Cell Phones Changing Social Group Communication

Mortimer.CA writes "An interesting article on how cell phones are changing the way people interact and get together in Japan. Some interesting quotations: 'To not have a keitai (cell phone) is to be walking blind, disconnected from just-in-time information on where and when you are in the social networks of time and place.' And the new social faux pas: 'One college student I spoke to described leaving one's phone at home or letting the battery die as "the new taboo."' The article mentions the book Smart Mobs which was mentioned on Slashdot before. I keep thinking how Marshal McLuhan said that our new inventions change the way we view the world. This is 'obvious' now, but was quite a new idea when he thought of it. In the 40s and 50s you "needed" to get a (land line) phone, then it was cars, email, and now cell phones. What's next? Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?"

Comments

Here we go again

[fondue]

Please refer to the surrounding 200+ posts for variations of the same idiotic, luddite American bleating about how 'cellphones' are SO EVIL.

You're pathetic. What the fuck are you doing using a computer, let alone reading Slashdot, if you think useful, accessible and empowering advancements in technology should be scorned and feared?

Guess what guys? We've heard your fascinating anecdotes about how some lady in the grocery in Buttpoke, OH was shouting into her phone about the tins of tuna she was buying. Because you've been bleating about it like whining, inept little pissants since about 1994. Get over it. Mobile phones are here to stay, the more you carp about them the more of an inconvenient, unemployable, fat annoyance you will be seen as by the rest of the world.

Re:you didn't have +2 karma to begin with

[Bowie J. Poag]

I've never seen a person get so defensive over a vibrator. Wow.