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TAM,

Right you are and given a short bit of time, all humans are no longer with us...

MasterOfNone,

I hear ya.

My post was a very dry tongue in cheek one.

Of course, I'm not sincerely advocating what I said.

Just creating a bit of discussion...

Smart phone users keep bringing up the benefits of smart phones - No doubt they provide high tech performance, but that's not what I'm addressing.

It's their misuse...

As time passes, we see more and more folks misuse these devices, from being merely annoying to others in public all the way to being a danger to others as well as themselves.

As an example, texting while driving.

Some of these texting people have the temerity to state they can do such safely while driving. Wow, talk about being delusional...

We have safety programs for new hunters, perhaps such a requirement should be mandatory for cell/smart phone users before being able to buy one of these devices.

Yeah, I'm a staunch conservative, but I'm also realistic. In the hands of some of the misuse of these items is lethal.

A course, akin to safety programs for new hunters could be started for cell/smart phone users aimed at the dangers/safe use of these devices.

92f-fan,

Nah, apples and oranges...

George,

"And, I can text and keep quiet, like in class, or in church."

Doing a little chain pulling are we...?

If not, you're partially revealing what I'm railing about when it comes to the misuse of these gizmos.

Plus, when did it become impolite to call someone?

They can shut off their phone or leave it on and let it quietly go to voice mail, right?

Please, calling someone is not an imposition, unless the party on the other end let's it be.

chasfm1,

"Perhaps. My admittedly unscientific study of smart phone users in public (as opposed to those who have them but are not using them in pubic) is that 90% have all but abandoned all means of human interaction except their smart phone. While any phone accomplish the same thing, it appears to be the smart phone users who are the ones who must be on their phones in the store or governmental department lines, even when there are specific signs asking that those devices be turned off when conducting business."

The above is what I witness with regularity.

The above isn't one of resistance to new technology.

The above isn't hyperbole - it's commonplace.

Not only is it commonplace, it worsens daily...

My 'smart phone' anecdote: I attended a place where a group of us cigar smokers (I've since quit) would meet to drink coffee, smoke cigars and chat.

As time progressed with the advent of cell phones, roughly a third of the guys would be on their cell phones, annoying those of us who wanted to have a discussion.

Finally, smart phones came along and almost all of the guys were glued to them rather than socially interact. They were scanning the internet or playing a game and texting.

I quit going to this place.

What was the point of going and being alone with a crowd more interested in smart phone interaction being the their focus rather than social interaction?

"I also think people like to text because they don't have to face the consequences of a real life conversation."

Bingo!

"We are raising a nation of zombies."

Bingo again!!

Bringing up baby zombies, wow, just wow!

"A good friend of mine tells me that the only way he can communicate with his son is through texting. He can call his son's number and he will not answer. He can text him just after hanging up and his son will immediately text back."

See the first quote.

"I tried avoiding it..."

"I had friends that just hounded me into communicating via that means."

Remember the old parental question: If everybody was jumping off a bridge would you do the same...? Cmon, peer pressure (in this case anyway) is for adolescents.

Resistance isn't futile.

No amount of hounding by "friends" could force me into texting as the only and/or major means of technical communication.

I see an underlying evil in some of the misuse and recruitment tactics for these devices.

Syntyr

"So I pretty much live on my phone."

Mostly for chatting or business? Would you potentially break out in hives or feel anxious if you were denied access to your device?

"My sister inlaw and her husband come over for dinner and their noses are in their phones 80% of the time they are there. Drives me nuts! We can be sitting there eating dinner and they have their phones out. I look over at my wife and grimace and she silently mouths "sorry" to me. Zombies..."

I witness the above all too commonly. Such practice is quickly becoming a blight everywhere. Smart phones are surrogate people for many. Those afflicted can't seem to break the chains that bind them. The attention these devices are paid exceeds human interaction by leaps and bounds for this group. Smart phones are for many as addictive as crack cocaine. And no, it's not the phone's fault, it's the misuse.

Yes cell/smart phones provide benefits, but their use by many is pathological and ever increasing as the world seems to be taken over by these things.

TAM,

"My concern is whether or not people can exist without them if they have to."

Right on the money.

Recently, I watched a documentary in which people couldn't access their smart phones for 24 hours. After surrendering their phones, most of those being studied soon showed signs of anxiety, depression, short temper, etc., you know, all the hallmarks of addiction. Some essentially threw their hands in the air and quit the study demanding their devices be returned.

Some of those being studied also rather reluctantly agreed their lives were centered around their smart phones. Gad.

I'm sure one day this problem will be overcome as fetuses will be implanted with some sort of technological whiz bang and become part human / part cyborg without the nuisance of having to lug around a plastic box they endlessly diddle with...

On that note, I gonna go out and dig a hole with a stick just because...

I'm puzzled about GPS in phones being so widely heralded.

Before GPS in phones, we had maps and they worked just fine and still do.

Some are pre-printed, others hand drawn, but all work.

Wait, I get it, many couldn't use a map and were constantly lost if they had to go to some place new, but couldn't bring themselves to admit it.

Now, they're so dog gone happy they're not lost all the time they're ecstatic and want the world to know the glory of phone GPS.

mojo84,

Of course you're correct about it not being the inherent fault of the cell/smart phone in and of itself - it's the vehicle, if you will, that a huge proportion of the population employ in a dangerous or inconsiderate manner in public especially, that makes me shudder with disgust.

Ever had someone speak so loudly on a cell phone while in a restaurant you can hear every single word spouted, but you can't have a considerate toned conversation with your table mate?

I'm sure you have your own anecdotes regarding negative cell/smart phone users.

I'll be willing to bet that most people have stories about inconsiderate dolts on cell phones. It's a societal plague.

No, it's not fault of the cell/smart phone, (how could it be?) but for some reason people seem to put blinders on when out in public with this communication item.

I'm reminded of people who couldn't be more considerate and kind when sober, (no cell phone) but when tippling, (cell phone in hand) are mean drunks...

One last blast.

To be sure, not everyone with a cell phone is a knucklehead when using one in public, just a colossal percentage are...

Not all that long ago, while cycling past a T-intersection, I was almost killed by a women blabbing on a cell phone as I cycled into the intersection (I had the right of way) just as she ran the stop sign.

She chose to yap on her cell phone rather than yield to the stop sign and was so engrossed in her phone conversation the stop sign was invisible to her.

As she plowed through the stop sign, I exited the road into a ditch.

Had I not been paying attention, I wouldn't be here now.

A couple of years before the above, I witnessed an accident caused by yet another woman on a cell phone who didn't get off the phone even then...fortunately it was a rather minor fender bender, but it could've be prevented if she'd been paying attention to her driving instead of yap yap yapping on her cell phone.

Remember the texting young guy/old retired cop movie theatre killing most recently in the news and discussed at length on this forum? The lack of common courtesy with the use of these devices, especially in public, is causing at the very least indigestion up to the point of mayhem.

Multiply these micro moments by all the number of people not paying attention to their driving while cell phone blabbing and/or texting (even while driving) plus while you're at it, add up the general public aggravation when these devices are discourteously used and you have a recipe for violence. It's real.

Cell phones / smart phones have their place, but their inappropriate/inconsiderate use causes a world of problems for others.

By cracky, I remember when you picked up the receiver, wait a moment, then an operator would ask: Number please! It was then up to you to tell her, the operator, (there were no male operators) an alpha-numeric phone number. (Also, all consumer phones were black and the same model.)

When rotary dial phones came into being, they were just so outre - we marveled at this advance. Talk about fast, hoo-wee!

You'd dial a number, wait for the dial to come back to zero, dial the next number, wait for it to come back to zero, until finally all seven (at that time) were dialed in and presto the signal would go through. Wonderful!

Phones continued to technologically advance until, ugh, the now ubiquitous cell phone came into being. They have their place of course, but cause no end of car wrecks, ruined dinners in restaurants (and everywhere else) and murder too, just to name a few horrors they create.

Now, we have so-called smart phones that also have their place, but they too cause hideous societal problems.

And, I'll bet some of us here know what those downsides can be...

Now, please excuse me, I have to sharpen my stone ax and find my flints for a fire.

chasfm11,

I'm a QWERTY guy too.

I can't see myself manically texting like some over-amped jr. high girl...shudder.

Or, finding some electronic device so enrapturing I develop OCD.

If, in the very next moment I couldn't access the internet ever again, my own electronic drug of choice, I wouldn't need to seek therapy like so many I know who can't live without the so-called smart thingies...but, I probably would read more books than I currently do.

chasfm11 / 2farnorth ,

We think very much alike, with one small caveat:

I never text as I think it a nuisance, why bother?

I can't see myself texting when there as so many convenient means for communication.

Texting seems like taking a step back in communication, but I know it's all the rage...heck, maybe the Minuet will make a come back.