Cell Phones Changing Social Group Communication 430
Mortimer.CA writes "An interesting article on how cell phones are changing the way people interact and get together in Japan. Some interesting quotations: 'To not have a keitai (cell phone) is to be walking blind, disconnected from just-in-time information on where and when you are in the social networks of time and place.' And the new social faux pas: 'One college student I spoke to described leaving one's phone at home or letting the battery die as "the new taboo."' The article mentions the book Smart Mobs which was mentioned on Slashdot before. I keep thinking how Marshal McLuhan said that our new inventions change the way we view the world. This is 'obvious' now, but was quite a new idea when he thought of it. In the 40s and 50s you "needed" to get a (land line) phone, then it was cars, email, and now cell phones. What's next? Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?"
Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Insightful)
But my work habits have long been nomadic: I always look for positions and projects that give me maximum mobility.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, what did you and everyone else before you do before they had cell phones? If you car breaks down you can use someone's phone in their house or a phone in a business to call a wrecker. Most people drive in the city or suburbs so it's not like you are miles away from civilization.
If you get in an accident you can use the same strategy. You can also use someone else's cell phone (maybe even the person you hit) to call whoever.
I've found that a lot of the people that have cell phones also have decent cars that aren't going to break down. Usually when you car 'breaks down' it won't start. Usually when you stop you car it is at a place of business or a friends house. For the times when you car is slowly breaking down you can limp it into town or to someones house. There aren't many times when you are driving in the middle of the night, miles from civilization, when you car breaks down (unless it is a horror movie
If your car does break down in the middle of nowhere the it will usually be at least an hour or two before a wrecker will get there.
I drove to from Michigan to Alaska then down to California and back (12,000 miles) without a cell phone. No one had a cell phone, the car did not break down. We were not worried if it did. BTW, the car was about 5-7 years old, were were considering taking my 89 VW Fox before we got the other car.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2)
It's stupid to not have a cell phone in your car.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:3, Insightful)
So for those few Americans who are driving from their jobs at a Newark crack den on their way home to their Buffalo retirement communities in the dead of winter, then yes, I'd absolutely recommend they carry a cell phone at all times.
For everyone else, having a phone seems rather optional, and perhaps even a liability. I'd wager that far more people have been killed by bringing their car phones than by leaving them home.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:3, Insightful)
Two years ago, when I called the police to report some obstacle on the freeway, the operator asked for my mobile phone number. When I told him that I was calling from home, he said: "Oh, I was _assuming_ you were calling from your mobile phone. In that case, I need your name and address...". And this was not in Japan. It was in a European country and it was two years ago.
Don't we all realize how - with the increasing ability to always get in contact with our friends - the people directly around us get less and less important? They _have_ to get less important, because we can and do now spend more time to communicate with our friends (the people we already know). Consequently, we cannot spend that time with people around us that we do not know yet. For example, if you get bored on subway you call a friend or send him/her messages, while in previous times the only option was to talk to the the stranger on the next seat (thus possibly making a new acquaintance). Not that talking to strangers in a subway was something we did regularly. In that context, isn't it remarkable that the more people are around us (city vs. small village), the less common is it to talk to people you don't know ?
I find it more and more difficult to make new acquaintances because the reasons to talk to people I don't already know are vanishing...You are not expected to do it - next step is: you are expected to not do it.
Of course, all this has consequences: If your friends are spread out throughout the country (and this is only a matter of time), transport will become more important...not _less_ important as some have predicted for the age of connected world. But this a different story...
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:5, Interesting)
I use email, sometimes AIM/iChat, and a corded phone with Caller ID. That's all I need.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2)
Actually, nowadays, they pay you to carry a cell phone with you. I am one of those paid. And - yes, I am a sysadmin with a 24x7 contract. :)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Interesting)
I own a mobile, and often carry it around with me, but it's turned off unless I either need to make a call, or know someone actually needs to talk to me. I try to check my messages fairly regularly, and usually get back to people, if they leave one. I do not regard a telephone as a means of communication, but as a way of arranging when to meet people with whom I wish to communicate.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:2)
Personally I make only two types of phone calls -- calling my parents every weekend at a roughly prearranged time, and sometimes calling to arrange an order of take out food.
I don't have a cel, and with the computer online 24/7, it's extremely unusual for anyone to be able to call me at home. I prefer email instead. (in fact, I so loathe real time, non-face to face communication I don't have any sort of IM or chat either)
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Interesting)
I work for a micro-electonics research institute. One of our many activities actually is making the implementation of ever smarter and feature-rich cellphones and similar devices ever more easy. Even worse, my very own project is about designing for low power from the system level downwards. One could say we're part of the cell phone companies pipe dreams. (Actually, my project worked closely with one of the major cell phone companies in the past, and now another one is very intersted.) All that just to make very clear that I'm not oposed to the technology for the technology's sake. But neither am I in favour of it "just because".
I will personally *never* be caught having my own cell phone. I will carry/use one if the job that I'm doing at that very moment requires that I be reachable while away from any fixed phone system (which happens maybe once per year), but I flat out *refuse* to give in to the "But sir, you have to be reachable, don't you?" pressure. *I* am the one who decides when and where I want to be reachable. And when I've decided that I'm not to be reached, I will implement that very strictly. Now, I know that one can switch off those buggers when one doesn't want to be disturbed, but that is not the same thing: simply by always carrying that thing around, one creates that expection that one be reachable. Maybe not immediately, but definitely within the hour. People then just assume that they can interrupt your life at any moment, because "Hey, what else (s)he's got that cellphone for, afterall?". Then when you diseble it for more than one or two hours on end, they look at you like you're the bad guy/gall who prevented them from doing something "important" such as telling you they ran into Joe or Mary on the way to the bakery. As if that kind of chit-chat can't wait till next time you really see each other. If by then it's still worthy of being told at all, that is.
Also concerning the "but you have to be reachable" craze: Once upon a time my phone company "discovered" that I use the internet a lot when at home. This is over a plain old dial-up modem, so they figured that "he's got to be reachable, so lets enable our nice (and paying!) mailbox service for him". Now there is some poor helpdesk guy over there who probably still has not recovered from what befell him after I found out what they had done and got in touch to get it disabled again. They charge the person who calls you for leaving the message, they charge you *again* for listening to the recording, and then they charge one of you *yet again* when you finnally do get to speak to one another on the phone? Not with me. Not in a million years.
If all that makes me a social outcast, than so be it.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:3, Insightful)
*I* am the one who decides when and where I want to be reachable.
you can only do that if you have a cell phone! with one, you can turn it on or off, screen calls via caller id, voice mail, etc. without a cell phone, how do you decide to be reachable when you're not home?
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see what's so 'wrong' about it. A cell phone can be a life saver. Here in Oregon there's been an on-going story about a snow-shoer that got lost on Mount Hood. I bet his family wishes he was carrying a cell phone.
In any case, I can understand the social evolutions of carrying cell phones. When you got a group of people who wants to go do stuff, it's a lot easier to mobilize when the prerequisite is that everybody's home.
Is that wrong? I don't see how. It may be bothersome to you if you've got a large group of friends that insist on calling all the time. But that's the neat thing you can do with a cell phone you can't do with a regular phone, put it on silent. Let the voice mail get it. You really can't do that with a landline for fear of blocking calls to other people who use it.
So no, I don't have the instant "oo dat's bad" reaction to it.
Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones? (Score:4, Insightful)
"have to have"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"have to have"? (Score:2)
Re:"have to have"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Japan has an incredible sense of groupism. Whereas in the West there is a tendency to focus on individuality as a prime virtue, in Japan (I don't know much about other places in the East), the sense of self is very much displaced by the sense of group.
Because of this, the idea that the increased connectivity with society that a cellphone brings is crucial now in Japan is not at all suprising, and the idea that Americans tend to resist having to carry one follows equally well from that dichotomy of social personalities.
~SL
<disclaimer>I am not now, nor have I ever been, Japanese, and I'm not any kind of expert on Japanese society. The above is based on what I've learned from reading about Japan and studying the language the last few years.</disclaimer>
Re:I agree (Score:5, Funny)
What happens if somebody breaks in to your house and steals your radio? Will you stop listening to your radio at home? If they steal your TV, will you stop watching TV?
Hope they don't steal your toilet, dude.
Sorry for the trollish post, but duuuuude, cell phones don't cost $500. Try $100.
Re:I agree (Score:3, Funny)
You should break into his slashdot account so he'll shut the fuck up!
Really? (Score:3, Funny)
tcd004
I'm sick of... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not just a trend in Japan... it's happening here in the US too. And it's not a good thing I think...
-S
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:2)
Then again, we've had decent mobile phone service in the UK for a lot longer than the US has had it, so the business model (and hence pricing) is more mature.
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:2)
Which is why the only number I ever give out is my mobile number. If people really want to talk to me, they will be willing to pay to phone my mobile. If they aren't willing to pay the extra, then it probably wasn't all that important. It's a simple, but effective method of call screening.
Set some boundaries! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sick of everyone I know having the expectation that they can contact me anytime and anywhere.
This is not the technology's fault; this is YOUR FAULT. Tacitly or explicitly, you allowed this to happen. Set some ground rules with people and clarify expectations on both sides, e.g. "Don't call between 4 and 5 - that's Willy's time!". Blaming the phone itself is ridiculous.
It's *your* fault if you're anyone's bitch! (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can't return calls when it's convenient *to you,* get a better group of friends, or a better job. Or both. Ultimately, if you're anyone else's bitch, you have only yourself to blame.
Re:Set some boundaries! (Score:5, Insightful)
I once read anarticle which spoke very poorly of people's manners regarding cellphones. But was he complaining about people who talk on them? No! His complaint was that people had the gall to call him when he was out for dinner. How dare they!
This, quite frankly, sickened me. He bought the cellphone, he gave out his number, he brought it with him, he left it on, and he left the ringer on, yet he blames other people for their audacity to actually call him. Staggeringly stupid.
I have a cellphone, yes. In fact, it's the only phone I have access to. When people call me, they call me at that number. When I call them back, again, that number. I, however, don't blame other people for interrupting me. My friends don't have this stupid sense of urgency in everything they do. They don't feel the need to call me and say 'hey, I rented a movie that we can watch when you get home' or 'I bought this' or 'I went there', because they know that chances are, I don't really care so much that I need to know now. I'll find out when I get home, and that's enough.
Text messaging is a boon, because people can send me messages saying 'I rented Tuxedo' or something without me having to actively participate in a back-and-forth to discover it. I can get the message, read it, and delete it without anyone knowing, and do so at my leisure. No intrusions, but it's available, so I don't go out and rent Operation Condor and get stuck with two Jackie Chan movies on one weekend (if that matters; I like Jackie Chan).
Most phones can be set from ring to vibe; all phones can be set from ring to don't. Many even have a 'manner mode' (on the LG TM520, hold down * for two seconds and the ringer turns off; easy, fast). USE IT. Don't complain when people call you all the time if you always answer all the time. Let it go to voicemail, let them text-message you, let them call back later. It's the recipient of the call that's falling into the trap, not everyone else.
--Dan, who enjoys his solitude whenever he feels
Setting cell phone boundaries (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Set some boundaries! (Score:5, Insightful)
Believe me, I can and do shut off the damn phone. But then I hear about it from my relatives and co-workers. "Hey, where were you? I tried to get ahold of you." putting the blame back on me. My wife/relatives simply expect to be able to contact me "just in case". It's becoming cultural and that's very hard to undo.
-S
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is where the lack of SMS messaging in the U.S. leads to real differences.
In Europe real voice calls are relatively unusual (at least amongst my friends). You send text messages for short interactions and only call when you really need to talk.
The nice thing about text messages (like e-mail) is that they don't require any real-time response from the recipient. In a meeting? Don't feel like talking? Sleeping? No problem - the message will still be there later if you want to respond.
It also means that I don't feel guilty about turning off my ringer. If I don't feel like takin g a call, the caller can always send me a text message. If they don't bother then it probably wasn't important anyway.
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:2)
I don't get this attitude. Nobody, not even people with cell phones wants to be bothered all the time. That's why we have cell phones in the first place, less phone traffic. I have this problem with the landline. We're always getting these jack-ass telemarketing calls, and we all feel oblidged to answer because we don't know who's call it is we're missing.
The noise factor can be much better managed with cell phones. For one thing, telemarketers (today) can't call them. Another is that since it's your phone you know it's your calls you're missing. You can safely turn off the phone without interrupting other people's communication.
The point I'm getting at is that you could disappear at home with a cell phone, as opposed to having the leave the house because of the landline. That's why until I moved in with my gf that I had only a cell phone and not a landline. I hate answering the phone and taking messages for my gf, I hate answering the phone to telemarketing calls, and I hate not being able to unplug the phone. Man I wish we'd go back to just having cell phones again. My life, phone was, was a lot quieter without the landline. Damn economy.
Just because you have a cell phone doesn't mean you instantly have more noise in your life. That's a myth that I wish people'd realize the truth about.
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:2)
Re:I'm sick of... (Score:3, Insightful)
I take my cell phone with me everywhere. It has become the primary phone to me. Sure I live at home with my parents atm, I'm saving up to buy a house so it's a nice way to save. But I'm never home.
If you're always on the go, then for anyone to get in contact with you, or vice versa then it comes in very hand.
Yes I'm one of the ones who "whip 'em out" even if no call came in because sometimes you can miss and not know it. I check it also because I rarely carry a watch with me. When it costs me $20 to get a band for a watch that costs $20 then I say screw it. My phone IS my watch and no it's not a status thing. I could care less what anyone else thinks about me or what I'm wearing etc, therefore the doing it for status is out the window.
PATH-E-TECH (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:PATH-E-TECH (Score:3, Funny)
Re:PATH-E-TECH (Score:3, Interesting)
I hate meeting people without a (mobile) telephone, it's so incredibly complicated. And I can understand why they are isolated...
Re:PATH-E-TECH (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this is a major unexpected side-effect of communications technology: it reduces the time you need to plan ahead for things. When/where to meet up with your friends, what videos/food to get, &c -- all these can be decided as they happen. Conscientious time-keeping, which used to be important when arranging to meet up, is less important when you can keep track of people's whereabouts in real time. In fact, with some young people it's impossible to get them to plan anything more than half an hour in advance...
In some ways it's ironic that roughly the same technology that lets us create and share our schedules for months and years in advance is also removing some of the need for them.
Re:PATH-E-TECH (Score:2)
Is technology ruining or changeing social structures? There is a difference. Email (and its lesser cousing IM) allows groups of friends to stay in contact despite constraints such as long distances, or the inability to meet in person. Cell phones allows instant communication regardless of geography. How are these tools, which promote communication, antisocial?
This is a good thing... (Score:2, Funny)
congrats, TROLL! ;) (Score:3, Insightful)
Your rhetoric is full of spark but void of content. You speak in sweeping generalizations
I think people are slowly becoming more and more anti-social. Have you any evidence? Or is this "just a hunch?"
bombarded with all sorts of relevant and irrelevant "information" that clogs our minds, uhm, proof?! I happen to be of the opinion that the evolutionary function of human consciousness is to weed through vast amounts of stimuli (primarily visual) to acertain what is important.
technology is ruining the human social structure... oh please! Yes, society is crumbling because the youth of Japan are texting!
Yeah, technological discoveries like MEDICINE and NUTRITION have been the death of human social structure! Now we have all these damn old people! What are we going to do about the problem of roving gangs of the Aged?! And now that asthma sufferers have access to portable inhalers and diabetics have portable blood testing machines, these previously house-bound gimps are now running free! Its anarchy!
There is one thing that should keep all of your fears at bay. And its hard-wired into humans. Its the desire, no, strike that, NEED, to get LAID. Texting is all well and good, but no one can improve upon the old style information/fluid exchange of sex.
Society's fine. The kids are all right. The parent post should be mod'd as FUNNY.
The Rules have Changed (Score:5, Insightful)
gotta remember this is a japanease (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:gotta remember this is a japanease (Score:2, Informative)
Re:gotta remember this is a japanease (Score:2)
Re:gotta remember this is a japanease (Score:2)
I'd say, safely, that your odds of finding an Asian student not carrying (or more likely, not actively chatting away on) a cell phone are about the same as being struck by lightning while being bitten by a shark.
Every Asian student has a cell phone, and they all use them when walking around. I'm serious. You won't see many students walking between classes unless they have a cell phone nearby. You'll even see groups of three, four, six girls walking together... all talking on their phones. I swear they are actually talking to each other.
When I was in school nobody had a cell phone. Now everyone does. It's amazing what ten years can do. I liked it better the old way. Then again I usually leave my cell phone in my truck, and it's never turned on anyway.
-B
Re:gotta remember this is a japanease (Score:2)
We'll see who's laughing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We'll see who's laughing... (Score:4, Funny)
Brain tumors will become a new fetish.
New necessity (Score:4, Insightful)
Social what? (Score:2)
I had my first phone for at least three years, and when I replaced it not last month it was not because it was obsolete but because I was fed up of some of the restrictions that now don't exist. Not being able to text straight to someone in my phonebook being one, lock not locking the power button another. I am confident I shall keep my current phone for a similar length of time. I don't keep up with the Joneses, I simply take onboard new technology when I feel the time is right.
But the japanese, are, weird :) (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't the "future" of society we're seeing, its just a waypoint on the path to complete ridiculousness began by an unhealthy obsession with social rules and kitschy gadgets.
Re:But the japanese, are, weird :) (Score:2)
Re:But the japanese, are, weird :) (Score:2, Interesting)
figures in the article are pretty much the same over here, only difference is that we are only just beginning to get MMS (multimedia messages) now, which the Japanese have had for a while...
I spent a year in the the US, and one of the biggest differences for me was that not everyone had cellphones. I remember spending an entire night by myself, missing out on whatever was happening because I just wasn't used to a mobile phone-less life. I spent that night cursing the Americans for being so "backwards"...
So this isn't the future, it's the present, at least where I am.
information overload.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Marshall (Score:5, Funny)
ALVY ... work!
I mean, d- He can give you - Do you hafta give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And - and the funny part of it is, M-Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's
MAN IN LINE
[Overlapping] Wait a minute! Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan - well, have a great deal of validity.
ALVY
Oh, do yuh?
MAN IN LINE
Yes.
ALVY ... so, here, just let me - I mean, all right. Come over here ... a second.
Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. So
MCLUHAN
[To the man in line] I hear - I heard what you were saying. You - you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.
ALVY
[To the camera] Boy, if life were only like this!
Re:Marshall (Score:2)
The Jones'? (Score:2, Funny)
What's next? The *real* Net (Score:2)
Make it so you have, and maintain, a high bandwidth Net connection no matter where you go (some places might incur a surcharge, of course), and then deliver everything else thru it, and it will be more important to daily life than electricity is now.
Not Just Keeping Up (Score:2, Insightful)
And outside the workplace, it makes a lot of sense to have a cell phone these days. You can usually find a rate plan nearly as good or even better than a land line, so cost isn't a major factor. My parents got rid of their land line entirely - and so would I, if the pizza people would deliver when I use my cell.
Re:Not Just Keeping Up (Score:2, Insightful)
My Staff always call me up whenever I'm trying to sleep or am busy and ask the stupidest questions heh
Pizza Deliveries (Score:2)
Texting before calling (Score:5, Insightful)
Some communications systems have subject lines. Memos and E-mails do, but phone calls and letters don't. Voicemail usually doesn't, although some online voice chat systems do have introductory messages. Telegrams didn't have subject lines. SMS, arguably, is subject lines only.
Subject lines help enormously in managing information overload. Subject lines for phone calls could be a real win. Especially if you could input them by voice. Hmm.
Actually... (Score:2)
I think it was when Telco's starting charging $0.10 per text message, and rounding the seconds used up to the minute. People are finally sitting up and saying "whoah, this sucks".
I know at least 30 friends and family who have given up on their cell phones. Even the "pay as you go" is not worth it because the minutes expire.
If anyone needs me, they can call me at home or catch me at work. For emergencies I have a non-serviced cell phone (911 works WITHOUT subscribing to a service)
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering.
how old are we? (Score:5, Insightful)
Increasingly, especially for young people, dates are being made online. For friends, there is no reason to plan things out days in advance. Just call each other up at the spur of the moment and see who available to party. Is this good or bad? Not really either.
I have all this technology. People can request my attention using a number of methods. However, I do consider all of these requests. It is my choice to answer phone, reply to email, whatever. This pisses people off. Just because someone asks for my attention, am I for some reason required to drop everything and respond? I think not. Rather than showing our age and railing against rational uses of technology, I think we should accept those uses and teach how to use technology rather than have technology use you.
There was a time when people would come to your house, and, if there was time, you would put out some biscuits and make some tea and have a good sit down. This was obviously inefficient and complicated. However, I am still more inclined to talk to someone who would come to my apartment for a chat rather than randomly pick up phone and call me. OTOH, there are some conversations that are better on the phone and email. For instance, i remeber the first time a girl broke up with a friend of mine over email. It saved a useless conversation.
Re:how old are we? (Score:2)
I said, "Do it on her territory. Don't make her have to leave, drive home, etc."
So he called her, and said he was coming over, there was something they needed to talk about. She says, "Look, if you're breaking up with me, just tell me now and get it over with."
"Um, no, that's not it. I'll be right over."
Boy, what a dick. There is nothing wrong with doing it the impersonal way in situations like that. She felt bad about being rejected, and then she felt bad for letting this asshole see her get upset. Hell, in that case, it might have been better if it were an SMS:
Socially, cellphones are for lonely extroverts. (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, there are a lot of people like this, even in the nerd sector. They struggle to go for a few hours without calling someone, or having a conversation.. whereas lots of us are quite happy to sit hacking Perl or playing with servers until 4am.
So socially, no, I don't think phones are necessary, unless you're an extrovert who suffers from a loneliness complex.
Business-wise, however, cellphones are pretty damn useful. I can give an impression of being available 24/7 wherever I am, and that's worth a lot. A cellphone also allows me to easily call back into my work answerphone and catch up on calls. That's pretty useful stuff.
Re:Socially, cellphones are for lonely extroverts. (Score:2)
I'm going to assume either sarcasm or that you're referring to geek society here. Most peoples lives revolve around their social life, not hacking on perl or playing with servers.
Re:Socially, cellphones are for lonely extroverts. (Score:2)
I don't blame the technology as such, but the technology does bring out behavior in certain people that makes them more annoying than they would be without the cell phone.
See the article for examples of what I'm talking about. My personal favorite:
During a recent performance of "Death of a Salesman," its star, Brian Dennehy, was startled to hear a cell phone ring near the end of the second act.
Even more disturbing was to hear the phone being answered, and a woman in the audience clearly saying, "It's almost finished," and going on to make dinner plans.
Say what you want about the technology not being to blame -- without a cell phone, this woman would not be engaging in this type of behavior.
What I find odd... (Score:4, Interesting)
Great...More people bugging me with phones... (Score:2, Insightful)
The social rules that are arising from it are very intriguing, though, indicative of how popular phones and messaging are. Increasing use of text messages as a "knock" seems to be something useful evolving out of it. Sometimes I wish people would IM me before calling so I don't get distracted. (Cooperative vs. Preemptive Dfiant-tasking.
Now can we please make the next taboo not having a hands-free headset while driving? I'd like to decrease the odds of me being splattered all over the pavement from the sociable idiot in the SUV near me who either a) drifts into my lane and almost sideswipes me, b) drives slow in the lefthand lane but fails to yield, or c) didn't know where that red light/stop sign/parking lot came from.
For some people it's some sort of unhealthy social addiction. If you can't just run down to the store briefly without yacking away to your friend while you sift through the items on the shelf, it's just a little weird and annoying. Especially if you have friends there standing next to you. But when I'm constantly seeing peoples' lives endangered, that's where I draw the line.
Re:Great...More people bugging me with phones... (Score:2)
Same thing if someone is in the car, actually, but I guess two sets of eyes make up for the distraction.
Re:Great...More people bugging me with phones... (Score:4, Informative)
Irrelevant. At least one study [utah.edu] seems to indicate that it doesn't matter whether the phones are hands-free or not, the risk is still there. According to the same link, a previous study revealed that talking on the phone impairs driving ability significantly more than talking to other passengers in your vehicle.
I'm glad it's the Japanese... (Score:2, Insightful)
I live in a college town and most of the college kids take them everywhere. I'm sick of hearing people take calls and talk on them at plays, movies and restaraunts. A student at the college told me that cell phones have destroyed the community atmosphere as the students are only interested in getting out of the class and getting on their cell phones.
I think by and large we'd be better off without them.
Its worldwide (Score:2)
Japan has stronger society links (Score:3, Interesting)
here we're more individual and over there they're a lot more social.
This is really noticable if you work for a Japanese company like Sharp. Working in a factory for Toshiba we noticed that in Japan they have them all stand up at the start of the working day to say team-like stuff alligience... wierd. I think they were hoping they could inspire the same team spirit over here
I'd like to say more but it'd be offtopic.
The cool people (Score:2)
Slashdot - Technology heling a new social network (Score:3, Interesting)
Technology can facilitate it and broaden the scope of the social group, but it doesn't really change the social dynamic that forms time and again.
In the case of cellphones, it lets a social group form that in previous decades might have only been able to form in a neighborhood, but cellphones let them be far flung over a large city like LA or NYC where friends live in different section and can use the cellphones to coordinate meet ups where as before everyone would just go around the corner or down the street etc...
I sorta think of slashdot as a representative discussion group, where sometimes people say something, sometimes they moderate (vote) for someones who has said something that they think should be heard. And bouncers to chuck out the people who start shouting incoherently. Anyway it lets (or some would say attempts to let) the number of people that can have a meaningful discussion be much larger.
This has happened with every meaningful technological invention, including WRITING. People naturally form social groups around technology, not because of technology.
Those photos really bug me! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm really concerned about people taking pictures of me without my consent. It's too easy to do with these new cell phones. Especially when someone might catch you in an off moment. I own a cell phone, but rarely use it. I got one for my personal use because every body else has one./p?
some reasons why? (Score:2)
if i'm going to meet up with a friends at a houseparty i can call ahead on my way there to see if they need anything to pick up. or they can call me. or if it's my house everyone is going to i can ask someone who's coming.
directions. going to a new place with the knowledge that i can call for help on how to get there is an amazing stress reliever.
we might agree to meet up somewhere and discover that it's packed, lame, closed. the first ones there can redirect people to the new place.
and on a variation, a group might agree to meet up at a pub and then go on from there to an undecided restaurant. stragglers can be called when a decision has been made.
my phone, like 99% of phones, offers caller id. i can choose to answer who i feel like answering. my phone also offers an on/off switch. if i want to be left alone i can turn off the phone or only answer calls i want answered. even better then ignoring a landline i can explicitly reject calls i don't want so i don't have to listen to constant ringing.
people moaning about mobiles need to get a clue.
It's not "keeping up" - look to the past (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not about keeping up just for keeping up's sake; it's new technologies that are useful and become part of most peoples' lives. To explain, let's go back in history... these things were all new-fangled at one time, but now, even though some people live without them, seem pretty "essential":
- 4 walls and a water-proof roof.
- clean water, delivered to your faucet.
- sanitation system - sewer, garbage, etc.
- health insurance, vacinations for diseases you don't even have yet!
- 911, police, and fire services
- a legal system, property ownership
- currency, bank accounts, lending, credit cards
- a regular job (as opposed to self-empolyed farmer/blacksmith/etc. and directly bartering your skills with others)
- prerecorded music, books.
- transportation (taxi, rail, plane, boat, postal system)
- automation (copy machines, computers)
The vast majority of us integrate these into our lives because we feel they have value that exceeds their costs, and not just to keep up.
Speaking as one who has to carry a pager & cel (Score:2)
Social faux pas, my eye (Score:2)
Feeling like you "have to" have your little digital gadget in order to feel "connected to the world" is something I find not only humorously ironic, but it also smacks of being a slave to your own technology, which is an idea I find unpleasant. Cell phones can be great tools, but they're not status symbols anymore (at least, not in the positive sense), and they should not be running your life.
Theatre work - cell phone is deity-sent (Score:3, Informative)
I do stagehand work, among other things. Most stagehands around here carry cellphones, and that's the primary contact for the union business agent (BA). In this case it's important to be reachable, and the BA rarely wastes one's time on the phone anyway.
I'd much rather be able to be anywhere - home, at another gig, downtown in a tea shop, etc. than have to be constantly checking my messages at home. I suppose they had methods before telephones became common, but I have better things to do than drop by the union hall every morning to see if there's work.
Consider this... (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't understand why everybody (who's posting, at least) has this big hang-up on cell phones. It's like this approach to being 'cool' by hating that which is perceived as 'cool'. Is it okay to be 'geek' and not be a social troglodyte?
It feels like middle school, where everyone was so afraid that they saw uncertainty through 'threat' goggles.
SMS (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, I read SMS messages on a regular basis. Why? Because those I can ignore, read, reply as I choose. While not great for long conversations, something like a short message and a reply is easier over SMS than over the phone.
"I'll be about 15 mins late today" "Ok, I'll be in the computer lab" is typically what I want to do with a mobile phone. Not talking for hours, if I wanted to do that I'd normally be at home with a normal phone anyway. So while cell calls are overrated, cell phones are not.
Kjella
For what it's worth (Score:3, Interesting)
Keeping up with the Joneses (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the most positive aspect of cell phones are that you can keep up with the Joneses, but not in the way you think.
When landline-based telephones started to become widespread, they allowed people to communicate over long distances. You could keep up with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and your friends in another state. But only if they were home. Answering machines partially solved this problem, because you could leave messages, but it isn't the same. Cheap, affordable cell phones have allowed the world to keep in touch much more easily than ever before.
I'll use myself as an example. I live in the Western USA, while most of my family and some of my friends live in the Eastern USA. Most of us work weird schedules; some work 12-hour hospital shifts, some work 3rd shift, others normal shifts. There's no real way to keep track of when someone's available and when they're not. Calling a person's house doesn't mean much; is the person at work, or are they just not home? Call their cell phone. If they can talk, they'll answer their phone and talk. If they can't talk, you can leave a message and know they'll get your message as soon as possible, not when they get home (whenever that is). None of us would ever be able to actually talk to each other without cell phones; we're hardly ever home at the same time.
A lot of people don't like cell phones; they don't like the potential of being bothered every minute by others. That's fine (though if you need privacy for awhile, you can just turn your phone off). But many people enjoy the being able to keep in touch with friends and family much easier. Being able to immediately reach the actual person you want to talk to anywhere on the planet at any time has caused the world to be just a bit smaller. This positive benefit outweighs most of the negatives, IMHO.
Re:about letting the battery die (Score:2, Informative)
You're wrong, but so is everyone else :) (Score:5, Informative)
The very earliest types of rechargable batteries, used on things like satellites, suffered from what is known as a 'memory' effect. In silly terms, it basically means that if you charge a half-full battery, it'll 'remember' where the charge started from, and only go on to do a half charge. When it reaches the halfway point, the battery 'thinks' it's empty. So you've just halved your battery life. Wash, rinse, repeat until the battery is useless.
When consumer rechargables started becoming common, early chargers (and a lot still do this today on NiCads) would keep applying current to the battery, even if it was fully charged. This 'overcharging' can seriously decimate the life of a battery - it renders useless the chemicals needed to drive the electric current.
So basically, people were overcharging their batteries left, right, and centre. Manufacturers started telling people not to continuously charge their devices, ie: leave the cordless phone off the hook for a while, things like that. Between noone explaining the principle of overcharging, and companies not fully understanding it themselves, we've moved on to 'completely drain any device before you charge it again'. Ironically this can actually lessen the life of many types of rechargables, including the new funky rechargable alkalines you see everywhere.
Anyway, the memory effect was only ever seen with batteries that never made it into consumer hands. But the myth lives on. There never was a reason for the drain-and-charge cycle. Overcharging was the problem all along.
Memory effect in NiCads (Score:3, Informative)
-In my college chemistry class, I asked the professor this very question. According to him, a Ni-Cad battery develops a memory due to the plates in the battery crystallizing if not used for a long period of time. If a battery is only half-discharged before charging, the metal that is not used in the chemical process will eventually crystalize and not react even if the user tries to discharge the battery beyond half-capacity. A battery conditioner, if I understand properly, will discharge a battery completely before recharging, ensuring that the metal doesn't have a chance to crystallize. For batteries that have the effect already, teh conditioner will deep discharge the battery, "ripping" the metal atoms from the crystal structure and gradually restoring battery capacity.
When I was in the Navy, the submarine battery would show an increase in capacity if was deep-cycled a few times (like when running casualty drills over a period of several days).
-(from http://wireless.berkeley.edu/services/battery.sht
Partial cycles will form dendrites on the plates which cause the memory effect. My speculation is that these dendrites will either (a) undergo rapid chemical process when the battery is used because they are thin relative to the plates or (b) break off and not take part in the process at all.
So the "memory effect" is no myth. I would suspect that battery manufacturers have engineers who are well-versed in such matters and probably have at least half a clue as to what they're talking about.
http://www.valence.com/chemistries.asp
http://
Re:Oy... (Score:2)
You made your bed.... (Score:2)
Thats the price you pay for being different. Most people have cell phones and you choose to not have one to be "unique". Can you blame people for looking at you funny?
Its like those Christian Scientists who turn down antibiotics when they've got gangrene.....they get funny looks too!
Re:I don't need a cell phone! (Score:2)
Re:I'm Sacrificing +2 Karma To Say You're A MORON (Score:2)
I'll point out that you're paying money every time you talk to your friends. You could have been spending that time getting paid.
I pay money so that I can talk to my friends, and I wish I could do it more. I'd keep spending more until I was spending 100% of my time talking to my friends. Then I'd be as happy as humanly possible.
Talking to my friends is the reward I get for being alive. I'll do whatever it takes to get more. Tell me what's wrong with that?
Re:I'm Sacrificing +2 Karma To Say You're A MORON (Score:2)
I guess that makes you an idiot.