The Cell Phone Takeover

While at my family thanksgiving gatherings, I could not help but notice that the cell phones in the house were the center of attention, at every location we went to. Each year my hubby and I go to his families dinner then to my family dinner, and wind up at our friends in the evening. At all three locations, everyone was running around with their cell phones, talking, texting, showing pictures, playing ringtones, ect. At one point I started to count how many were actually at my nieces house, I counted 23 phones. At my in laws home there were about 10. The phones took precedence in both homes. So many were ringing at once while at my nieces' house, the different ringtones at the same time was maddening!

I refuse to buy into the whole cell phone thing. I do not need to be that available, I find most users are rude ( talking while at the checkout, ordering ect) then there are the selective answerers as I call them, you know, those people who glance at an incoming call and decide to not answer. Watching the obsessive use of them by by most owners. I see children, little children who most likely would not have been allowed to even answer a home phone, running around with a cell phone sticking out of the front pocket. Oh, then there are the people who hold the phone to their shoulder with their head, that looks so ridiculous, like you have a broken neck or something! Then there are the massive amounts of radioactivity being generated by the use of them.

I can't help but wish that something would happen and cause them to all not work, so people could remember how unimportant the phones are to their lives, go back to recieving their 'important calls' at home, at thier own conveniences, and use a regular camera for goodness sake! I was eating out the other day and this kid was filming us with his camera, he was actually filming the entire restraunt, but that included us! I felt violated.

Cell phone importance doesn't matter anymore, they have become a status quo, they are toys that one must own, or not be part of the game. Well, I don't play the game, so I will get my calls when I am home, or you can leave me a message, that is as important as a phone will ever be to me.

Mobile phones do come in handy when your in a tough situation like broken down and theres no one around or kidnapped in the boot of someones car and you need to call the police.

Hence the reason, I have a Mobile Phone.

yes, it is obvious that using one in an emergency it would be very handy, but there was a time when that was not an option, and folks were not left on the side of the road then, and other services could cover that need without taking over the lives of the people using them. Perhaps every car should come equipped with an emergency call button, or a phone built in just for emergencies.

reply to post by space cadet


I wouldn't say that mobile phones have taken over the lives of the user, there just an accessorie that are heavily relied on to stay in contact with the rest of the world. Yeh that's true, but you'll find that mobile phone companies probably have their fingers in the vehicle industry, making sure that the said vehicle buisness only sells mobile phone vehicle equipment of the phone company. It's all about money.

I have a cell phone, and I pretty much use it only for business purposes. Even then I simply use it as an answering machine/voice mail of sorts. I state my name, my job description, company and tell them to leave a message. I usually return the call within 48 hours, but sometimes it's longer.

Well I love my mobi. Apart from making / taking calls, it's also my portable mp3 player. I can watch videos, browse the web play games and more. Best of all it's got a cool camera with carl zeiss optics and optical zoom which might come in handy if a UFO ever comes my way

But yeah I understand that playing with the phone in certain settings is inappropriate, which is why I put it offline when I'm with friends, shopping, driving etc..

I dont think anyone who replied even got the gist of the OPs post.

What he is saying is not that cell phones are not handy. He´s saying that he is appaled they are actually the center stage at social gatherings, instead of, i dont know, other human beings.

And I agree 100%. I get hugely depressed whenever I see a gathering of kids/teens outside a school, and they are usually not even looking at each other, but have their head bent to look down at their phone.

And im not even going into the proven fact that cell phones are hugely detrimental to your health, in lots of different ways!

reply to post by Rikhart


What is the gist of the OP'S post? I believe the gist of it is actually found in paragraph 2. "Watching the obsessive use of them by by most owners." and not "social gatherings" as you imply. Radiation, taking pics with cell phones, not returning calls, how many have to do with social interactions? How much of it has to do with excessive use? ALL of it.

In closing, because some of us chose not to reply in a certain fashion, (as the manner you would like for us to have), it doesn't mean we don't get it. However, if it is as you state, the OP needs to do a better job presenting a thesis and formulating a premise.

It's 4 am I'm going to bed now. I can barely type a response without making five edits.

[edit on 29-11-2009 by EMPIRE]

Great thread!

*S&F*

I'm glad to see someone else with this opinion. As I can't be a hypocrite, though, because I have a cell-phone. Although the majority of my conversations have been via text messages. Sometimes I wonder if I need the talking part of the plan at all.

But, I for one, feel as though society has embraced this anti-social form of communication to the fullest and children are thinking its the coolest thing in the world. Its basically unheard of, to not own one. I say anti-social because you are not directly talking to the face of a person so emotions are hard to distinguish. Social interactions, to me, are face-to-face.

The only thing they have become, in my opinion, is a nuisance. Accidents are becoming the norm around cities because of blatant disregard for paying attention to the road. Not the cell-phone. People are losing their social skills because its easier to message someone rather than confront them about anything, issue or not.

I like when people say, "What would you do in an emergency, without it?".
The answer is: Exactly what we did before the invention of cell-phones.
Also, people say: "I feel disconnected when I don't have my cell."
That is exactly what these companies want you to feel. Urgency and need.

I will say, in retrospect, that cell-phones have definitely taken over the lives of users. Be it, the younger generation, or older.

to the thread
to cell phones

you know something SpaceCadet.. I've seriously tried to NOT have a cell phone but found myself in a situation with my wife when picking up a car and needed to tell her to stop at the restaurant.. but, since I refused to bring my cell ph.. I had to 'flag her down' for 5 blocks before she pulled over LOL..

arrrrah .. you know.. I can't agree with you more, but I don't think it's unavoidable..however if you want to talk to me..

yes.. you can leave a message on the house phone if I don't pick up..

what's worse is, even though 'friends' and family KNOW your cell phone..

THEY STILL NEVER CALL LOL..

reply to post by space cadet


I hear ya; I mananged to survive somehow for 45 years without a cell phone (although I used several pagers before that) and now I find myself making certain I have the beloved phone first before going on a four-mile drive to the store.

Cell phone culture has invaded our awareness and is accentuated by the belief that our safety is increased by having them. It's true that they are wonderful tools in emergency situations, however if we really embraced that notion, we'd rarely have them turned on, except when needed for same.

The allure of the social network connectivity seems more pervasive amongst the younger generations, and all the while studies of the dangers seem to go unnoticed. Want to decrease the danger to your brain? Simple solution! Get plugged in with a bluetooth or headset and you're good to go! A nice by-product of that for some would seem that they can continue to talk to themselves while appearing to carry on a phone conversation

I'd guess that 90% of my customers reach me via cell phone. If I chose to not be so accessible, would I loose business? I tend to doubt that, however I do live in a small area with not as much competition as more heavily-populated areas.

Here's an interesting experiment: Try to find a cell phone that is JUST a phone. I tried, and was unsuccessful. The only one I'm aware of is the sizeable JitterBug, and I believe that its SIM card is incompatible with cellular services available here.

So all the while, we are sold more and more features, more complications, slowly drawing us kicking and screaming if necessary, into the technological entanglements. Can we be triangulated on via our cell phones? Probably.......... but only a paranoid foilhead would worry about such a thing, right?

Right?

What most people dont know is that the magnetic field of a phone causes great disruption with your body, allowing the keyhole for sickness and disease to easily be opened.

This is one of the greatest reasons i do NOT have a cell phone.

also... i do not like always being able to be contacted. Its almost as if being connected to this terrible mainframe that allows for constant contact, constant conscious energy, constant time to be wasted upon it.

C'mon guys... detach.

I'm cell phone free still! I agree with OP. I do think about how if you break down in your car it would be handy and other reasons.

But, I carry a bunch of quarters in my car

I will go as long as possible with-out a CP.

What I see alot when I go buy groceries is so many folks on the phone while they buy food.

Why?

I think its an addiction.

like this computer I'm on

In the train every morning I go to work, I get to enjoy a good five minutes of solitude and quiet.
Then comes the stop where about 25 people come aboard and sit down.
Now, although hardly anyone talks to each other, the damn noise I find is deafening!! I really mean NOISE.
(I think silence has become but a memory)

With every single person in possession of a charged cancer magnet, the bubble of EM resonance surrounding them is hard to ignore. And when you concentrate this routinely in a sardine can environment let's say as in a train coach or some packed office, it becomes like daily shock therapy.
This really can't be good.
I'ts violating, it's sick - I hate it, it's intrusive
yet I have one.

I thought I was the last person on earth to dive into cell phone ownership, but work requested it, and was gonna pay for it (at first) so there.
If you were to look at an imaginary line of progression of my life since I got a cell phone, that line would be on an angle pointing down. That's all I can say.

I agree with all the points made by the original poster space and add that even when they are not in excessive use, they can still be harbingers of grief.

Mobile phones seem to have done the strangest things to people's behaviour.

I get the bus to and from work every day and I don't think I've sat there for more than five minutes on my journeys over the past couple of years without someone having a conversation on their mobile. They usually seem quite oblivious of the fact that their conversation can be overheard by umpteen other people and some will say things that I definitely wouldn't broadcast in public. Others seem to phone someone for the sole purpose of giving a running commentary on their journey

Then you have the people who walk up and down the street texting or surfing the net on their phones, not looking where they are going, up and down stairs, across the street..

It's all quite bizarre.

Don't anyone try and tell me that mobile phones do not cause brain damage, I see the evidence every day..

I will go against the grain here....

Cell phones are a God send and I love them and will never be rid of mine.

so people could remember how unimportant the phones are to their lives, go back to recieving their 'important calls' at home, at thier own conveniences, and use a regular camera for goodness sake! I was eating out the other day and this kid was filming us with his camera, he was actually filming the entire restraunt, but that included us! I felt violated.

Phones are imporant and very very useful technology. Just because it is not for you or someone else, does not make them any less important or useful for others. Even if that kid had a "regular" camera, he still could be filming you.

I do not have a lan line and have not had one in many many years. All of my friends and family live nowhere near me. And many of them live in other countries. So I use the phone, texting and email a lot. I have a 5yr old that needs to be accessible to me at all times. If im not home and her school needs to contact me (and they have a few times) or she is with her father, they can contact me at ANY time no matter where I am.

My career choice requires me to be accessible at all times - and just having a lan line does not allow ANY accessibility for my daughter or when im working.

I can take pics of anything at any time and share them instantly with all my friends and family whom I hardly ever get to see.

It keeps all my appts and reminders for me.

I live in the mountains and when I want to go out on a trail, I have my GPS and in case something happens, I have a way to get help.

When I am out by myself, a young female, I feel safe. I have had numerous encounters that put me in an unsafe situation and having my cell phone in hand helped a lot. If my vehicle breaks down, I can use my cell phone immediately to contact help - and not worry about some crazy wacko stopping to help the damsel in distress. Yes, this has happened to me.

When I have been witness to emergency situations while out and about, I have been able to call 911 immediately.

None of this stuff can be done on a lan line.

Just like guns do not kill people, people kill people.....cell phones are NOT the problem, it is the people using the cell phones. They are the ones with issues. I do not do all the obnoxious things listed here. I do not talk or text while driving. I do not talk on my phone in lines or in theaters. I do not ignore people I'm with while I chit chat on my phone. People are the issue and those whom have no self control or manners - not technology.



I would never go back to life without one. Life is much more easy, safer and relaxed with me having one.


[edit on November 29th 2009 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by greeneyedleo
Just like guns do not kill people, people kill people.....cell phones are NOT the problem, it is the people using the cell phones.

I think that was the point really, not mobile phones themselves - they are just a tool - but the way that mobile phone ownership has modified the behaviour of so many people. I don't think that many people would argue that mobiles aren't useful and superior in many ways to a landline, it's just the things that people do with them. Seriously, I've watched people at work walk all the way down three flights of stairs while texting / surfing the net on their phone and without once taking their eyes off it

Originally posted by skjalddis

Originally posted by greeneyedleo
Just like guns do not kill people, people kill people.....cell phones are NOT the problem, it is the people using the cell phones.

I think that was the point really, not mobile phones themselves - they are just a tool - but the way that mobile phone ownership has modified the behaviour of so many people.

I don't think that many people would argue that mobiles aren't useful and superior in many ways to a landline, it's just the things that people do with them. Seriously, I've watched people at work walk all the way down three flights of stairs while texting / surfing the net on their phone and without once taking their eyes off it

Well, I must have misunderstood her point, because she did say this:

I can't help but wish that something would happen and cause them to all not work

and

I refuse to buy into the whole cell phone thing.

Maybe the topic should be about: people with no manners or self control, rather than "cell phones and what they force people with no manners or self control to do"



[edit on November 29th 2009 by greeneyedleo]

yes, cellphones are handy in emergency situations, but look at how many emergency situations they have caused through people texting while driving.

Scores of people die in every country, every year because of cellphone use in cars.

Apart from this, i think they are dumbing down people too. youngsters these days cant even talk or write properly because of the texting language they use is now part of their every day english.


EDIT - actually , I should add that, yes, the people are the ones to blame more so than the phone itself. if you let it take you over, it will. If you choose to use while driving, it will cause deaths.

also, parents these days need to put down some ground rules with their young ones.

i know girls who are 6yrs old and have cellphones. Not on.

Phones - 25% annoying
People - 75% stupid with them



[edit on 29-11-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 29-11-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 29-11-2009 by grantbeed]

reply to post by skjalddis


True, but I've witnessed car accidents caused at stoplights by the Driver fiddling with the A/C and the Radio. Why didn't the Person just wait another two seconds until s/he came to a complete stop? My only guess is Impatience.

My Generation has been raised to Multitask. I can walk down the street while reading a book without bumping into a single person, running into anything, or getting hit by a car. Just because you Old Codgers can't pull it off doesn't make me a Bad Person. Just a different type of Person.