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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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Soooo...
Rats shouldn't use cell phones?
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."