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Cell Phone Is The Most Hated Invention

Posted by timothy on from the seattle-police-car-572-hates-turn-signals dept.

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."

24 of 704 comments (clear)

  1. What about... by inertia187 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:What about... by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 5, Informative

      The survey was asking about inventions that the respondants could not live without. I think that all the things you listed clearly fall into the category of being items everyone can live without.

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    2. Re:What about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How can you live without a chicken-with-a-pully-in-the-middle? How else could I get to work?

    3. Re:What about... by dustin_royer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No one mentioned Microsoft Office. Most people who use it hate it, but almost no one in the corporate world can live without it. it's the classic situation of "I use it because I have to."

    4. Re:What about... by Moofie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      OK, so your employer gives you money in exchange for your agreeing to be on call.

      What's the problem? Did they put a gun to your head? Do they not pay you?

      If I were a sysadmin, I'd be delighted to have my employer pay for a cell phone on which they could call me any time. I'd charge them about 20% of my annual pre-phone salary for the privilege, for additional access to my time and attention. Or I'd find somewhere else to work.

      Saying "I hate my phone, but I can't live without it" is passive aggressive cowardice. Your phone is a tool. It has a power button. It can be used properly, or misused. People who hate tools are silly people.

      People who ARE tools, now that's a different issue entirely...

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  2. Well duh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Well duh... by minion · · Score: 5, Funny

      What other invention can disrupt virtually any event, almost always at the worst time? (Besides CmdrTaco bringing out nude Natalie Portman pictures...)

      There is never a "worst time" for nude Natalie Portman pictures.

      --

      -- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
    2. Re:Well duh... by Geek+of+Tech · · Score: 5, Funny
      >> What other invention can disrupt virtually any event, almost always at the worst time? (Besides CmdrTaco bringing out nude Natalie Portman pictures...)

      That's simple. Natalie Portman bringing out nude pictures of CmdrTaco...

      (Just kiddin' CmdrTaco!)

      Oh, am I the only one who is still waiting on the next edition of "Geeks in Space"?

      --
      Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
    3. Re:Well duh... by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Funny

      "What other invention can disrupt virtually any event, almost always at the worst time?"

      It's not always at the worst time. Sometimes it is at the best time. I was at a dinner at church and we were being led in prayer before we ate, so the room was completely quiet except for the pastor. Just as the pastor said "Lord, help us to hear your call," his cell phone rang. It was the funniest shit that's happened at church in a while. Perfect timing...

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    4. Re:Well duh... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny
      A similarly humorous event:

      Easter Sunday. Southern Baptist church in a small town in the American Midwest. Quiet, reverent, and intent on the pastor's words.

      Goth chick who'd been dragged to church by her normal looking dad gets a call. Answers it. On the third row. In a conservative church on Easter Sunday.

      Dad smacks the girl on the back of the head, grabs the phone, and breaks it in half - then silently turns back to the pastor to hear the rest of the sermon as if nothing had happened.

      Small church breaks out in spontaneous applause and everyone leaves in a good mood, with one exception.

      I wanted to shake that guy's hand.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  3. Anything that beeps.. by rhetoric · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..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"
  4. Still don't have a cell phone... by VistaBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...and I still don't want one.

    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.

    1. Re:Still don't have a cell phone... by MBCook · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I understand what you say. I have a cell phone, but I keep it off, ALL THE TIME. I don't tell other people the number. I can use it if I get into a wreck (and I have), or if something else very important comes up. But I refuse to keep it on all the time. I can't even go one class in college now (even 45 minute ones with only a handfull of people) without a cell phone going off. And in my largest class (~1000 people) you could hear 3 or 4 if you listened every day. If people would just stop leaving the damn things on and answering every call even when they don't feel like it, they might not hate 'em so much.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    2. Re:Still don't have a cell phone... by FreemanPatrickHenry · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. The vast majority of all cellphone ringers are horrendously annoying. Every time I sit in a room and one of these dumb MIDI ringtones plays (and, mind you, they play loudly), I want to strangle someone.

      What's wrong with keeping your phone on vibrate? If I'm having a conversation with you, I don't need to stop and wait for you to answer your phone and chit-chat for several minutes and say "I need to go, I'll call you back later." That's what voicemail is for. Keep it on vibrate, let it forward callers to voicemail.

      Seriously, we need to enforce some cell phone etiquette. And they call us not socially adjusted.

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous .sig which, unfortunately, this space is too small to contain.
    3. Re:Still don't have a cell phone... by ATMAvatar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...and thus, we've revealed the fact that it's not cell phones we hate, but rather the average cell phone user.

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  5. The SUV by bartash · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hate the SUV.

    --
    Read Epic the first RPG novel.
  6. The cell phone doesn't have to be this way. by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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.
  7. Guns don't kill people.... by MuckSavage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. PTT by egburr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  9. Re:Even it's invention hurts by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Turn it off and the boss freaks out and fires you.

    Sounds like the boss is the most hated invention.

  10. Most Hated Invention by forkboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OTHER PEOPLE'S cell phones.

    --
    This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
  11. Alarm Clock UI sucks by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!
  12. Re:Further down... by caluml · · Score: 5, Funny

    Marriage is a wonderful institution - but who wants to live in an instition? Groucho Marx

    --
    Get your own free personal location tracker
  13. Just me. by Raven42rac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.