Forgive me for going off on a rant.....
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JoeUser Forums
Forgive me for going off on a rant here. I know the topic has come up before (or at least it seems like it should have), in multiple places, but a recent rant about a trip to the movies reminded me of the need to rant more on the superior topic:
Just when the hell did Cell phones become a necessity, and more importantly, why is it that people that use them constantly can't figure out that they don't need to share their conversations with the world, and if they aren't more careful about how and where they converse, they may find themselves dead because of the little electronic two-way communication device in their hands or semi-permanently attached to their ear.
I drove through the new "open air" mall in the area near my in-laws. It's modelled after malls in the U.K., and I suppose the rest of Europe. A main street/boulevard with shops on either side. A traffic circle at the center of the thoroughfare, and 3 way stops at either end of the boulevard (with "anchor" stores at either end of the street). At the 3 way stops there are cross walks a plenty, with traffic yielded to the pedestrians that inevitably are yakking away on their phones and paying zero attention to the automotive traffic which in many cases includes drivers that are doing the same thing the pedestrians are -- yakking on the phone obliviously.
I know cell phones are incredibly affordable now. You can get a phone with many hundreds of minutes, at a fairly inexpensive price -- BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO USE ALL THE STINKIN' MINUTES PEOPLE!
Cell phones used to cost a lot. The air time allotments were small, and people used to use them for emergencies. Realtors may have used them frequently, because they were effective *tools* of their trade, but common folk relied on home phones. Maybe they had an answering machine, but generally if you wanted to talk to someone, you called them at home. If it was about business, you called them in the office. If they were important, they had an administrative assistant, or a secretary to take care of getting their messages and helping to screen their calls. If they were really important, they had pagers, or maybe a big old bulky Gordon Gecko mobile phone.
But in the last, oh, I don't know, maybe 15 years??, the phones have gotten smaller (almost too damn small, the buttons are small, the speakers are small and hard to line up with your ear while feeling like you can talk into the microphone area, and the volume on many is too low to hear without using a handsfree ear piece/headset), and cheaper. The cheaper part being the main complaint I believe I have. Cheap enough to let every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally buy them and use them, without thinking about what a pain in everyone else's nether regions they are when they mis-use the cell phones.
Yet again, I am hopeful that perhaps natural selection will kick in, and perhaps some of those driving the cars while yakking on the phone will take out some of those that are walking the crosswalks while yakking. If we're all really lucky, it'll be a chain reaction accident, and several tail-gaters will wind up running into the one in front of them. Perhaps the whiplash effect will do enough nerve damage to the idiots to help make cell phone ineffective, and then perhaps things can get back to normal.
Just when the hell did Cell phones become a necessity, and more importantly, why is it that people that use them constantly can't figure out that they don't need to share their conversations with the world, and if they aren't more careful about how and where they converse, they may find themselves dead because of the little electronic two-way communication device in their hands or semi-permanently attached to their ear.
I drove through the new "open air" mall in the area near my in-laws. It's modelled after malls in the U.K., and I suppose the rest of Europe. A main street/boulevard with shops on either side. A traffic circle at the center of the thoroughfare, and 3 way stops at either end of the boulevard (with "anchor" stores at either end of the street). At the 3 way stops there are cross walks a plenty, with traffic yielded to the pedestrians that inevitably are yakking away on their phones and paying zero attention to the automotive traffic which in many cases includes drivers that are doing the same thing the pedestrians are -- yakking on the phone obliviously.
I know cell phones are incredibly affordable now. You can get a phone with many hundreds of minutes, at a fairly inexpensive price -- BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO USE ALL THE STINKIN' MINUTES PEOPLE!
Cell phones used to cost a lot. The air time allotments were small, and people used to use them for emergencies. Realtors may have used them frequently, because they were effective *tools* of their trade, but common folk relied on home phones. Maybe they had an answering machine, but generally if you wanted to talk to someone, you called them at home. If it was about business, you called them in the office. If they were important, they had an administrative assistant, or a secretary to take care of getting their messages and helping to screen their calls. If they were really important, they had pagers, or maybe a big old bulky Gordon Gecko mobile phone.
But in the last, oh, I don't know, maybe 15 years??, the phones have gotten smaller (almost too damn small, the buttons are small, the speakers are small and hard to line up with your ear while feeling like you can talk into the microphone area, and the volume on many is too low to hear without using a handsfree ear piece/headset), and cheaper. The cheaper part being the main complaint I believe I have. Cheap enough to let every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally buy them and use them, without thinking about what a pain in everyone else's nether regions they are when they mis-use the cell phones.
Yet again, I am hopeful that perhaps natural selection will kick in, and perhaps some of those driving the cars while yakking on the phone will take out some of those that are walking the crosswalks while yakking. If we're all really lucky, it'll be a chain reaction accident, and several tail-gaters will wind up running into the one in front of them. Perhaps the whiplash effect will do enough nerve damage to the idiots to help make cell phone ineffective, and then perhaps things can get back to normal.
