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Cell Phone Is The Most Hated Invention
Romeo Elias Cabrera writes "The most hated invention in America -although also one of the most used- is the cell phone, according a
recent survey. The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, an annual survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that among adults asked what invention they hate most but can't live without, 30 percent said the cell phone."
Cell Phone Is The Most Hated Invention
My, how short our collective memories are. Have we already forgotten about astroturf? How about the rubber-chicken-with-the-pully-in-the-middle? Michael Jackson's nose? Umkay?
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Did you ever notice that things have gotten way more stressful in the past few decades? We're getting all this advanced technology, and for what? So that we can get in touch with anyone anywhere? So that we can have our bosses bother us at any time with useless BS work that "can't wait until tomorrow?" I say the cell phone is the biggest stress-causer ever, and anyone who has one should eliminate it from their lives.
I've long thought that television was both the best and worst invention of the twentieth century.
Email?
Television?
Oops people do hate TVs and computers. I sometimes hate computers but the article says people hate razors? Dang - i love my Gillette Mach III. The only thing i would really hate is the battery - i need it really bad but hate the short life and the need to keep hunting for an electrical socket after a few hours - this thing called the battery is present in everything i kinda hate - cellphone, mp3 player, gameboy, laptop - a good part of the hate being that the battery life isn't great.
Just my 0.02$
"The interconnectedness you get from the cell phone is a very positive thing, ... The downside of that is that you sometimes want to be alone," said Lemelson Center Director Merton C. Flemings.
So turn it off.
The coolest voice ever.
I rather like my phone as it saved me from a flat tire once and is less likely to kill people that a stupid list.
It's not the cell phone itself, it's the asshole who is too busy talking on it to realize there is a world going on around them that is hated.
The cell phone is nothing but a tool... When you need one, they're very handy. When you don't want to be bothered by it, you use the OFF button. Have people forgotten that these things can be turned off? Or that the ringer can be silenced?
The total inability to properly use a piece of technology shouldn't make it a "bad" piece of technology...
Perhaps the questions should have been a little more precise. To my mind, I hate other peoples cell phones. My cell phone (when it is on), I like.
This is all really social engineering to some extent. Devices that are engineered to minimize their effects on others will not impinge on the "space" of others. For instance, boom boxes were commonly reviled in the 80's, but when Apple designed the iPod, there was no internal speaker to annoy others with personal choices in music. The audio was left to headphones. With cell phones now, we have people's damned MIDI tones broadcasting all sorts of loud invasive tones in theaters, bistros and lectures. What's worse it the social engineering that has not had negative feedback like getting smacked for actually answering said MIDI-toned cell phone call.
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I hate:
...
- super-annoying ring tones that people always seem to leave on, and at their loudest.
- people who don't turn off their cell phones (and actually answer them!) in lectures, movies, libraries,
- people who feel compelled to have conversations on their phones no matter the place: meetings, conservations, packed public places. Extra hate points for LOUD cell phone conversations.
- people who walk around talking on cell phones just because they think they look "cool". I've eavesdropped on some of these conversations - morons talking about cereal boxes at the store - is it really necessary to have conversations like that?
John Kerry is a Joke!
When I got my cell phone, I was a year into college, and I couldn't find housing-- I ended up couch surfing for six months, followed by living in places for between 1 and 6 months at a time for another two years. If I didn't have a cell phone, I would have had no phone number.
/ex
Now that I'm no longer in college, and I live 300 miles away from that area code, it's the number that everyone knows, and so I don't want to give it up.
Just because a lot of people are annoying on them (hang up and drive, and turn it off at dinner/movies/visiting with people), doesn't mean I hate the invention-- I hate it's uses...
Kinda like video games and dance dance revolution.
The least popular invention: bills.
I think cell phones are the most abused technology and are thus the most hated. I think some people associate telephones with being at home and as such act on a cell phone as they do at home. People talk loudly, stop paying attention to the world around them, and generally shut off the parts of their brain that don't involve chattering. If people using cell phones weren't jerks there'd be little reason to hate them as they're pretty damn useful.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
It's not the cell phone I mind so much as Push To Talk. You're in a public place, you shouldn't be broadcasting your personal business to the whole area! Hole the damned thing up to your ear and don't force the rest of us to listen to it! also, keep your voice down, the person on the other end can hear you fine without your shouting.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
seconding that...who's idea was it to make virtually all cell phones "Beep" while turning them to the "silent" position.
Error: Id10t detected
OTHER PEOPLE'S cell phones.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
The best thing about cell phones is that people can get ahold of you no matter where you are.
The worst thing about cell phones is that people can get ahold of you no matter where you are.
Surely condoms are less annoying than kids.
Especially considering the finite elasticity of...well...you get the picture.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
Yea, the whole article can be summed up with that quote, but I think they are WAY off on data interpretation. I know, for me, I don't hate my cell phone; I hate other people's cell phones. I hate when people in front of me at a checkout line take 3 times longer because they're boyfriend/girlfriend is having an emotional crisis. I hate stupid drivers who can't multitast nearly run me off the road while trying to conduct a business meeting in their car. I hate when I'm in a quiet relaxing environment like the library and I suddenly start hearing the "O Danny Boy" at full volume (not that I don't like all the songs that are played, I just want to choose when to listen to them). Anyway, people like being able to call people and being connected to the world. They just don't like other people being connected.
It's chic to hate the SUV, but I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times that my Ford Explorer has gotten me (or, better put, others) out of trouble, mostly from people driving their front wheel drive econoboxes in the snow like it was the Indy 500. I know that I'm in the minority, but a small resort town in the mountains requires some sort of four wheel drive vehicle with a little bit of oomph. There's no way that a small passenger car is going to get through the roads after an overnight, two foot snowstorm. And even after the roads are plowed, they're still incredibly treacherous. And don't get me started on how in the world I'll get up to service a microwave link at the top of the mountain in a Subaru Justy.
-h-
There's no shortage of plausible excuses...
You were driving.
You weren't in the coverage area.
You were in a restaurant/theater/etc.
You were talking on your other phone.
The phone ran out of batteries.
You left it on vibrate and took it out of your pocket.
You didn't hear it ringing.
You were in a meeting.
You were taking a leak.
The service provider sucks; call must not have gone through.
etc.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
Dosn't SPAM count as an invention?
And what about Nuclear weapons? The machine gun? Bio-weapons? VX-gas? Surely there have been greater technological catastrophies then people yacking in the theater
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Cellphones suck?
I'll believe it when you shut the fuck up on the bus, the train, and every other fuckin public space you invade while yammering on and on about your pitiful life.
god, you still dont get it at all...
will burn karma, really, but all the mentions about 'you know, when you pay per SMS received' and 'who needs a cell', etc etc, read to the rest of (the world) Europe like 'no-one needs any more than 64k RAM' or 'who needs a PC on yr desktop.' etc, etc
It's just pure luddism and anger that you have, what, how many un-inter-operable providers? When roaming means 'roam from LA to SF!!!!' whilst the rest of us have > 1000 mins/ month outgoing (at least per territory and sometimes per (EMEA) region), , really, really nice terminals, free WAP, free incoming minutes (!), free 3G video calls, free SMTP/ SMS push, blah, blah, for, like what 15USD/ month (http://www.o2.co.uk)
Should bother to look up urls for the above quotes, but hey - *you* don't 'get' cells, just like Iraq didn't 'get' a free Internet.
http://milkshake.dexy.org
You're not the problem. You live in a small resort town in the mountains and you really do need the SUV. The problem is people who don't need them. Some soccer mom needs an SUV as much as she needs a semi - that is to say, she doesn't.
This evening we received a "courtesy call" from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. The only thing courteous about this call was the polite tone of the caller. It was arranged for dinner time. It was legal only because we have done business with them in the past. We have since taken our business elsewhere.
I have a firm rule which is an extension of the warning signs that read "Please Don't Feed The Bears" at many parks and campgrounds. There are two good reasons. First, bears can hurt you. No matter how soft and cuddly they may look, they are dangerous when provoked. Second, bears that have found a source of food from humans quickly become "nuisance bears". They no longer seek their natural food sources.
It is easy enough to extend this logic to anything that can become a nuisance. I don't buy from telemarketters. I don't answer "phone surveys", a fair percentage of which are just an excuse to justify a call for another purpose. And charities that call me not only don't get a donation, they are scratched off my donation list for at least a year even if they send something by mail.
Amongst my friends, when we're in the pub, the only permitted uses of a mobile phone are:
Like most tools, don't hate the tool, hate the person who missuses it. The SUV problem isn't a problem with SUVs, but is a problem with SUV owners. Take, for example, the extreme case of the Hummer. A few years ago they started popping up on roads around here (metro NYC) like crazy because they became a status symbol for the stock broker to drive out to the Hamptons. Most of them never got off pavement, and most of the drivers would have been a dangerous menace in a snowstorm. SUVs are not "good citizens" on the roads, and so it is incumbant that their drivers be good citizens. In too many cases that is not true.
Personally, this is the list of people who should have SUVs...
...and this is the list of people who shouldn't have SUVs...
Know why divorce is so expensive?
Because it's WORTH IT.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Really, the cell phone is just a continuation of other communication technology. I remember reading how bad even the telegraph was. People sending runners to your house at all hours of the night. The telephone was worse. A person could no longer leave work at work. With the telephone you could be disturbed at any time of the day or night, and it was so easy, that anyone who could afford it felt they had a right. I have heard some say that the telephone was a significant contributing factor to the end of doctors making house calls. The simple equation is that as communication becomes cheaper, the data transmitted becomes less information and more junk.
As far as the people who just say "turn it off", I have but one question. Do you turn off your phone at home? Do you value your family and friends enough to not answer the phone when they are present as guests in your house? Do you fight the social pressures to answer the phone? I do not worry about missing calls, and I deal with the social ridicule that results from my decision. I know that not everyone has the freedom to miss calls, and some just want to take the path of least resistance. Not mention that fact that some jobs will fire you if you are not available 24/7.
OTOH, there is a difference between the path of least resistance and purposefully antagonizing the people around you with silly ringtones and constant babbling. Therefore, my least favorite invention if the musical ringtone, and I can think of few punishments that would be too severe for their users. The constant babling, as I have said, is an inevitable result of the cheapness of the medium.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
We have a cell phone, or rather my wife does. It sits in the kitchen in its cradle 99% of the time. We'll use it if we're going more than into town (we live way out in the country) and is really for emergancies.
The only person it annoyes is me when the bill comes ("golly aren't roaming charges large").
So, I RTFA and what do I see? Blinky blinky flashy flash flash flash blink blink ads strewn all over the page with wild abondon.
I can live with annoying cell phones; granted I don't live in those bastions of near infinite politeness such as New York or LA where they seem to be more obtrusive than they do in say Madoc or Belleville, but if I could go back in time and kill the clown that invented animated gifs and flash I probably would.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Cellphones should ship on "vibrate" by default, requiring users to "opt-in" to audible rings. Ringing used to make sense when the phone was stationary, tethered somewhere in the privacy of a house/office. But now they are more often in earshot of many people, often with the same ring. Just defaulting to vibrate might not be a perfect solution, but its a lesser problem than the current cacophony.
--
make install -not war
I have a cell phone, unfortunately. It is understood that it is nothing personal if I do not answer, I will get back to you. I leave it on vibrate in any potentially sensitive situation (movie, dinner, etc). I also use it in case *extreme* emergency situations at work, only when I can not be reached by land line phone, or e-mail, this is understood by the brass. It is my personal phone so I am not on a ball and chain. If it rings while I am in traffic, I do not answer. I call back when I come to a permanent stop. Yeah it is the worst invention, if used irresponsibly, as are guns and knives.
I hate sigs.
I didn't have it. I was rounding a freeway loop when the cord going from the gas pedal to the engine decided to detach itself from the pedal. I drive a 74 VW.
After rolling to a stop at the side of the freeway I had exactly one option. Get out and start walking. A mile and a half later (1 mile of it walking along the freeway) I made it to a church where a wedding rehersal happened to be going on and borrowed a phone. Fortunatly the freeway was designed to have things planted along side of it so I wasn't walking a couple feet from traffic going 70 miles per hour. I was walking in dirt about 8 feet above and off to the side of traffic.
I use AT&T and just use their $20 per month plan. I actually got paid $80 to take a Nokia phone through Amazon.com. They're definitly worth the cost. If you don't want to be annoyed by people calling you, don't give your number to people who will annoy you. Give them your home number.
It's also great to have when you go places with a group and want to break off.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
What about tall people?
I'm 6'4" and I cannot comfortably fit into a small SUV let alone a car. The only choice for me is a full size truck or a Suburban/Excursion/etc. I had a 1989 Toyota Camry in college and it was painful on the knees. It's pretty much the same type of pain as sitting in a movie theatre seat or amusement park ride; they were made for Joe Sixpack not the Jolly Green Giant.
Some people have suggested I get the new Mini Cooper, tear out the driver seat and sit in the back. =)
Nobody said nuclear weapons? If you think cellphones ring loud.....
Table-ized A.I.
I see a *lot* of women that put their cell in a purse. Not only does this mean that the vibrate function is useless, but it means that when the audible rings start, they start fumbling around in their bag. Extremely annoying.
May we never see th
I don't hate MS Office. It does everything I need it to. The only thing i hate is the price.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
Of course, now she has zero chance of willingly going to said church again. She was humiliated in front of everyone, a presumably expensive piece of hardware was broken, and she was whacked.
The easiest solution, methinks, would have been not dragging her to church if she didn't want to go. Trying to force church on the actively disliking is a waste of time and effort.
May we never see th
I don't get yoru argument against the ( admittedly annoying ) SUV soccer mom. You know if the MPG is essentially the same in minivans and an SUV.. whats the big deal ?
Most people are not bitching about the platform of a Minivan vrs an SUV. What it seems to me they are really bitching about is the common option of a big powerful V-8 in SUV's. Case in point the Dodge Durango with its 5.7 litre HEMI getting a cool 14mpg. But its not like minivans do so much beter. Town and Countries get about 18mpg. Most all other SUV's do better than the Durango, Hell Expeditions get 18 or so and 20+ on the road with a 5.6 and do better with the 4.9 or V-6 option. SUV's tend to have much heavier duty frames as well which means more durable.
Why is it so surprising that people choose a vehicle with more power, better driveability, better re-sale value, and better status symbol ? Especially when in general the MPG gap is so small ? The question of get an Explorer/Cherokee/4runner etc... or get a cheap minivan is rather simple in my book.
Sure, Minivans have gads more storage space but in the end SUV's move your average family around in style and comfort. You can Carpool more people with a Minivan I grant but that is generally not going to be greater than 50% of your driving. In general for a family a Minivan will not be appealing till your are constantly carrying more than 3 sizeable passengers.
Everyone just take a deep breath regarding SUV's. When gas prices go through the roof people will be buying econo boxes left and right, remember the 80's ?
You want more people to drive minivans than urban assault vehicles ??? Its simple. Just find a way for doing so to make enough economic sense to compensate for the bruising your typical Male ego takes when crammed into a Minivan. An extra couple hundred bucks in gas a year aint gonna do it. Get up around a thousand and your in business. Not to mention you have to convince all those wonderfull soccer moms that have come to appreciate SUV's status value and sense of POWER. Again a couple hundred bucks savings a year in gas dosn't provide the incentive to go for the minivan, they spend more than that on new shoes for similar reasons. The storage space is in general meaningless as well becasue most SUV's have enough for the typical family.
I don't ask you to be me. I only ask you not expect me to be you.
Cellphones are a matter of maturity. Here's why:
Here in Germany, I am an avid hater of cellphones. You can't drive on a train or bus without someones damn phone ringing, and every second business meeting is interrupted by calls.
But then I travelled to Tokio last year. Everyone there has a cell phone. Nevertheless, during my entire week I heard two rings, and both were from foreigners' phones.
I also had to look very closely before I noticed people actually using them.
The difference is that the japanese extend basic courtesy towards other people. You keep your cellphone on silent, and you leave the room before you take a call. That and maybe 2-3 other basic rules make cellphones a non-problem.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
No. She humiliated herself in front of everyone. There are some occasions in life that deserve respect whether or not you go along with them. Frankly, if I were taking my kids to visit a mosque, temple, or synagogue, I would hold them to the same level of behavior as in their own church.
There's such a thing as knowing your surroundings. The girl found herself in a room full of people who were very serious about being there. Even if she wasn't, she should've been respectful of those who were. Personally, I think her dad did her a favor. What if she'd been at a funeral - would answering a cell phone make her more or less appreciated? How about at a movie? A job interview? She didn't seem to understand that sometimes you have to turn the thing off, but I'm pretty sure she thinks differently about it now.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I'm surprised more people haven't voted in car alarms as most hated technology. Hardly a night passes in San Jose when I'm not serenaded by the warbling songs of at least four car alarms. I think some of the stupid neighbor kids turned them on just to be funny.
The religious tolerance at Slashdot is amazing - as long as the religion is atheism. Anyone practicing any other belief system is dismissed as an idiot. Nice.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?