Ways Your Phone Is Messing Up Your Life

Found this on lifehacker originally.

How many of these are we guilty of. Most people I know can't go more than 20 minuets without looking at the things.



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Do you know of, or have other problems or issues that should be on the list. My wife has all but the driving ones, me I just still use a basic flip phone.

The good thing about all this? You are in control.

You can lay your phone down, toss it in the back seat, or leave home without it and avoid all of this...and more.

People just don't seem to want to.

I worked in restaurants up until about a year ago and let me tell you some stuff I have seen that literally made the place I was working in for almost 3 years sales go down.

The "Texting in awkward situations":

People who stand in the line staring up at the menu then someone walks up behind them and the original person gets, I guess flustered? And whips out there phone.

Or people who sit down at a table and automatically whip out that phone while waiting for a friend instead of looking at the menu for what they want, so they spend twice as much time ordering food when their friends get there.

I use a Blackberry Z30, and because of security reasons it doesn't have all the 'spy on you' apps like Instagram or Snapchat, the most I have is Twitter and Facebook, which are useful tools for everyday life. But I stickily use my phone for actually talking to people, banking, calender, etc, and of course internet browsing.
But people like my girlfriend who literally wake up every morning, browse Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, ALL sorts of social media, and when shes waiting for the bus or for me, shes one of those people who will have her phone out and be glued to it.
Smartphones have made people interconnected, but in the spontaneous real world it's made us anti-social.

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
The good thing about all this? You are in control.

You can lay your phone down, toss it in the back seat, or leave home without it and avoid all of this...and more.

People just don't seem to want to.

I don't want to!

My phone and tablet are more than just devises for personal communication. Like it or not we are in the age of digital information and information is power in the economic sector. It's imperative that I know trends so I can react quickly.
Speculation is enough of a gamble as it is without being in a vacuum.

My office is where ever my wifi connection is. Right now it's in a hotel bar. ATS on the tablet is a welcome entertainment!!!

I've seen what phones and the such has been doing to people over the past 10-15+ years. It seems more and more people are afraid to make eye contact during conversations, or other things that make them feel sociably awkward.
Really think about this. 15 years ago you're at a party, everyone is dancing, talking to each other, watching the game, playing volley ball. But now days, the majority of the people at just about any given party have their noses stuck in their phone.

And driving? Don't get me started, I'm keeping a score list. I've almost been hit by a car while walking 3 times, and 7 times while driving because the other person thought their phone was more important. Thankfully I pay attention.

a reply to: olaru12
I hear that. But sometimes your mind just needs...a rest.

a reply to: strongfp
And sometimes you just need to look someone in the eyes and talk.

I have a phone but don't remember the last time I turned it on and usually don't even have it with me, people ask to use my cell phone rather regularly, and regularly look at me like I have an eye growing in the middle of my forehead when I say I don't have one.

When you get older a smartphone screen, even a tablet screen is too small, and both are too easy to lose or have stolen too because of their small size, and then how dependent people become on the things is a complete separate issue.

I even see people texting and talking on phones while they ride their bicycles down the street against traffic down here in the south where people seem to be particularly dumb about pretty much every single thing they do.

Must be the sun....

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
a reply to: olaru12
I hear that. But sometimes your mind just needs...a rest.

a reply to: strongfp
And sometimes you just need to look someone in the eyes and talk.

And I know exactly what the consequences of instant communication can bring on a social and cultural level.
Separation anxiety from friends and family has reached psychotic levels.

Humans are in a dangerous, yet exciting period of history. We could go either way into oblivion or paradise.

Personally I don't see much hope for monkeys with guns.

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
People just don't seem to want to.

Mobile phone's are the key to an addiction pure and simple.

No, I don't have one yet.

a reply to: nerbot
OMGZ how can you live without one?! LOL

I have one because I have to for work (and if I'm honest for safety on the road). But the minute work is over (not often thanks to...yeah you know what! the digital, connected age again!) I toss it and avoid it like the plague.

Neither my wife or I have yet to get a cell phone and we are in our 50's..

Just don't see the point..We have a phone at home and a answering machine..

Good enough for us..

It's so much more than a phone.
It's my localized weather report, my map/gps, my traffic report, it's my flashlight at night.
It's my ereader too. And my camera.
It's my recipe book when I'm cooking, all the worlds information at my fingertips.
It's how I pay my bills and keep track of finances.

I hardly ever use it as a phone, or to text, but it sure has some other handy uses

I have a cheap cell phone and can add minutes whenever I need them. I use it mostly for emergencies and to call my elderly Mother to check on her when I am away, or if I see something in a store I think she may want or need, I'll call. Nothing is so earth shattering that I need to be on it all the time.

The camera in the phone has ruined life for many. People at concerts, parks, parties and the like are recording the experience the would have had had the not been so busy recording it. There is a HUGE difference between and event experienced in person and an event seen though the camera eye of a digital recorder - just ask a real professional camera man.

Even worse, their efforts is to BURDEN their so called friends with images from events they never participated in. The "look at me, look at what I did, look a me, look at where I was, look at me, look at me, look at me," is the single worst thing about the entire phone/camera.

People walk around in a trance like state, the flickering screen causes it, and I have no interest in interacting with folks in that state. The moment someone speaking with me looks at their phone I walk away from them - clearly someone else is more important then I am and I refuse to stand next to someone for no obvious reason.

I refuse to own a cell phone, and always have.

Well, almost always, an x gave me one,
but that only lasted a month before I gave it back..lol

Aside from a monthly bill, all I ever see is people looking down anymore.

a reply to: crankyoldman

That reminds me of last summer when I went on a week long vacation with three friends from England and Scotland.

They'd want to run out and "do" things (take pics) so they could post them immediately online to show people they were doing things they weren't really even doing.

As soon as we'd get somewhere they'd have the phones out staging pics, posting them, looking at what other people said about what they posted, and then repeating the process until it was time to go back to the hotel.

I swear I felt like I was on that vacation alone.

I'm young, perhaps a member of one of the first generations of people to grow up in a society where having a mobile phone was normal (although, coverage was spotty at best around my high school, so few people had the problems posted...) When I got my first phone in high school, it was used only as a tool to notify my parents that I had gotten safely to my destination or that I was not going to be home for some time (I would often go fishing alone). Cell phones are nice to have for that purpose, as I'd surely not want to be stranded somewhere alone without being able to call someone should I need help.

Then I went to a less rural (still weak reception) college (still do). I immediately noticed a difference in how people communicated with each other. They'd walk past each other across campus with their phones in front of their faces, walking blindly past people they'd know, people one could call friends, without so much as a hello or acknowledgment of their meeting. Certainly not everyone does this, but it was a strange sight to see for some time. I can only wonder, as I don't know, if the problem is worse in areas with stronger cell reception.

Regards,
Hydeman

originally posted by: baddmove
Neither my wife or I have yet to get a cell phone and we are in our 50's..

Just don't see the point..We have a phone at home and a answering machine..

Good enough for us..

Same here. Actually my husband owns one for when he's takes motorcycle trips, but that's the only time he uses it and I'm the only one with the number. It's off the rest of the time.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I do think all these immediate communication devises are actually building a rift between people, making it harder for ACTUAL communication.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic
Absolutely.

But I do have to admit, I can amuse myself for hours by trying to text on my self-correcting phone. And the voice text feature? Even more hilarious.