Cell Phone Headsets?

stm42 asks: "I drive 45 miles to and from work each day and I have found that a great way to spend the time productively is to use it to make the phone calls I have to make to employees, co-workers, bosses, etc. I want to be safe, however, and would like to find a headset for cell phones (with a regular headphone jack) that works and is fairly comfortable. I currently use a Plantronics over the ear style and it will stay on my head but I usually have to push the earphone to my ear to hear the other person and that pretty much eliminates the usefulness of the headset. Any suggestions?"

Comments

One suggestion

[LordOfYourPants]

Using a headset does make using your cell phone safer (it frees up a hand) but the real danger lies in the fact that you're attempting to have a focused conversation while driving at 60 mph.

I wouldn't have piped up at all had you not said "I wanted to be safe." But based on that, my best advice is to use the cell phone as little as possible while in your car.

Re:One suggestion

[stoolpigeon]

For what it's worth (not much I know) I don't talk a lot with passengers in my car when I drive.

Now sometimes I do - like when my Dad visited me and I hadn't seen him in a long time. I was so excited to see him that I was just chatting away after I picked him up at the airport. I was so involved in the discussion I drove through a red light. We almost got hit by a semi.

I don't doubt there are people out there who are better at focusing on 2 things at once - but I think a lot of accidents happen because people do not really pay attention when they are behind the wheel. I am constantly watching what is going on around me- and I have managed to miss quite a few accidents where I had to react quickly. If I had been distracted I really doubt I would have avoided the collision.

Anyways - I know for me- no discussions - on the phone or otherwise is a good idea.

The real problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I drive 45 miles to and from work each day...Any suggestions?

Yes, move closer to work or work closer to home.

Suggestions

[Anonymous Coward]

I drive 45 miles to and from work each day and I have found that a great way to spend the time productively is to use it to make the phone calls I have to make to employees, co-workers, bosses, etc.

I hate you.

I want to be safe, however, and would like to find a headset for cell phones (with a regular headphone jack) that works and is fairly comfortable.

So you're one of those people who think that the problems with cell-phone driving are solely because of not having both hands on the wheel, eh? Or maybe you are just tired of holding that little gizmo up like that for 45 minutes straight and are just using the safety angle as an excuse. Here's a tip, bub: using cell phones makes you a menace to us all. It has nothing to do with how many hands you use to hold the phone. It has everything to do with not paying attention to driving.

Any suggestions?

Sure! Here are some alterntive ways of using your commuting time productively that don't involve increasing the danger you pose to the rest of us: listen to books-on-tape or music, brainstorm about problems at work, carpool with someone from your office and get to know them as something other than "CubicleDrone #038A", fanasize about Pamela Anderson, etc.

It's not the phone, it's the conversation.

[orthogonal]

I want to be safe, however, and would like to find a headset for cell phones

Let's be clear. Part of the danger of using a cell phone while driving is the distraction caused by having to juggle the phone, having to look down at it to dial, and having to take at least one hand off the steering wheel to hold it.

Getting a hands-free headset will mostly remove these distractions.

But the majority of the distraction is caused by having the conversation in the first place. That the degree of distraction is similar to that caused by talking to someone physically in the car is often offered as a justification of using the phone while driving, but even if both equal distractions, the cell phone conversation is an additional and unnecessary distraction.

So don't fool yourself: headset or not, you'll be distracted, and you'll be driving less safely. Drive this way once or twice, and your number probably won't come up. Do it every morning, five mornings a week, 50 weeks a years, and eventually your number -- or the number of some kid darting across the road on his way to school -- will come up.

+1

[mcmonkey]

Shut up and drive.