Do cell phones make schedules permanently flexible? Is the very concept of a fixed meeting time completely outdated?
Some people believe everyone has a cell phone with them at all times. This means that, if you’re running late, you can reschedule on the fly. As a corollary, it seems that a distinct lack of respect for other people’s schedules is common. After all, you can always reschedule everything on the fly, as well.
Since I don’t have a mobile phone, I don’t understand this attitude. To me, a decision to meet at 10am at the corner of Hollywood and Vine means exactly that. To others, it means to try to meet at 10am, but maybe 1pm, and maybe in Santa Barbara. Hey, it’s all good, right?
What have cell phones done to our society, for good or ill?
Previous 
Next 
Categories
Tag Cloud
Blog RSS
Comments RSS
Last 50 Posts
Back
Void 
Life 
Earth 
Wind 
Water 
Fire
What have they done? Well, they’ve made many people more inconsiderate. I encounter people every day who can’t hang up their damned cell phones long enough to give a checkout clerk a little courtesy while their purchases are being rung up. Every time I go out in my car, I end up at least once per trip stuck behind some moron who is either driving too slow, or weaving around, or nearly hitting me, or some other such thing, all because they’re on their phone. I know a dozen people who are so caught up in using their cell phones not only to call every one they know, but to also send text messages to everyone that they can, that they’ve begun to lose the ability to communicate with people one-on-one in a normal fashion. My own sister will gladly text me during American Idol, but never picks up the phone just to say hi.
It’s amazing too, how much more these phones can do every generation. Picture phones, web phones, even live streaming tv casts. Remember when TV was something we did only in the evenings with the family? Now we can carry it around in the palm of our hand, further increasing the depth of our disaffection and estrangement from everyone else.
Then there’s the pretentiousness factor. Does a middle-aged housewife shopping for groceries really NEED a sophisticated bluetooth headset to talk to her fellow PTA members? Probably not, but it makes her feel special, as it does the wheeling and dealing small business man walking through Wal Mart, bluetooth perched on his ear, gabbing self-importantly about this job and that job, so we’ll all know just how important he is, and how valuable his time is. Cell phone users everywhere flaunt expensive carry-clips and leather covers and other assorted accessories they paid too much money for and don’t really need. And for starters, there are the phones themselves, and people compelled to own the hottest, latest most tech advanced phone their dollars will buy them.
And don’t even get me started on fad phones, like the Motorola Razor, which everyone had to have. (Stupidly enough, even I wanted one when you could only get them on Verizon. Then Sprint got them, and then every person I knew had a Razor, they were EVERYWHERE. So, I went and bought a not-as-popular Katana, because I gotta be me, not a sheep!) Now everyone wants an iPhone. People, please, do you really NEED to be connected to the internet everywhere you go, and was having an iPod AND a cell phone to carry around really THAT big of a problem for you?
I uh, suppose I should uh, put the soap box away now, yeah?
How did SUV drivers make left turns before the cell phone?