OK, I should've prefaced my remarks by saying something like, "Of course, Monica, or any friend of hers, would never have their minds sucked out like a slurpee and replaced with a poor substitute which thinks that it's OK to rudely talk loudly about all sorts of things in all sorts of public and semi-public spaces, even to the point of interrupting actual interactions with people in the same space to talk with someone on the other end of the phone who could probably quite happily have waited another five or ten minutes to hear about the details of your date the other week with someone who might or might not be going to Margalite's little party on Saturday night."
Any tool can be misused; many, such as cellphones, are misused often. But I don't think that makes them *evil*.
OK, I'm willing to concede that maybe cell phones are just annoying. If I were pressed, I would probably say that on the other hand, plastic handguns loaded with tefalon-coated armor-piercing bullets are *evil*. The NRA would probably disagree.
Part of what bothers me is the "constantly reachable" aspect of it. There are times when I don't want to be reachable. Sure, I don't want to miss important messages -- but that's why I have a very functional answering machine. I can even check its messages remotely, if I remember what the secret code is, and what buttons to press. (I think I carry around a card from my previous answering machine, which is not the most helpful thing to have in ones wallet.)
my fiance could reach me pretty much anywhere and anywhen during his trip last year.
I'm assuming that since your fiancee has the phone, he was calling you during his trip. So having a cellphone meant that he could call you whenever he wanted. That's nice; if, for example, he was on a long train ride and missing you, he could talk to you. On the other hand, pre-cellphone days, he'd have written you a romantic letter of longing which you could have saved and shown your grandchildren. And while I agree that sometimes you need the immediacy of a phone call, in this hypothetical situation, had he not had a cellphone he could've called you from a payphone at the end of the train ride (in addition to writing that letter).
So I see the benefits of this new technology as being real, but small, while the pitfalls as being quite a bit larger.
"Of course, Monica, or any friend of hers, would never have their minds sucked out like a slurpee and replaced with a poor substitute which thinks that it's OK to rudely talk loudly about all sorts of things in all sorts of public and semi-public spaces, even to the point of interrupting actual interactions with people in the same space to talk with someone on the other end of the phone who could probably quite happily have waited another five or ten minutes to hear about the details of your date the other week with someone who might or might not be going to Margalite's little party on Saturday night."
:-)
I agree that cell phones are often used when they didn't really need to be. What I really want is a portable way to check messages (implied: and a way for people to leave messages). Asychronous access would be fine in 90% of the cases.
I wonder if my current answering machine can be queried remotely. Its predecessor claimed this ability but didn't deliver (or maybe the code they gave me was wrong; I never tried all 10,000 options), so I never got into the habit. Of course, in this case I wouldn't have known that I had a message warning me of a cancellation, where if I had something that blinked or vibrated or whatever to let me know, I'd then know to check.
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cellio
Re: Cell phones are *evil*
Date: 2002-02-14 07:52 am (UTC)Any tool can be misused; many, such as cellphones, are misused often. But I don't think that makes them *evil*.
OK, I'm willing to concede that maybe cell phones are just annoying. If I were pressed, I would probably say that on the other hand, plastic handguns loaded with tefalon-coated armor-piercing bullets are *evil*. The NRA would probably disagree.
Part of what bothers me is the "constantly reachable" aspect of it. There are times when I don't want to be reachable. Sure, I don't want to miss important messages -- but that's why I have a very functional answering machine. I can even check its messages remotely, if I remember what the secret code is, and what buttons to press. (I think I carry around a card from my previous answering machine, which is not the most helpful thing to have in ones wallet.)
my fiance could reach me pretty much anywhere and anywhen during his trip last year.
I'm assuming that since your fiancee has the phone, he was calling you during his trip. So having a cellphone meant that he could call you whenever he wanted. That's nice; if, for example, he was on a long train ride and missing you, he could talk to you. On the other hand, pre-cellphone days, he'd have written you a romantic letter of longing which you could have saved and shown your grandchildren. And while I agree that sometimes you need the immediacy of a phone call, in this hypothetical situation, had he not had a cellphone he could've called you from a payphone at the end of the train ride (in addition to writing that letter).
So I see the benefits of this new technology as being real, but small, while the pitfalls as being quite a bit larger.
Re: Cell phones are *evil*
Date: 2002-02-14 08:02 am (UTC):-)
I agree that cell phones are often used when they didn't really need to be. What I really want is a portable way to check messages (implied: and a way for people to leave messages). Asychronous access would be fine in 90% of the cases.
I wonder if my current answering machine can be queried remotely. Its predecessor claimed this ability but didn't deliver (or maybe the code they gave me was wrong; I never tried all 10,000 options), so I never got into the habit. Of course, in this case I wouldn't have known that I had a message warning me of a cancellation, where if I had something that blinked or vibrated or whatever to let me know, I'd then know to check.