Mobile phone madness!

4058 Views 58 Replies 25 Participants Last post by BoulevardOfBrokenDreams, 2 mo ago

presto

Discussion Starter · Oct 31, 2011

As the years go by I’m becoming more and more anti-mobile phone.
I see people getting addicted to them, driving while using them, being rude by ignoring people while they have them glued to their ears, I see people walking along totally oblivious to the world around them.
They’re often not switched off in concerts and at the theatre, and there’s nothing more irritating in hearing someone talking on one (usually loudly) while you’re out for a quiet meal.
They just make life more complicated with all those tariffs and deals, and people are no happier or satisfied, they have a phone and just hanker for the next upgrade, a never ending money pit!
I’m so glad I've not been sucked into this stupid world, I have a second hand basic phone that I use about once every two weeks.
I've had my say!

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kv466

· #2 · Oct 31, 2011

I'm not certain but there might not be any reception here:

Thing is,..."uh, hello. Who? Oh, hey!!...",...sorry, I gotta take this call!

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Igneous01

· #3 · Oct 31, 2011

I share my sentiments with OP, its becoming very irritating to be surrounded by someone texting or talking on their phone everywhere I turn.

But I really dont understand those people who meet face to face, yet text to each other?! I guess talking is no longer cool or something?

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Aramis

· #4 · Oct 31, 2011

I never had a phone but once upon a time I borrowed some because I had to met someone on train station in other city so I had to be in touch with the man. When I was in a train riding to that city I kept hearing that tune from Beverly Hills Cop, it was playing over and over again all the two hours of my ride to Warsaw. I was asking myself WHAT'S GOING ON, WHO PLAYS THAT DAMN TUNE? People in my partition looked like they were annoyed too. After I left the train my phone started to ring and I realised that it has Beverly Hills cop tune as it's ringtone and when it was playing in that train it was that phone in my pocket.

Since then I never longed for having mobile again.

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starthrower

· #5 · Oct 31, 2011

A cell phone is all I have, but I don't play with it like a toy. I don't have it attached to my body either. Cell phones or no, it's not getting any smarter out there!

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graaf

· #6 · Oct 31, 2011

Few days ago, my mobile phone broke down, so I went to the company that gives you free phone if you sign 2 years deal with them. I went for least expensive subscription, got some basic phone for calls and messages, and 2 years warranty on it. That's how much I obsess about phones. What can I say, I'm not a modern man...

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Krummhorn

· #7 · Nov 2, 2011

I own one ... but I never answer it when driving. If it's important enough, the caller will call back. The mobile phone is a necessity as I am seldom home during the week and it's the easiest way for people to get in touch with me.

As for texting, I do, but never while driving ... cracks me up to see a 6 year old kid riding on a scooter, trying to steer with one hand and talk on the phone with the other, all the while trying to pedal with one foot while the other is on the scooter ... they usually fall within seconds ... hilarious ... well, somewhat hilarious ... one tends to get what one deserves ...

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Sid James

· #8 · Nov 2, 2011 (Edited)

I agree with presto. A phone is a phone, it is not your life as some people are beginning to think. It's just a tool, a means to an end, not an end in itself.

My worst bile is reserved for -

1) People who leave them on during concerts.
2) People who chat loudly about their intimate life on public transport. What they did in Brisbane or Melbourne I think is have phone-free train carriages, it's a bit like the old non-smoking sections of restaurants. Mobile phone conversations are seen as pollution now.
3) People who drive using them and cause accidents.

starthrower said:
...Cell phones or no, it's not getting any smarter out there!

Yep, we have all these fancy gadgets but our minds are still at the level of the apes. That's what I think when I'm in a very cynical mode anyway.

To extend to ipods, they kind of make people get in their own worlds on the street. Of course the old walkmans did this as well, but ipods seem to be much more widespread. Hard to have spontaneous conversation with people on the street now as one used to do more easily. Everyone is busy listening to music on their ipods, absorbed in their own world. So it is sort of antisocial for sure. & you go to a busy pub on Friday or Saturday night, and there's boom boom music blaring from the speakers, you have to literally shout to be heard by your friends. Is this sort of thing progress or regression???...

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mamascarlatti

· #9 · Nov 2, 2011

Sid James said:
My worst bile is reserved for -

1) People who leave them on during concerts.
2) People who chat loudly about their intimate life on public transport. What they did in Brisbane or Melbourne I think is have phone-free train carriages, it's a bit like the old non-smoking sections of restaurants. Mobile phone conversations are seen as pollution now.
3) People who drive using them and cause accidents.

Can I add:

People who go out to coffee/lunch with you and then spend the time on their phone talking to others. What's wrong with "Hi, I'm with someone, I'll call you back"?

People who leave their phones on in my class AND THEN ANSWER THEM AND START CHATTING.

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Sid James

· #10 · Nov 2, 2011

mamascarlatti said:
...

People who leave their phones on in my class AND THEN ANSWER THEM AND START CHATTING.

That's actually been reported to have happened in concerts here. Some big wig corporate executives who think they own the entire orchestra - they probably do with their sponsorships, etc. - leave their phone on and then have the temerity to answer it. Obviously, it's on purpose. The total definition of arrogance if you asked me, & rudeness & heaps of other nasty things...

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Krummhorn

· #11 · Nov 2, 2011

Sid James said:
. . . Obviously, it's on purpose. The total definition of arrogance if you asked me, & rudeness & heaps of other nasty things...

Like people dining in a restaurant who receive a phone call and let it ring and ring and ring and ring, then look around the room as if to say "look at me, I have a mobile phone", then they answer it and everyone else hears their side of the conversation.

Whenever I go to a restaurant or in a public place, I always put my mobile on "stun" mode (vibrate). If I receive a call, it's indiscreet and nobody else knows.

Reactions: 2

presto

Discussion Starter · #12 · Nov 3, 2011

I hope the tide it turning, I remember this when the notable actor (Richard Griffiths) was so annoyed when a phone went off, he stopped in mid flow, pinpointed the culprit and asked them to leave.
Good for him, there should be a zero tolerance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4458810.stm

kv466

· #13 · Nov 3, 2011

Really, is the phone the only thing to blame? This very pc we sit in front of to come on here is just as evil...perhaps not as annoying, as it is done in our own homes...still, what we're really condemning here is the population of folks who use them to no end...even without such inventions, these folks would still find a ridiculous way to annoy you. Best result: live and let live (even if others living have a bullet in the head). As far as zero tolerance...I could think of a few other things that 'should' be under this category...most of us wouldn't even be here if such things were true.

joen_cph

· #14 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

2

Bump.

An entertainingly correct prediction from 1953. It is genuine.

( Flammarion's prediction of television in the 1894 novel is another example of people who were correct about future developments).

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Nate Miller

· #15 · 3 mo ago

I dont own one and I never did. I think they are silly.

People dont seem to understand why I would want to be without a phone, but I dont get bothered by anything or anyone when I am out enjoying a nice day. I also like to ride bicycles, and part of the freedom of that is that I am going to rely on myself and myself alone when I have a mechanical problem out there on the back of the map in the middle of nowhere.

Also, if you were to go to lunch with me, I would be really there. Not physically there but constantly on a phone to someone else.

funny thing is that I stay in pretty good demand as a player, so I must be doing something right if all the other local musicians still want to put up with not being able to get through to me right away.

and after seeing my friends get cell phone call after cell phone call when we are hanging out, I can tell you all that you can have your cell phones...I want none of that

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Viajero

· #16 · 3 mo ago

The cell phone phenomenon has greatly contributed to Man's disassociation with direct human contact and interaction. It encourages people to live life vicariously rather than "in the flesh." And, its ability to interact with others through social media creates a false sense of the nature of the human condition. We are creating generations of robotic humans with limited social interaction skills. And, the beat goes on . . .
Viajero

Luchesi

· #17 · 3 mo ago

Nate Miller said:
I dont own one and I never did. I think they are silly.

People dont seem to understand why I would want to be without a phone, but I dont get bothered by anything or anyone when I am out enjoying a nice day. I also like to ride bicycles, and part of the freedom of that is that I am going to rely on myself and myself alone when I have a mechanical problem out there on the back of the map in the middle of nowhere.

Also, if you were to go to lunch with me, I would be really there. Not physically there but constantly on a phone to someone else.

funny thing is that I stay in pretty good demand as a player, so I must be doing something right if all the other local musicians still want to put up with not being able to get through to me right away.

and after seeing my friends get cell phone call after cell phone call when we are hanging out, I can tell you all that you can have your cell phones...I want none of that

No, I would never want to go back to the old days.

I want to (effortlessly) be in communication with family, I want the weather radar during most months of the year, I want to get the routes I need from GPS. I want my reminder notes, my security cam views. I want to see immediately where my wife is driving.

I have all my fake books on my phone! And many separate lead sheets (so many old standards). So convenient for when I’m away tuning a piano, checking the university pianos, being with friends and their pianos (parties). A dream come true to have so much music at my finger tips, and room for so much more.
My musician friends now say, “He’s probably got that on his phone, ha ha.” And I do..

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Nate Miller

· #18 · 3 mo ago

Luchesi said:
No, I would never want to go back to the old days.

I want to (effortlessly) be in communication with family, I want the weather radar during most months of the year, I want to get the routes I need from GPS. I want my reminder notes, my security cam views. I want to see immediately where my wife is driving.

I have all my fake books on my phone! And many separate lead sheets (so many old standards). So convenient for when I’m away tuning a piano, checking the university pianos, being with friends and their pianos (parties). A dream come true to have so much music at my finger tips, and room for so much more.
My musician friends now say, “He’s probably got that on his phone, ha ha.” And I do..

I can totally see the usefulness and why people use them so much, but its just not for me.

I'm ok with not making or getting phone calls when I'm out and about. I've always been that way. I didn't even have an answering machine until the late 1990s

and, strangely enough, my pet peeve is guys who pull out thier phone to play something at a jam session.

so I think we are just at other ends of the spectrum, but you are probably a good enough player that I would turn a blind eye if you pulled out your phone at a session, and hopefully you would feel likewise and accommodate my "retro" style phone situation and leave me a message when you had something going like we used to do in 1987

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doctorjohn

· #19 · 3 mo ago

Had one when I worked. Haven't had one since I retired

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Merl

· #20 · 3 mo ago

Another one here who doesn't want to go back to the dark ages. I use my mobile like a portable computer (let's face it they are incredibly powerful mini-computers these days). I use it to write my blogs, research recordings, listen to music, tune my guitar, write shopping lists, download lesson plans and get teaching ideas, attend online meetings, etc. I probably only spend less than 1% of my time using it as a phone. Otherwise it's my notebook, encyclopedia, typewriter, letter writer and private secretary rolled into one. My life is 100x easier with it.

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