believe this has something to do with the way that people normally place pauses in their conversation whenever they see that something else is happening that demands the listener's attention. A passenger in a car, for example, will stop in mid-sentence if an emergency situation arises. But someone on the phone with them will not be aware of the situation, so they will keep right on talking. This splits the driver's attention at a critical moment.
"Cell phone conversations, eating, messing with your cd collection -- all of these things (and more) subtract from your level of concentration while driving. I think cell phone usage gets a lot of focus because it is so prevalent and obvious, whereas some of these other activities don't make themselves so apparent. "
It's interesting that you mention that because the reason that cell phones aren't banned in cars right now is that car radios cause significantly more accidents. Cell phones were so insignificant in the studies that it's hard to warrant doing anything about it.
"Derp de derp."
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.
Well, if we can't trust Stereolab, then who can we trust?
There really needs to be a "-1: Nostalgia Whore" moderation on Slashdot.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
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.