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

Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, not just being around people who use them, but using them myself. The whole idea of having to carry a phone with you is just... wrong. I don't want to be part of one of these groups.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[tigertigr]

I don't know about anybody else, but I like my time alone. I like to know that if I am out for a walk or doing something outside my home, no one (unless they are in my immediate vicinity) is going to interfere with that. I like to multi-task my work, but I don't like to multi-task my play.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Alex Thorpe]

I have no desire to carry either a cell phone or pager, even if they were completely free. Anyone needing to reach me can call me at home, and if I'm not there, CallNotes can take a message. I've long considered pagers to be a form of those radio transmitters they tag wild animals with to track them, and I don't want to be tracked. Making a call? I hardly dial out on my phone at home that often, and it's not like there won't be a phone anywhere I go if an emergency comes up!

I use email, sometimes AIM/iChat, and a corded phone with Caller ID. That's all I need.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[TheRaven64]

I personally hate the entire idea of telephones. The idea that when they ring you should interrupt whatever you are doing and answer them just seems impolite. I also don't like talking to people on the telephone due to the amount of information you lose. When you talk to someone face-to-face you get all sorts of clues about what they're thinking from their expression, posture and even their smell. Without these you can miss a lot of communication.

I own a mobile, and often carry it around with me, but it's turned off unless I either need to make a call, or know someone actually needs to talk to me. I try to check my messages fairly regularly, and usually get back to people, if they leave one. I do not regard a telephone as a means of communication, but as a way of arranging when to meet people with whom I wish to communicate.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[mce]

No you are not the only one.

I work for a micro-electonics research institute. One of our many activities actually is making the implementation of ever smarter and feature-rich cellphones and similar devices ever more easy. Even worse, my very own project is about designing for low power from the system level downwards. One could say we're part of the cell phone companies pipe dreams. (Actually, my project worked closely with one of the major cell phone companies in the past, and now another one is very intersted.) All that just to make very clear that I'm not oposed to the technology for the technology's sake. But neither am I in favour of it "just because".

I will personally *never* be caught having my own cell phone. I will carry/use one if the job that I'm doing at that very moment requires that I be reachable while away from any fixed phone system (which happens maybe once per year), but I flat out *refuse* to give in to the "But sir, you have to be reachable, don't you?" pressure. *I* am the one who decides when and where I want to be reachable. And when I've decided that I'm not to be reached, I will implement that very strictly. Now, I know that one can switch off those buggers when one doesn't want to be disturbed, but that is not the same thing: simply by always carrying that thing around, one creates that expection that one be reachable. Maybe not immediately, but definitely within the hour. People then just assume that they can interrupt your life at any moment, because "Hey, what else (s)he's got that cellphone for, afterall?". Then when you diseble it for more than one or two hours on end, they look at you like you're the bad guy/gall who prevented them from doing something "important" such as telling you they ran into Joe or Mary on the way to the bakery. As if that kind of chit-chat can't wait till next time you really see each other. If by then it's still worthy of being told at all, that is.

Also concerning the "but you have to be reachable" craze: Once upon a time my phone company "discovered" that I use the internet a lot when at home. This is over a plain old dial-up modem, so they figured that "he's got to be reachable, so lets enable our nice (and paying!) mailbox service for him". Now there is some poor helpdesk guy over there who probably still has not recovered from what befell him after I found out what they had done and got in touch to get it disabled again. They charge the person who calls you for leaving the message, they charge you *again* for listening to the recording, and then they charge one of you *yet again* when you finnally do get to speak to one another on the phone? Not with me. Not in a million years.

If all that makes me a social outcast, than so be it.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I mean, not just being around people who use them, but using them myself. The whole idea of having to carry a phone with you is just... wrong. I don't want to be part of one of these groups."

I don't see what's so 'wrong' about it. A cell phone can be a life saver. Here in Oregon there's been an on-going story about a snow-shoer that got lost on Mount Hood. I bet his family wishes he was carrying a cell phone.

In any case, I can understand the social evolutions of carrying cell phones. When you got a group of people who wants to go do stuff, it's a lot easier to mobilize when the prerequisite is that everybody's home.

Is that wrong? I don't see how. It may be bothersome to you if you've got a large group of friends that insist on calling all the time. But that's the neat thing you can do with a cell phone you can't do with a regular phone, put it on silent. Let the voice mail get it. You really can't do that with a landline for fear of blocking calls to other people who use it.

So no, I don't have the instant "oo dat's bad" reaction to it.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[mmckinstUM]

This is a reason I hear a lot for people having cell phones.

Well, what did you and everyone else before you do before they had cell phones? If you car breaks down you can use someone's phone in their house or a phone in a business to call a wrecker. Most people drive in the city or suburbs so it's not like you are miles away from civilization.

If you get in an accident you can use the same strategy. You can also use someone else's cell phone (maybe even the person you hit) to call whoever.

I've found that a lot of the people that have cell phones also have decent cars that aren't going to break down. Usually when you car 'breaks down' it won't start. Usually when you stop you car it is at a place of business or a friends house. For the times when you car is slowly breaking down you can limp it into town or to someones house. There aren't many times when you are driving in the middle of the night, miles from civilization, when you car breaks down (unless it is a horror movie :)).

If your car does break down in the middle of nowhere the it will usually be at least an hour or two before a wrecker will get there.

I drove to from Michigan to Alaska then down to California and back (12,000 miles) without a cell phone. No one had a cell phone, the car did not break down. We were not worried if it did. BTW, the car was about 5-7 years old, were were considering taking my 89 VW Fox before we got the other car.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Lemmy Caution]

It's because I like my time alone that I like my cell phone. My cell phone means that I can largely go about my business in the world and still maintain a lot of my commitments by using the phone. It gives me far more freedom of movement than it takes away freedom from interaction, since my level of interactin is generally a constant, or at least something that I can control more actively.

But my work habits have long been nomadic: I always look for positions and projects that give me maximum mobility.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[jgerman]

Ok let's keep going back, before most people had cars everyone walked. So there's no need for cars. God forbid technology comes along to make life easier.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[esonik]

This worked as long as it was the only means to get help. The times will come where you will be _expected_ to carry a mobile phone and get your help yourself. When you knock on a door asking for help, people will probably suspect that you are a beggar; "What? You don't have a mobile phone to call help? You are either very strange or a beggar or just lying."
Two years ago, when I called the police to report some obstacle on the freeway, the operator asked for my mobile phone number. When I told him that I was calling from home, he said: "Oh, I was _assuming_ you were calling from your mobile phone. In that case, I need your name and address...". And this was not in Japan. It was in a European country and it was two years ago.

Don't we all realize how - with the increasing ability to always get in contact with our friends - the people directly around us get less and less important? They _have_ to get less important, because we can and do now spend more time to communicate with our friends (the people we already know). Consequently, we cannot spend that time with people around us that we do not know yet. For example, if you get bored on subway you call a friend or send him/her messages, while in previous times the only option was to talk to the the stranger on the next seat (thus possibly making a new acquaintance). Not that talking to strangers in a subway was something we did regularly. In that context, isn't it remarkable that the more people are around us (city vs. small village), the less common is it to talk to people you don't know ?
I find it more and more difficult to make new acquaintances because the reasons to talk to people I don't already know are vanishing...You are not expected to do it - next step is: you are expected to not do it.

Of course, all this has consequences: If your friends are spread out throughout the country (and this is only a matter of time), transport will become more important...not _less_ important as some have predicted for the age of connected world. But this a different story...

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Azure_Reis]

The thing is, you don't understand the nature of the Japanese. Where confucian values reign supreme and the youth are brought up to revere group structure, being out of touch can be a BAD THING (TM). The reason for the social change among the Japanese is because the language is heirarchical; the honorific form, which is used to separate people of different ages and different levels of power, is not used on the phone. Things are more casual and you don't have to defer to those about you. It's part of a process of social evolution that is going on in Japan because of the youth.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[esonik]

The idea that when they ring you should interrupt whatever you are doing and answer them just seems impolite.

It _is_ considered impolite _especially_ with mobile phones. The article also mentions that before people make an actual call, they send messages to find out whether the partner can be interrupted. The fact that calling somebody on a mobile phone is such an intrusion makes it necessary to "warn" the partner. Thus, phoning somebody get's more complex...Weird, isn't it?

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[jproudfo]

This may be the western view of cell phones, but isn't true in many parts of Asia. When I was working in Hong Kong it was considered rude if you weren't always available on your mobile phone. In fact, it was a regular occurance to get interuppted in a business meeting with multiple mobile phones ringing and conversations going on.

Just because this may be the acceptable norm in your part of the world, doesn't mean it's like that everywhere else.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[goofballs]

*I* am the one who decides when and where I want to be reachable.

you can only do that if you have a cell phone! with one, you can turn it on or off, screen calls via caller id, voice mail, etc. without a cell phone, how do you decide to be reachable when you're not home?

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[xigxag]

That doesn't work if it is 10 below zero outside, or you are old, or you are in a bad neighborhood, or you are on the New Jersey Turnpike...


So for those few Americans who are driving from their jobs at a Newark crack den on their way home to their Buffalo retirement communities in the dead of winter, then yes, I'd absolutely recommend they carry a cell phone at all times.

For everyone else, having a phone seems rather optional, and perhaps even a liability. I'd wager that far more people have been killed by bringing their car phones than by leaving them home.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[Bad_Feeling]

Imagine looking for a job and applying at a dozen places. I wouldn't want to be trapped at home waiting for the landline phone to ring, when i can just publish my cell number, and free my self to do whatever i want while waiting for that important call.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[pyrote]

A Cell phone with good coverage is a must if you enjoy your privacy. Before I had to stay at home waiting for calls, work AT home or at work. Now I can use my palmpilot and CE clamshell and have my whole office anywhere I desire, generally in the mountains or elsewhere.

I can give my family more of my time because I can conduct business as it happens instead of 8 hours a day and cut off. A quick incoming call, break out the palm, set an appointment, get back to the family.

I wouldn't be without it now. Heck I don't even shut it off at night for fear of missing a morning call (I'm good at picking up and sounding like I've been awake for hours).

As for the "my time" issue, thats waht caller ID is for :)

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[BJH]

Let me call "bullshit". If it's your boss or a client, you'll use polite language whether you're on the phone or talking to them face-to-face.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[domebot]

OMG!!! When did they remove the "off" switch on cell phone????

gotta remember this is a japanease

[Archfeld]

article, They are technology crazed in a way most westerners can only begin to imagine. I used to think I was a techno geek, until I went to Japan. Now I feel like a luddite sometimes. The devices and the infrastructure are just not here in the west.

Re:gotta remember this is a japanease

[tjansen]

It's not much different in Europe..

We'll see who's laughing...

[Quaoar]

...when everyone in Japan ends up with a mysterious head cancer.

Re:We'll see who's laughing...

[SlashdotLemming]

Don't worry, they'll adapt.
Brain tumors will become a new fetish.

New necessity

[nadadogg]

It is a new common assumpion that everyone has a cell phone. Thanks to digital networks, it is affordable to even the average joe to be connected at all times. They have long since eclipsed pagers as "the thing to have", making them, in some situations, more of a status symbol than as a way to stay connected. Pagers were at one time seen to be something carried by drug dealers and doctors, but never so with cellphones. This is probably due to the fact that everyone likes to have conversations, talking or by messaging. This trend is only going to continue, and get bigger and badder, hell, even smaller as well. I think that sums it up for me.

But the japanese, are, weird :)

[Monkelectric]

I don't think anyone cares what a few yuppie Japanese do with their cell phones. Most people use them to make phone calls.

This isn't the "future" of society we're seeing, its just a waypoint on the path to complete ridiculousness began by an unhealthy obsession with social rules and kitschy gadgets.

Re:But the japanese, are, weird :)

[Stig_Soleng]

No, it's not just a few Japanese. I'm Norwegian, and most of the article applies here too, along with Finland and Sweden. I think those percentage
figures in the article are pretty much the same over here, only difference is that we are only just beginning to get MMS (multimedia messages) now, which the Japanese have had for a while...

I spent a year in the the US, and one of the biggest differences for me was that not everyone had cellphones. I remember spending an entire night by myself, missing out on whatever was happening because I just wasn't used to a mobile phone-less life. I spent that night cursing the Americans for being so "backwards"... :)

So this isn't the future, it's the present, at least where I am.

information overload....

[stonebeat.org]

serious information overload. when all you are getting is information, but you have NO time to decipher it, it is no good.....

Marshall

[bernz]

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?

ALVY
I mean, d- He can give you - Do you hafta give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And - and the funny part of it is, M-Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's ... work!

MAN IN LINE
[Overlapping] Wait a minute! Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan - well, have a great deal of validity.

ALVY
Oh, do yuh?

MAN IN LINE
Yes.

ALVY
Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. So ... so, here, just let me - I mean, all right. Come over here ... a second.

MCLUHAN
[To the man in line] I hear - I heard what you were saying. You - you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

ALVY
[To the camera] Boy, if life were only like this!

Re:about letting the battery die

[repsychler]

It's not as important with newer batteries like Lithium ion as it was with NiCads.

The Jones'?

[Montgomery Burns III]

More like keeping up with the Kim's

Not Just Keeping Up

[sfranklin]

Cell phones don't fit into the "keeping up with the Jones" category - at least not any more. It's become practically a necessity in my line of work (software consulting), where out-of-state travel is the norm and client business is getting increasingly harder to obtain. Being constantly connected, even on the road, is something that clients want.

And outside the workplace, it makes a lot of sense to have a cell phone these days. You can usually find a rate plan nearly as good or even better than a land line, so cost isn't a major factor. My parents got rid of their land line entirely - and so would I, if the pizza people would deliver when I use my cell. :)

Re:Not Just Keeping Up

[Sk3lt]

Yeah I know exactly what you mean but that's one of the main reasons I hate my cell..

My Staff always call me up whenever I'm trying to sleep or am busy and ask the stupidest questions heh ;)

Texting before calling

[Animats]

The social convention that you send a text message before calling is significant. What it really does is give phone calls subject lines.

Some communications systems have subject lines. Memos and E-mails do, but phone calls and letters don't. Voicemail usually doesn't, although some online voice chat systems do have introductory messages. Telegrams didn't have subject lines. SMS, arguably, is subject lines only.

Subject lines help enormously in managing information overload. Subject lines for phone calls could be a real win. Especially if you could input them by voice. Hmm.

how old are we?

[fermion]

This just goes to show that anything invented after a person is 16 is weird, and anything invented after 30 is just wrong. Increasingly cell phones, SMS, etc are as necessary for teens and young adults as land line phones were for those of us that are much older. How many of young people without land phones had social lives in the 80's. How many young people without e-mail have social lives now.

Increasingly, especially for young people, dates are being made online. For friends, there is no reason to plan things out days in advance. Just call each other up at the spur of the moment and see who available to party. Is this good or bad? Not really either.

I have all this technology. People can request my attention using a number of methods. However, I do consider all of these requests. It is my choice to answer phone, reply to email, whatever. This pisses people off. Just because someone asks for my attention, am I for some reason required to drop everything and respond? I think not. Rather than showing our age and railing against rational uses of technology, I think we should accept those uses and teach how to use technology rather than have technology use you.

There was a time when people would come to your house, and, if there was time, you would put out some biscuits and make some tea and have a good sit down. This was obviously inefficient and complicated. However, I am still more inclined to talk to someone who would come to my apartment for a chat rather than randomly pick up phone and call me. OTOH, there are some conversations that are better on the phone and email. For instance, i remeber the first time a girl broke up with a friend of mine over email. It saved a useless conversation.

Socially, cellphones are for lonely extroverts.

[wackybrit]

It's entirely necessary if you're the sort of person who can't bear not to have contact with anyone human every 5 seconds.

Seriously, there are a lot of people like this, even in the nerd sector. They struggle to go for a few hours without calling someone, or having a conversation.. whereas lots of us are quite happy to sit hacking Perl or playing with servers until 4am.

So socially, no, I don't think phones are necessary, unless you're an extrovert who suffers from a loneliness complex.

Business-wise, however, cellphones are pretty damn useful. I can give an impression of being available 24/7 wherever I am, and that's worth a lot. A cellphone also allows me to easily call back into my work answerphone and catch up on calls. That's pretty useful stuff.

What I find odd...

[Black Parrot]

...is when I see friends together at a restaurant or something, and one or both of them spend the whole time yakking to someone else on their cell phone rather than talking to the person they're actually with.

Great...More people bugging me with phones...

[Dfiant]

It's the interesting nature of communications technology--it becomes more valuable because everyone posesses it, rather than only a limited number of people having it. It's backwards from the "normal" type of service.

The social rules that are arising from it are very intriguing, though, indicative of how popular phones and messaging are. Increasing use of text messages as a "knock" seems to be something useful evolving out of it. Sometimes I wish people would IM me before calling so I don't get distracted. (Cooperative vs. Preemptive Dfiant-tasking. ;-) It 's good that people are starting to respect each others' time a little more.

Now can we please make the next taboo not having a hands-free headset while driving? I'd like to decrease the odds of me being splattered all over the pavement from the sociable idiot in the SUV near me who either a) drifts into my lane and almost sideswipes me, b) drives slow in the lefthand lane but fails to yield, or c) didn't know where that red light/stop sign/parking lot came from.

For some people it's some sort of unhealthy social addiction. If you can't just run down to the store briefly without yacking away to your friend while you sift through the items on the shelf, it's just a little weird and annoying. Especially if you have friends there standing next to you. But when I'm constantly seeing peoples' lives endangered, that's where I draw the line.

Re:Great...More people bugging me with phones...

[xigxag]

Now can we please make the next taboo not having a hands-free headset while driving?

Irrelevant. At least one study seems to indicate that it doesn't matter whether the phones are hands-free or not, the risk is still there. According to the same link, a previous study revealed that talking on the phone impairs driving ability significantly more than talking to other passengers in your vehicle.

I'm glad it's the Japanese...

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

I, for one, don't like cell phones. I carry one or call one only when I have to.

I live in a college town and most of the college kids take them everywhere. I'm sick of hearing people take calls and talk on them at plays, movies and restaraunts. A student at the college told me that cell phones have destroyed the community atmosphere as the students are only interested in getting out of the class and getting on their cell phones.

I think by and large we'd be better off without them.

Japan has stronger society links

[jago25_98]

I heard that there is a difference between Japan and here:

here we're more individual and over there they're a lot more social.

This is really noticable if you work for a Japanese company like Sharp. Working in a factory for Toshiba we noticed that in Japan they have them all stand up at the start of the working day to say team-like stuff alligience... wierd. I think they were hoping they could inspire the same team spirit over here :D

I'd like to say more but it'd be offtopic.

Slashdot - Technology heling a new social network

[yy1]

Isn't this what slashdot aims to be? Using technology to help people communicate better. You see the way social networks are formed by the friends lists, the way some people are famous (or infamous) etc.

Technology can facilitate it and broaden the scope of the social group, but it doesn't really change the social dynamic that forms time and again.

In the case of cellphones, it lets a social group form that in previous decades might have only been able to form in a neighborhood, but cellphones let them be far flung over a large city like LA or NYC where friends live in different section and can use the cellphones to coordinate meet ups where as before everyone would just go around the corner or down the street etc...

I sorta think of slashdot as a representative discussion group, where sometimes people say something, sometimes they moderate (vote) for someones who has said something that they think should be heard. And bouncers to chuck out the people who start shouting incoherently. Anyway it lets (or some would say attempts to let) the number of people that can have a meaningful discussion be much larger.

This has happened with every meaningful technological invention, including WRITING. People naturally form social groups around technology, not because of technology.

You're wrong, but so is everyone else :)

[freeweed]

This is a common myth that's repeated like Gospel amongst people, but for good reasons. Allow me to elaborate:

The very earliest types of rechargable batteries, used on things like satellites, suffered from what is known as a 'memory' effect. In silly terms, it basically means that if you charge a half-full battery, it'll 'remember' where the charge started from, and only go on to do a half charge. When it reaches the halfway point, the battery 'thinks' it's empty. So you've just halved your battery life. Wash, rinse, repeat until the battery is useless.

When consumer rechargables started becoming common, early chargers (and a lot still do this today on NiCads) would keep applying current to the battery, even if it was fully charged. This 'overcharging' can seriously decimate the life of a battery - it renders useless the chemicals needed to drive the electric current.

So basically, people were overcharging their batteries left, right, and centre. Manufacturers started telling people not to continuously charge their devices, ie: leave the cordless phone off the hook for a while, things like that. Between noone explaining the principle of overcharging, and companies not fully understanding it themselves, we've moved on to 'completely drain any device before you charge it again'. Ironically this can actually lessen the life of many types of rechargables, including the new funky rechargable alkalines you see everywhere.

Anyway, the memory effect was only ever seen with batteries that never made it into consumer hands. But the myth lives on. There never was a reason for the drain-and-charge cycle. Overcharging was the problem all along.

Those photos really bug me!

[bugs_me_too!]

I'm really concerned about people taking pictures of me without my consent. It's too easy to do with these new cell phones. Especially when someone might catch you in an off moment. I own a cell phone, but rarely use it. I got one for my personal use because every body else has one./p?

It's not "keeping up" - look to the past

[morcheeba]

> 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?

It's not about keeping up just for keeping up's sake; it's new technologies that are useful and become part of most peoples' lives. To explain, let's go back in history... these things were all new-fangled at one time, but now, even though some people live without them, seem pretty "essential":

- 4 walls and a water-proof roof.
- clean water, delivered to your faucet.
- sanitation system - sewer, garbage, etc.
- health insurance, vacinations for diseases you don't even have yet!
- 911, police, and fire services
- a legal system, property ownership
- currency, bank accounts, lending, credit cards
- a regular job (as opposed to self-empolyed farmer/blacksmith/etc. and directly bartering your skills with others)
- prerecorded music, books.
- transportation (taxi, rail, plane, boat, postal system)
- automation (copy machines, computers)

The vast majority of us integrate these into our lives because we feel they have value that exceeds their costs, and not just to keep up.

Memory effect in NiCads

[frdmfghtr]

The memory effect that was mentioned for satellite batteries applies to Ni-Cad batteries as well.

-In my college chemistry class, I asked the professor this very question. According to him, a Ni-Cad battery develops a memory due to the plates in the battery crystallizing if not used for a long period of time. If a battery is only half-discharged before charging, the metal that is not used in the chemical process will eventually crystalize and not react even if the user tries to discharge the battery beyond half-capacity. A battery conditioner, if I understand properly, will discharge a battery completely before recharging, ensuring that the metal doesn't have a chance to crystallize. For batteries that have the effect already, teh conditioner will deep discharge the battery, "ripping" the metal atoms from the crystal structure and gradually restoring battery capacity.

When I was in the Navy, the submarine battery would show an increase in capacity if was deep-cycled a few times (like when running casualty drills over a period of several days).

-(from http://wireless.berkeley.edu/services/battery.shtm l#NICKEL%20CADMIUM)
Partial cycles will form dendrites on the plates which cause the memory effect. My speculation is that these dendrites will either (a) undergo rapid chemical process when the battery is used because they are thin relative to the plates or (b) break off and not take part in the process at all.

So the "memory effect" is no myth. I would suspect that battery manufacturers have engineers who are well-versed in such matters and probably have at least half a clue as to what they're talking about.

http://www.valence.com/chemistries.asp
http://w ww.batterycanada.com/Battery_Facts.htm

Theatre work - cell phone is deity-sent

[Scodiddly]

A lot of people here bitching about cell phones are probably those who have fairly regular locations (normal office hours, then home).

I do stagehand work, among other things. Most stagehands around here carry cellphones, and that's the primary contact for the union business agent (BA). In this case it's important to be reachable, and the BA rarely wastes one's time on the phone anyway.

I'd much rather be able to be anywhere - home, at another gig, downtown in a tea shop, etc. than have to be constantly checking my messages at home. I suppose they had methods before telephones became common, but I have better things to do than drop by the union hall every morning to see if there's work.

I really dislike cell phones

[grasshoppah]

My major problem with them is that they fragment social interaction and thus decrease its quality. Plans are no longer respected or valued since "you can call me when you're ready to do somethin'. I should have my cell on"
The most major annoyance i have is when I'm hanging out with someone, having a good time, and they get a call and an invitation to go somewhere else. Its just overly intrusive and disrespectful

"Required" email

[technomom]

I just filled out form for a week-long drama camp for my son. The entry field for "email address" was REQUIRED. That's the first time I've seen a required email address for something that was not an electronic order or membership.

JoAnn

no use for a cell phone

[Kevin]

I have no personal need for a cell phone. I have to carry a pager for work, but that has 2-way capabilities. I enjoy not being tied to a cell phone, quiet time good.

Consider this...

[The Kow]

Some people use cell phones as a means to contact people when it is most convenient. They do not project some sort of social status upon it, they do not attempt to impress people with it, they do not answer it when they don't want to, and they don't perceive their friends hate them if they don't answer immediately.

I can't understand why everybody (who's posting, at least) has this big hang-up on cell phones. It's like this approach to being 'cool' by hating that which is perceived as 'cool'. Is it okay to be 'geek' and not be a social troglodyte?

It feels like middle school, where everyone was so afraid that they saw uncertainty through 'threat' goggles.

SMS

[Kjella]

I really don't feel the need to be availible 24/7. I forget to charge my battery from time to time, or turn sound back on after having silenced it in lectures etc.

That said, I read SMS messages on a regular basis. Why? Because those I can ignore, read, reply as I choose. While not great for long conversations, something like a short message and a reply is easier over SMS than over the phone.

"I'll be about 15 mins late today" "Ok, I'll be in the computer lab" is typically what I want to do with a mobile phone. Not talking for hours, if I wanted to do that I'd normally be at home with a normal phone anyway. So while cell calls are overrated, cell phones are not.

Kjella

The new taboo

[bmckeever]

'One college student I spoke to described leaving one's phone at home or letting the battery die as "the new taboo."'

Great! Just what the Japanese need - another way to lose face.

For what it's worth

[Asahi Super Dry]

I lived in Japan for a year and I can verify that you pretty much need a cell phone if you want to conduct any sort of social life. It's a kind of ritual to exchange numbers very shortly after meeting a new person: you'd slip right through the cracks without a cell phone. And as has been posted elsewhere, text messaging completely overshadows voice conversations in terms of frequency of use/effectiveness. After you get used to it you can type quicker than you might think on the keypad (though somehow it seems that Japanese is a little better suited to that sort of entry). Their phones are also years ahead of what's available in the US.

Keeping up with the Joneses

[MythosTraecer]

Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?

I think the most positive aspect of cell phones are that you can keep up with the Joneses, but not in the way you think.

When landline-based telephones started to become widespread, they allowed people to communicate over long distances. You could keep up with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and your friends in another state. But only if they were home. Answering machines partially solved this problem, because you could leave messages, but it isn't the same. Cheap, affordable cell phones have allowed the world to keep in touch much more easily than ever before.

I'll use myself as an example. I live in the Western USA, while most of my family and some of my friends live in the Eastern USA. Most of us work weird schedules; some work 12-hour hospital shifts, some work 3rd shift, others normal shifts. There's no real way to keep track of when someone's available and when they're not. Calling a person's house doesn't mean much; is the person at work, or are they just not home? Call their cell phone. If they can talk, they'll answer their phone and talk. If they can't talk, you can leave a message and know they'll get your message as soon as possible, not when they get home (whenever that is). None of us would ever be able to actually talk to each other without cell phones; we're hardly ever home at the same time.

A lot of people don't like cell phones; they don't like the potential of being bothered every minute by others. That's fine (though if you need privacy for awhile, you can just turn your phone off). But many people enjoy the being able to keep in touch with friends and family much easier. Being able to immediately reach the actual person you want to talk to anywhere on the planet at any time has caused the world to be just a bit smaller. This positive benefit outweighs most of the negatives, IMHO.