Friday, February 18, 2011

Idiots Using Smart Phones

Recently in Kansas, a new bill has passed. You can't text and drive (simultaneously, anyway) within Kansas any longer.  There are several things that about these laws that continually puzzle me.  Are there so many people that are out there texting while driving that state legislatures have to reign it in?  How is it even possible?  If you are texting with both hands, driving with your knees (I guess), looking at the phone, how can it be that you are still alive??

Couple little facts to consider.  There are 30 states that have laws preventing texting while driving.  There are 8 additional states that don't let novice drivers or school bus drivers, text.  I would have liked to been privy to the state Congress/Senate sessions the day those laws passed to hear the discussion.  "Fellow lawmakers, let's enact some law that only experienced car drivers and truck drivers can text and drive at the same time.  Those 16 year olds should pay attention at least for a couple of years before being inattentive and killing someone.

Cellular phones and Smart phones, have changed how we all live.  How far we've come.


Texting, as previously mentioned, seems to be the rage.  In or out of the car people are texting their fingers down to nubs.  I find a lot of conflicted viewpoints on the whole issue of texting.

  • Why do people text things that would take much less time to just say? Wouldn't it be easier just to talk?
  • You have to learn a whole new language. 
(angry girlfriend)
BF  SRSLY WTF    R U 2 BZ 2 Cm   U R PITA  Cm ASAP  >:-(

(happy girlfriend)

Texting surely, is undoing a couple hundred years of teaching school children how to spell and use punctuation.

Really, by the time you figure out the appropriate symbols, wouldn't just pushing the programmed number on your phone to call the person be faster.  The worst that is going to happen is you speak your message to voice mail.

Another new rule.  Yesterday on one of the talk shows, the ladies were hashing over the policies that hospitals are now imposing.  Fathers can no longer bring camera cell phones into the delivery rooms.  Don't want any mistakes on film, I guess.  Actually, I am on board with this one.  I don't give a crud about the liability to the hospital  if something goes wrong, but if I were the mommy-in-process I wouldn't want hubby's cell phone at the baby-in-process end of me.

The camera part of Smart Phones is always in the news.  Good and Bad.  Look at all the catastrophes we get to see now thanks to cell phones, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, and fires for example.  It's just not natural disasters though.  If you are acting badly you can bet someone is filming it for you.  Lawyers have just got to love these cell phone clips unless they are  representing the bad boy/ bad girl that is. 

On past posts, I talked about the whole sexting debacle.  Seems that the act of actually making a phone call is somewhat incidental to why some people buy these phones. Being able to make X rated pictures and videos in the palm of your hand. How precious.

The people that do actually use cell phones for the sole purpose of making and receiving telephone calls have their own issues.  It is a common belief among cell phone users, I believe, that they think when they talk on the phone that no one around them can hear the conversation.  There perhaps is an invisible cone of silence that protects them from being heard.  This must be true!! This is perhaps why people talk so loud. You have to speak extra loud when you are in the cone. 

The one thing you might want to be conscious of, as you work up to a slow boil,   while listening to some highly intellectual type drone into their phone " Oh, my way....SHUT UP! way...for real???" is right after you  complain about them being a  rude moron, your phone will ring and you will answer it.  But of course YOU ARE IN THE CONE!!!!

Also, let's make up a axiom for that: "The first to complain is the first to offend."  That should rank right up their with Peter's Principle and Murphy's Law but what should we call it?? Any suggestions??? Post a comment if you have some clever thought on what to call our new rule.

To really liven up the place (and that can be any place including but not limited to, restaurants, offices, churches and meeting with the Pope). Be sure to turn the volume on your ringer full blast and find the most offensive song you can find as your ringtone.  That should get the heads a turnin'.

Not so long ago, I was at a dinner theatre with some friends, when someones phone started ringing during the performance.  The phone was ringing loudly with some kind of musical ringtone.  (nothing I recognized).  The person was continuing to ignore it when one of the actors on stage actually stopped and said something to the effect of " if you would like to answer that, we will wait".  The actor that stopped the show should have gotten a standing ovation right then.

Last but not least:
Wasting time while havin' fun with our portable little computers

Now this is one of those conflicted areas.  There are so many fun apps out there.  Who wouldn't want to load some games and other fun stuff on the phone. Tex Pal, who you may remember is a surgical nurse, said this is what all the people working at the hospital do in all their "spare" time.  I know I want my anaesthesiologist to be preoccupied with "Angry Birds". 

 It is hard not to succumb to the powers of the App Store. So to be fair, those near and dear to me (oh, yeah, and ME) are semi-addicted to some of this foolishness. I say semi as we are all still trying to be considerate of the people around us. No playing with phones in public places where people might be disturbed. 

Hubby loves some of those apps that you scan the bar code of anything in a store and it tells you where you can buy it cheaper.

Three year old grandson loves to do puzzles. (Scary that at three he knows how to open the apps)

And who doesn't want to Google things when you have some random thought while out and about?

OR read a book OR watch a TV show OR buy stuff OR log in, OR social network.....

  How did we ever manage without these little wonders??

The good for the day....our fun techy stuff

The bad for the Day...when we use it rudely, or dangerously, or inappropriately

The Weird for the Day...The fact that I can remember most of these phones and have owned more than a few. YIKES


Aleta said...

OMG, those big huge phones - my Dad used to have one that he carried around ALL THE TIME.

Ok, I'm pathetic, I didn't understand those text messages... well, some of the message, but not all of it.

It's so strange thinking how technology has changed SO FAST. Scary, actually.

Cheryl P. said...

I used to have one of those bag phones also. We all thought it was cutting edge.

The text messages are: Boyfriend, Seriously What the F***. Are you to busy to call me? You are a pain in the as*. Call me as soon as possible!

The happy text was: Boyfriend, Wish you were here. You are to die for. I love you, I miss you.

I don't get how texting is quicker than just sending an email. Smart phones do both.

Rixxblog said...

I saw the reference to this post in your recent 7 notable posts post. Just a heads up. I started just a few days ago a draft for a post with the working title "Smartphones Making us Smarter?" Don't know that it'll be as good as this one, but It's the result of my observations of recent note and not inspired by your beating me to the punch. Just sayin'. :)

Cheryl P. said...

I will be eager to read your post. I never worry about people having similar types of articles. There are so many topical ideas such as what is trendy in the tech world or social networking. The morning I decided to write a post about Anthony Weiner there must have been a thousand posts about him. Funny how differently people viewed that and how varied the writing styles were. Thanks for stopping by. I love to discover new blogs thru comments.