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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.
Second on the list: "Marriage"
I was going to put a sig here, but I had already submitted the message.
What other invention can disrupt virtually any event, almost always at the worst time? (Besides CmdrTaco bringing out nude Natalie Portman pictures...)
Speaking of which, I welcome our new Annoying Cellphone Overlords.
Most hated invention: SCO Unixware
Maybe cell phones wouldn't have gotten such a bad rap in this survey if they hadn't done it by y'know... calling people on the phone. :)
..must annoy
From the article, " Alarm clocks were a close second..."
You need it, but damn do you want to break it sometimes.
"where words meet intent, lies rhetoric's lament"
I thought it would of been the condom.
And why did you staple the trout to the RAM?
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 hate the SUV.
Read Epic the first RPG novel.
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.
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...
Turn it off and the boss freaks out and fires you. The demand for instant contact has spoiled people somewhat.
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.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
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!
Whats wrong with auto guns? They are great you only have to press the trigger once.
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.
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.
Now our kids stay home and play video games all day. Our daily socialization is now just emails. Instead of regular postcards we get ecards. Instead of going to flea market or yard sales, we use ebay. Instead of waiting every month for our playboy, we download images off usenet. Instead of phone sex, we have webcams and instant messenger. Those pictures of your mom at mardi gras no longer are confined to some guys wallet but are now for everyone in the world to see. That video of you pretending be a jedi master sword fighting is no longer local joke but a worldwise joke.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
I was about to post this exact same comment. It's true, there was once a time where you could expect to get a person's undivided attention. Now, for some magical reason the phone gets priority over the actual person who's there. I'm going to start telling people how rude they are... I don't think they realize it.
It's amazing at how many people have the things surgically attached to their ear. In just a 5 mile drive from my house to the train station, there were no less than six cell users yapping away on their phones ignoring the driving task. They were swerving in and out of their lanes, and going 10MPH under the speed limit.
It just seems crazy on how so many people are addicted to the things. But I am supprised that 30% of the people out there recognize them as an annoyance... but I wonder how many of them are hypocrites.
Mewyn Dy'ner
The cell phone was also voted most likely to get shoved up someone's ass in arguments following minor traffic accidents.
Who would have imagined?
OTHER PEOPLE'S cell phones.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
You can always turn it off. Of course, you can't make the dumbass in the movie theater turn his off.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
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 not only the beeping of alarm clocks, or the fact that they wake you up in the middle of your threesome with Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Alarm clocks have some of the worst human interfaces around. Many make it far too easy to set the wrong time (the AM/PM dot hell), and many are a true pain in the ass to set, forcing one to take up to a minute just to cycle to the time you want.
Given that your typical alarm clock possesses a fraction of the technology of a simple PDA and designing the technology of one shouldn't be that complex, it's kind of pathetic that after all these years the design of your typical alarm lock user interface still sucks.
Sure, some people will probably laugh and blow off this criticism mere nitpicking, but I wouldn't be surprised if employees' difficulty setting alarm clocks has cost businesses as much per year as the common cold .
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
I just hate the bill.
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They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
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
All fine and dandy, but I'm also the original author of the article.
It may be a shoddy piece of writing, but the sentiment is fresh in my mind and on-topic.
Hacking articles at http://www.geocities.com/chroo
Amongst my friends, when we're in the pub, the only permitted uses of a mobile phone are:
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
is not the phones in themselves, it's that people have no education and no respect for everyone else. It's a simple matter of not being annoying: don't use your cellphone when doing so turns you into a hazard for other people (driving), be smart when choosing the phone's alerts (don't select your loudest, most annoying ringtone when you're at a classical concert) and for god's freaking sake, DON'T YELL WHEN ON THE PHONE!!
Then turn it off, forchrissakes! That's what voice mail is for!
The PAGER is a thousand times worse then a cell phone.
"Who hasn't slipped into the break room for a quick nibble on a love Newton before?" - Mr. Peterman.
I really think that cell phones are an integral part of ... umm ... hang on a sec, my cell is ringing...
... crap! I forgot the point I was trying to make.
[away]
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
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 hate the computer. Without the invention of the computer, I wouldn't have a dead-end job while waiting for the economy to recover right now. I'd be turning dirt black like my proud ancestors.
I'd have to say that EverCrack is pretty high up there on the list.
Alright, I had this great idea. I live in Providence, we have a lot of bike and pedestrian traffic and really shitty downtown and campus parking. I think they should paint ALL parking spaces the size of small cars and give $50 tickets to violators. Of course the city would have to put up a few more garages for SUVs and trucks, but the revenue from tose operations could go straight to the city.
Overall, driving expenditures, be it buying the car or paying gas just removes money from the local economy here. We'd be doing ourselves a huge favor here if we implemented strict laws to reduce dumb consumer spending.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
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
I wonder if they called people on their cell phones to survey them!!! No wonder it's hated!
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
They were, I thought, at one time the most hated thing of all time. And we can't live without magazines, right?
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.
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
I'm looking at the aricle, and something seemed a bit off to me. The picture. For one, the bottom slide is far more anterior then the top. For one, look at the shape of piriform and the optic bundle (it's what is optic nerve closer to the eyes.)
Beyond that, just look at the shape of the hippocampus, these slides are at least 2 mm seperated, if not more. I don't have a rat brain atlas in front of me. But the point I'm trying to make is it's not a direct comparison, and there are more blood ventricals in the second slide.
Second, this looks like a map2 stain, and if that is the case, dark brown signifies apoptosis, or quick sudden death of a neuron. But dark brown also comes from over freezing of the tissue, which is often cut at -40 C or below and can crack if flash frozen.
Furthermore, I'm skeptical that this sort of microwave radiation does much of anything to brain tissue over that sort of exposure periods, even at high doses. For some brain analysis, to freeze necrosis at the time of death and prevent breakdown of some neurotransmitters, rats are given a high dose of microwave radion to cook thier brain inside the head, which also makes it easier to disect, and I've never seen this sort of blood leakage.....but that's just me. I'd like to see the actual article though, because MAP2 staining here makes no sense....
Yep, you heard me. I'm a childless couple that REFUSES to comply with societal standards by NOT BREEDING. I don't want a crying, sniviling, little devil sucking the life out of me. They are FAR worse than cell phones in restaurants or elsewhere.
Remember that episode of The Simpsons a few weeks ago when the childless in Springfield rise up and take back the town from kids?! That was GREAT!!
1. Be sure to talk loudly in restaurants. Laugh raucously. People will be impressed by how much you enjoy your cell phone.
2. In addition to the above, be sure your conversations include intimate, private details about your life. People love hearing about your lanced boil while standing in line to order their food.
3. Even though you talk loudly about the most confidential aspects of your life, be sure to complain often about invasion of privacy.
4. Find the most annoying ring tone available for your phone, then crank it up! Your ring tone says a lot about you, and everyone is keenly interested in your personal tastes. Best places to crank up your ring tone: Waiting rooms, church, funerals.
5. Don't turn your phone off when entering the movie theater or your child's music recital. You're an important person, and cannot be out of touch for any period of time. After all, they can catch that movie later on DVD, and it's not like they haven't heard their kid play that stupid song a million times.
6. When possible, always talk while driving. Multitask if possible: If you're female put on your makeup and chat on the cellphone. If you're male, cradle your teensy cellphone in the crook of your neck while making notes. Don't worry about concentrating on your driving. Signaling for lane changes and looking out for pedestrians are over-rated activities anyway.
7. Always choose a plan with "walkie-talkie" mode, if available. Nothing impresses the boss and your coworkers more than to have your wife loudly blurt "What are you doing?" in the middle of a business meeting.
8. Lastly, be sure to get a phone with a built-in digital camera. People love having their pictures taken and plastered all over the internet.
Proverbs 21:19
Most of our problems with technology aren't in the technology itself, but that society has failed to evolve with it.
I don't have a cell phone, and refuse to get one for several reasons, all related to social norms. First, I enjoy moments of solitude in the day. I don't want to be reachable 24/7. I might consider a cellphone for emergencies but too many people can't seem to understand a reasonable definition of emergency.
I could get one and only turn it on when I have an emergency, but it seems that people actually EXPECT to be able to call you when you're on the can and get angry if you turn the phone off. If I don't have one at all, they think I'm odd, but they don't get angry.
People who call a cellphone forget that you're not sitting in a dark corner just waiting for the phone to ring. It's impossible to talk to someone face to face if their phone is ringing every other word. I make it a practice to avoid talking to people who can't ignore their phone for 5 minutes.
This will remain a problem until society's expectations mature enough to be able to hear 'I don't want to have a phone conversation right now' and not get all hacked off about it (as if they've never claimed 'breaking up' to get out of a cell call themselves).
I might re-consider if there was a phone that would play my voice too chopped up to understand for 10 seconds then hang up on command.
In a similar way, the alarm clock, once a handy way to avoid sleeping the whole day away now acts as a chronic (pun intended) sleep deprivation device. It is mis-used by the sleeper who refuses to realize that they would wake up fine if they went to bed at a decent hour, and by the rest of society which now feels that being tired is no excuse for being 30 minutes late.
I don't hold out too much hope for society catching up with technology. We still haven't caught up with ubiquitous accurate wrist watches.
Consider how much less stressed people were about appointments, meetings, and the start of the workday when nobody could really be called late unless it was by more than 15-30 minutes (based on the town clock chiming). While many people have adjusted, there are far too many anal people who start burning spots in the face of their watch if someone is 5 seconds late.
It doesn't actually save any time, since it just forces people to be 15 minutes early and waste their time waiting rather than risking being a minute or two late.
Of course, that is all reletive, and has been going on over 2000 years:
"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE