Am I the only one who thinks that cellular phones, smartphones in particular - are actually a kind of regression?

Agree.

I don’t know if it’s regression or progression, but I most certainly side with you when it comes to simplicity. I have a flip phone for a cell. You can text with it, take crappy pictures and play games on it. But that’s it. Well it goes online, too. Point is, I got it for one reason and one reason only; call people and receive calls. That’s all I use it for.
When shopping for it, I was shown all these fuckin models that do more stuff than my computer does. They have keyboards on em now. I was like, nah man, I just want something to phone with lol.

Everyone laughs at my redneck, stone age cell. But I don’t care, it rocks.

Of course, after getting it, I had to fight off the saleswoman in order to let her know that I just wanted to buy prepaid cards. She tried to get me to sign up to all these deals and like, free weekend texting and aaargh. No! First of all, Symbeline don’t text. Second of all, leave me the hell alone lol. XD

Some things never change though…I wonder if this uber cell phone/I pod/whatever else will fade away. It seemed like a phase at first, but…yeah, so I denno, but I’m certainly with you when it comes to just having a normal phone.

They are a regression in the way that calculators soured our minds, having once been required to actually learn and do the math.

Cell phones and the internet have soured our (collectively) ability to socialize.

In regards to your claim that we did fine without having to be in touch at all times – I completely disagree. Cell phones have helped me out of jams so many times (medical emergencies most importantly), I will carry one always for that if no other reason.

As for smartphones, I do think that their development and widespread use is progressive. Not for the photo-taking or the music-playing qualities you mentioned – I agree that those are at least as well done when used as separate devices. However, being able to look anything up at any time has become precious to me – I have discovered so much more since I bought my first smartphone, simply because when I wander off on mental tangents or have a curious thought in the course of my daily travels, I don’t have to try to remember (and then inevitably forget) to look something up when I get home. Amplifying the opportunity to learn – that’s progress if I ever heard of it.

↓↓ Care to elaborate?

I GA’d you for answering – but I disagree with you on so many levels.

I do have to agree that cells are awesome if you ever find yourself in a bind. Unless you’re in a horror movie. XD

As for the ability to learn, well I denno. I’m sure it’s useful yeah, but prolly not revolutionary enough to call it progressive. Learning always happened long before all that stuff came up.

Like I said: a cellphone that makes calls. That’s all you need in a bind. Or does one also need to take a photo, upload it to facebook and play angry birds in a bind?

@zensky Don’t get me started on fucking Facebook lol. XD I’m sick and tired on how every damn piece od electronic I have seems to ask me if I wanna hook it up to FB. I use my PlayStation 3 to play games, and not do whatever it wants me to do by hooking my PSN account to FB.

Pretty soon, my toaster will want FB too. Goddamn already.

I swear, every time I see someone whip out their Iphone and play with it for hours, I think back to when I’d whip out something else and have sex for hours. Ah, the good old days.

@zensky Kay that was too fuckin classic lol.

@zensky There’s an app for that!

I am unsure if it is progress either. It is change. Sometimes change is just change. It doesn’t give us progress but it gives us alternatives.
Take web bill pay for example. A marvelous thing to some, a horror story for others. It really does the same principal as sticking a stamp on an envelope with a check in it, but it offers instant and traceable transactions.
There are pro & con’s with it. To be available at an instant is good at times and a pain at others. Bottom line is we are paying for the technology changes and it is market driven. If we choose to not want it, things will stay the way they are.
So we are the ones that drive the change. It doesn’t mean it is progress really. It is more convenience.

@filmfann Actually…I heard of this application called ’‘Nude It’’ or something. It basically films people live, but without their clothes on. Of course, it just applies graphics over the person, and doesn’t actually see through their clothing; but it’s apparently damn realistic looking…

I work for the phone company, and they require me to carry a cell.
If I didn’t have one for work, I wouldn’t have one at all. I like being out of touch at times.
I will admit that I get a lot more work done with it.
I see a lot of people on my crew have their smart phones, and they play chess, or go on sites all day. If I was a manager, I would consider banning them from working hours.
I will, however, admit that I like using my wife’s smart phone when I am shopping with her.
I really am a luddite, though. I used a computer with Windows 3.1 till just before Windows ME came out. At work, I like the older equipment. I find the newer things don’t operate as well.

I laughed out loud, filmy.

@Symbeline Awesome, in so many ways.

You better hurry if you want it, cuz it’s some controversial shit.

Guys – pssst – there’s a battle raging in Meta.

The fundamental idea of the stripped down cell phone is very progressive. The major harm that I see with smart phones is that they are very expensive to operate with all the applications and bells and whistles. I don’t know if they cause brain cancer but that is definitely a bad thing.

If people want their cell phones loaded to the max with countless applications then so be it. If they have the money and time to waste and that’s what rattles their cage then I see no harm done.

I just have an AT&T “Go Phone” (Samsung flip-phone) for just talking purposes. I don’t use it for every day use. It is basically for emergencies or for picking my wife up at the air port (excuse me for a second…Burn in hell Mohamed Atta!!!). Any way…As I was saying, I use it about 6 times a year. AT&T charges me $2 per call with unlimited minutes.

I disagree with your premise that cellphones cause cancer. I agree that they operate on radio frequencies, but those frequencies are ubiquitous in our culture now anyway, and there has not been any evidence that shows a direct link to increased cancers.

Even if they were a potential cancer-causing agent, and let’s suppose just for the sake of argument that they are, people still have autonomy over whether and how they use their phones. Lots of things that we use on a daily basis have risk – from the obvious ones such as smoking and automobiles, to the less obvious ones such as working comfortable desk jobs with insufficient exercise and enjoying diets overloaded with fats, calories and sodium, because we’re paid well enough to afford such luxuries and we simply enjoy them and make those choices.

Since you can’t possibly take the position – or at least it is inconceivable to me that you could take such a position – that the phones represent some sort of technological decline, then it seems that you’re arguing that the continued and increasing use of these devices represents some sort of cultural decline or breakdown.

There… I can’t argue. I’m appalled at some of the ways, places and times that cell phones are used. I’m disturbed at the heights – or maybe ‘depths’ is a better word to use – of rudeness that people display when they drop a ‘live’ conversation with a person (even sometimes a spouse, child or customer of theirs) to choose to be instantly available for a person who chose to call. It purely disgusts me that people will allow their phones to ring – okay, maybe that was an oversight – but then will actually start a conversation at a wholly inappropriate time and place, simply because “the phone rang”.

But maybe I’m just getting cranky in my old age, too. People always need to improve their manners; so what else is new?

“We know they give us brain cancer”
Right off the bat, you take a theory and state it as fact. In fact, you use a theory that has been discredited.

But I will refrain from boring you all with the details about the sorts/amounts of radiation we get from other sources (air, food, the Sun, cars, Earth…) and get right to the root of what your question seems to really be about.

Yes, it is progress.

Remember back when there were no printing presses and all books were handwritten? There were not enough printed materials for it to be worth most people learning to read. But I guess literacy and being able to better share our knowledge with others as a result is not progress.

How about when it would take days to find out about things only a couple of hundred miles away and it took far longer for even the fastest clipper to get a message across the ocean? Now we can find out what is going on around the world as it is happening. But I guess that is not progress either.

How about a simpler time when people could do as they damn well pleased without worrying about someone posting it for the world to see? The Rodney King incident was kind of the beginning; now, damn near anyone can take that sort of footage. Now, people have to be a bit more careful since there are millions of people walking around with video cameras.

Or lets try another angle here. Remember the introduction of cars? Many people felt that there was no good to come from finicky metal contraptions that couldn’t reproduce. Besides, who needed to ever go more than a few miles anyways? look at how transportation drove us forward (no pun intended).

So basically what we have here is a revolutionary thing that some people are still trying to figure out while others are denouncing them as just a fad like electricity and indoor plumbing. Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting a simple phone… for now. But it used to be that there was nothing really wrong with not having internet access either while nowadays many employers only take applications online, and many things require a valid e-mail address.

Evolution is progress. Cellphones are a step in our cultural evolution. Therefore, cellphones are progress. That said, Evolution is full of dead-ends, but over time, those people go away. In this case, the “dead ends” are those that don’t know the proper time/place/etiquette (including those who text while driving), those who insist that the old ways are so superior that they steadfastly remain a decade or more behind much of the rest of the world, and those who are so enamored of the new ways that they completely forget (or never learn) the old ways. By that last one, I mean that I love my debit card but I still remember how to use cash including counting correct change just as I like my microwave, but I still know how to make a fire and cook over it.

@gondwanalon I take it that you also have a landline phone? Considering how often my wife and I are out of the house (sometimes at different times due to our differing work schedules), a cellphone is practically mandatory. I would not have the job I have now if not for a cellphone, nor would I have been able to resolve a legal matter had I lacked the availability that a cellphone offers. Not all of us have the same needs, but that also means that many people need something that is nearly useless to you.
As for smartphones… lets just say that the ability to read my e-mails when I am at work instead of having to wait up to eleven hours to drive 25 miles home has saved me thousands of dollars ;)

Yes, they do.

One more.

we did really fine before. See, I think this is the problem. What is “fine” is such a subjective thing. What’s fine for you might not be fine for me. And, just because things are fine doesn’t mean they can’t get better. For example, the prepackaged naan I bought at the grocery store today is “fine”. But could it be better by being freshly made by an authentic Indian restaurant? You betcha! Now, maybe I don’t want to pay extra or go to the trouble of getting it fresh, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. Point is, several times a season, Captain Kirk goes on a rant about how evil it is when humanity stagnates, and how important progress is, and a fan of Star Trek such as yourself should really be familiar with this concept.

I like my smartphone. I like that I can look up things instead of spending 3 hours debating with someone whether strawberries are fruits or vegetables. I like that if I’m being totally excluded from a conversation in a passive-aggressive manner, I can do some light research for my upcoming paper or play Angry Birds instead of just being bored and ignored. I like that I can use text messages to figure out a time to talk to my sister, who lives in a town with very sketchy reception, so that we don’t have to play the otherwise inevitable phone-tag. I like that I can check and make sure that, yes, that is 20% I just tipped the waitress, and not 10 or 15%. I like that I can take pictures of text quickly and clearly, saving me from having to hunt down pen and paper to write down what could be a very long note. I like that I can take notes of what might someday be good song names for my future band, or give myself reminders for possible talking points on that paper that I’m struggling with. I like that I don’t have to buy a phone and an iPod and some kind of calender and carry them all around with me; I’d much rather it all be in one teeny device than have my pockets laden down. And yes, I like that I don’t have to carry a quarter and dime around on me at all times plus several numbers of friends and family so as to call them on a payphone in an emergency.

I’m not going to debate the merits of that “possibly, maybe, potential carcinogen” risk that the WHO has presented.

But let’s agree that there are some risks to using cell phones. There’s the distraction risk – which actually happens – where people who are operating machinery or automobiles might be, and frequently are, distracted enough to cause accidents, even deadly ones. Maybe – again, for the sake of argument – there are some risks in terms of cancer. Let’s say that that risk has even been proven (which it has not).

Step back in time about two hundred years to the invention of the steam engine and then the locomotive. That, we can agree, caused the burning of untold tons of coal and who knows how many respiratory and cancer deaths, not to mention deaths due directly to the mining of coal itself. (It’s a damned dangerous job.) Would you then argue that we shouldn’t have developed railroads and steamships? Should we be living simple agrarian lives, up at dawn and in bed by nightfall, working the farms and fields by hand and carrying our produce on our backs to the market on market day? After all, people were killed by coal mining, the respiratory ailments and cancer caused by the burning of coal with no controls or consideration for air pollution, and people were killed by trains themselves. They blew up, they ran off the tracks, collapsed bridges and ran people over. Maybe we never should have had trains – and still shouldn’t.

How far back in time do you want to go? Maybe agriculture itself shouldn’t have been developed…?

I just find it frightening that we’re practically uploading our brains onto mechanical devices.

@CWOTUS hmmm let me think which I would rather deal with…a distraction caused by use of a cell phone (which Laws are being created to minimize this) or having a brain tumor (plenty of studies outside the WHO statement)

Progress will bring risk in everything. It is what we do with each bump in the road as we develop and how long we allow that risk to continue. The cell phone is pushing technology and thus change….

I agree with you, @blueiiznh, in one respect: the risk of cancer is not to be minimized or trivialized or ignored, and I don’t ignore it. But risks have to be taken in context, too. Operating a motor vehicle while distracted causes real, present and immediate dangers. The risks of using a cancer-causing device – and let’s imagine that cell phones are as ‘likely carcinogens’ as cigarettes (which still has not been proven) – those risks are cumulative. You won’t develop cancer overnight from the phone conversation you had today. But if you have that phone conversation while you’re driving, then you are much more likely – right now – to have a life-altering accident for you and/or others.

That risk is not cumulative; your risk doesn’t build up over time the way using a cancer-causing agent does, but if it becomes habit to operate unsafely, then that habit raises your base line of risk. That actually seems worse to me. When my wife used to smoke it wasn’t the smoking itself that bothered me as much as watching her light up a cigarette in the car while driving. Eyes off the road for a few moments to fish out the cigarette from her purse, working the cigarette lighter and putting it up to her face while navigating in traffic, disposing of the ash and brushing it off her clothing while she was smoking and driving… these things were nearly deadly, each time they occurred. She thought nothing of it.

Aren’t we all going to get cancer anyway from things like soap, deodorant, breathing city air, drinking city water, and foods with pesticides in them? It doesn’t seem like getting rid of my cellphone would really do that much to limit my cancer risk.

I would like to go back in time to one day before sarcasm.

@CWOTUS and you won’t get cancer today from smoking either, i highly doubt you can dismiss the risks to either. Day after day of alchohol consuption doing something to our liver doesnt make us stop that either till it happens. Thus we are simply discussing timing. Poor driving habits because of use of cancer causing products can be discussed at will and I apologize to the OP for derailing off topic.
Again, if you know someone who has died from smoking, driving because of distraction or brain tumor, it all is equally terrible. I also think if you were a caregiver of someone who died a long painful ordeal with these products, you may feel differently.

Again, sorry Zen

That’s okay – I believe the rule is 10 posts then derail away.

@zensky I wasn’t being sarcastic…

Okay. To get the discussion back on track, I think @zensky has raised some excellent points about “the use of” cellphones. There does seem to be a lag on manners associated with the use of these instruments.

In ancient times we dealt with modern technology in different ways. When swords and daggers were the high technology of the day (at least in Western societies), the rule was that “only gentlemen” were allowed to possess and use deadly weapons. And “gentlemen” were a strictly regulated society. One wasn’t a gentleman simply because one knew and practiced good manners and general courtesy: it was a social rank that one was born to, and that was that. Anyone who possessed and used weapons and who wasn’t “a gentleman” was ipso facto an outlaw and was dealt with summarily and harshly when captured. I don’t think that anyone is advocating that we go back to such a mode of regulating society.

But these days, when anyone in the USA, to name one example, can acquire a deadly weapon – or a cellphone – and use either with relative impunity, we seem to be lacking in “rules of proper decorum”, or rules with teeth, at any rate. I do wish that people would use the technology that’s available to them – weather weapons or tools – more judiciously and with respect for others. I think that most of us here in Fluther understand that general desire, and practice it. But we don’t represent the idiots waving pistols in people’s faces and (I hope) not those boors who flash their phone at every opportunity.

The cancer risk still isn’t proven. It’s not really germane to the discussion, I think.

I have a smart phone. I use if for making calls and sending texts. I rarely connect to the internet with it, never play games on it, don’t take photos with it. Not really sure why I have the dratted thing. I was on holiday for a few weeks and let it run out of charge and didn’t bother charging it for weeks. Like @filmfann, I am happy to be out of contact whenever possible. Like you @zensky, I see people in cafes talking on their phones, playing with their phones and ignoring the person across the table. So I am with @Symbeline, I really just need a phone to make calls/text (my kids prefer texts Symb!). I don’t think my life has been enhanced on jot by my “smart” phone.

Camera on cellphone useful to keep reliving twin towers terror, also cellphone texting helps perpetuate the theory that genuine verbal conversation is passe. Plus we can fluther in the morning, fluther in the evening, fluther at supper time, be each others fluther and lurve you all the time.

@CWOTUS I thought cancer in this contest was a “straw man” argument to support the OP’s bias and replied accordingly. Then again, some people still truly believe that the Earth is flat :/

@Bellatrix How about other technologies though? I notice you are online, and I presume you use e-mail, right? Then again, you already practically told me that you do not understand modern technology very well and have yet to evolve and adapt to it. My smartphone is for my convenience, not the convenience of those who may wish to reach me, and you don’t seem to get that, just as the people in the cafe don’t know smartphones are not an excuse to act like a dick by ignoring someone they are physically with.

I was referring to Cwotus’ How far back in time do you want to go? Maybe agriculture itself shouldn’t have been developed…?

I would love to get a (possibly water and shockproof) cell-phone that is just a fucking cellphone. That is the predominant thought in my question (this is Social, Jerv) and I wish it wouldn’t give me cancer.

I have nothing against technology. I am a fan of technology. I happen to love (some) gadgets and I’m a Science Fiction fan of sorts. I also read a lot of science fiction in the day – and always envisioned things happening – and accepting them as inevetible anyway.

Should someone care to respond to this, dragging it on unnecessarily and boringly, they will be ignored.

@jerv, I don’t think it is highly evolved to need to be glued to your Smart phone none stop. Technology has its place but I personally don’t need to be permanently hooked into the Internet. Perhaps it is more evolved to be able to moderate your use of technology rather than being a slave to it.

If you find using your Smart phone useful in your life, woohoo for you. I work online all day, but I don’t need to be ‘connected’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I reiterate, I also don’t think it is progressive to not be able to focus on the person you are with because your phone is dominating your life. Might not be you, but look around next time you are in a cafe.

I was aware of the (possible) risk of brain cancer from cell phones long before I ever had one (thanks to a 60 mins. interview with Richard Branson.) So when I finally did get my own cell phone, I made certain that I chose one with a speaker option. It is extremely rare for me to be holding it to my head.

Years ago when personal computers were becoming popular, who would have ever thought it would be possible for an affordable computer small enough to fit in a pocket or purse ? That’s basically what a smartphone is and I love it.

All of the “problems” detailed in this thread are not the fault of the phones but rather the people using them.

Just because I always have my phone with me does NOT automatically oblige me to be available 24/7. That’s what the vibrate setting and just plain ignoring it are for.

No one with an ounce of brains is required to text while driving or to ignore live people in front of you in order to talk to one on the phone.

Everybody makes it sound as if all these unpleasant things mentioned are the fault of the smartphone. The key is for people to use the technology NOT for the device to use you.

It really is that simple.

I love the fact that if I get lost while driving, all I have to do is pull over to the side and get my bearings and directions from the GPS App.

As a matter of fact, that’s what got me to even consider getting an iPhone instead of another flip phone.

I read an article in a consumer mag comparing GPS units and there was the iPhone to my surprise.

I realized that I could get the iPhone for less than what some other GPS systems cost.

Then when I went to the store to check out several different types of phones, to my delight, the print display for incoming calls was large enough for my aging eyes to read without fumbling for my reading glasses. The flip phone I had with its tiny print was all but useless to me for incoming call ID. I may as well not have had caller ID at all. And ALL of the other non-smartphones I checked out had the same problem. There was plenty of room on the screen to increase the font size but every one insisted on using microscopic letters and numbers. Don’t as me why.

So that cinched the deal with me and I got an iPhone. I could finally see clearly who was calling so I could decide instantly whether to answer or let it go to voicemail. You have no idea how that made my life easier.

And I subsequently found so many more conveniences afforded me with various productivity Apps, I can’t even begin to describe the extent.

But my phone doesn’t rule me or overwhelmingly tempt me to do rude or downright stupid things just because I have it.

I use it to benefit my life. But I don’t permit it (or other people) to use me.

It’s all a matter of balance and perspective. Phones don’t kill people. People do.

Very good answer @Buttonstc – you are what fluther is all about.

GA as well to you, @Bellatrix

Thank you zensky.

But feel free to keep using a flip phone. Different strokes for different folks.

BTW. fairly recently I saw a very basic fliphone such as you described but with HUGE numbers for easy dialing. Even tho you’re in Israel, I’m wondering if it may be available there as well since it was a full page ad in TV Guide. They are all over the world afaik but I could be wrong.

But next time I see the ad, I’ll let you know the 800 number and you can find out. Had I seen it 3 yrs. ago I would prob. have gotten it. But I think of all the ways my iPhone has made my life easier and I’m glad I didn’t :)

@Bellatrix

Obviously those people described in your last sentence did not have the good fortune of being born to parents who took the time to teach them BASIC GOOD MANNERS.

:D

@Bellatrix But different people have different social contracts. For some people, it really is ok for someone to pick up the phone while they’re hanging out. Some people get together to spend time with specifically that person, but others get together to just be around other people, and aren’t so picky as to who they are. And the problem with looking around a cafe is that you don’t know exactly what’s going on. It could be a mutual friend calling to tell them that the babysitter flaked out, so they won’t be able to show up for another hour and a half. Or maybe the person answering the phone told the other person at the beginning that they were expecting a call from someone, and would it be ok if they took it, and yes it is. Personal experiences are often much, much more reliable than third hand observations. And while I do have people who do this to me, it’s only the people who are rude in other areas of life as well; the cell phone/smartphone doesn’t create some weird black hole of rudeness for otherwise polite and respectful people.

@Buttonstc there must be a lot of them out there and I agree @Aethelflaed that it could just be unique to rude people but perhaps it is also at least in part due to the pressure constant access to technology can create. I have observed people, and sat with people, who cannot resist checking and answering their phone. It is constant. Not an occasional call.

I think some people are addicted to the need to be in contact. They cannot be away from Facebook, Twitter and email. I think Smart phones, unless they are used carefully, can increase this pressure. For most people, the email, Twitter or Facebook post they might miss while driving/out for a coffee/in a meeting, is not a life or death thing but for some, they cannot ignore it. I think this is especially true for young people and I see this tendency as having the potential to impact on the way we relate to each other in the future and not necessarily in a positive way. Constant access to peers through technology is changing family life and creating additional pressure through cyber bullying and the like. Young people are in constant contact with their peers.

For some, this growing reliance on technology (and despite the suggestion I am a Luddite I actually do value technology and work with it on a daily basis) means they cannot switch off. Email has changed the way we work and expectations about how quickly people should respond. For some, technology has also lengthened the hours people work. Carrying a smart phone can increase the pressure some people are under (or feel they are under) to respond immediately. I just got back from holiday after a month away and have abusive emails from students who got out of office messages, but feel I should have responded within an hour or two of my return.

I realise there are people who do use technology wisely, I get that there are some great apps out there, but there are both negatives and positives in the use of technology. Choosing to go offline. To switch off. Might actually mean, switching off your phone/computer/etc. I don’t think technology is an enhancement for all people and definitely not all the time. While there are positives, there are negatives too.

I should say my choice to not access email/FB/Fluther/Twitter on my phone is deliberate. I don’t want to be that accessible.

@Buttonstc I got me one of those simple flips – big numbers and letters.

I have an iPhone and love it. I hardly ever use it to make or receive calls though. When it rings, by the time I remember which pocket it is in and get it out, it has usually stopped ringing. I love the games and apps. It gives me something to do besides read 4 year old mags in the dentist or doctor office. It gives me something to do while I wait for a prescription at the pharmacy. It gives me something to do anytime I am bored. I have almost 700 books on mine as well as games. It keeps my grocery list, to do list, finds music for me, has an internet radio so I can listen to the station in my home town about 12000 miles away. I can keep up to date on the scores of any sport I follow. I can check email if I want to. I can look in on Fluther or Facebook. I think it is the most amazing piece of technology I have ever owned. My Dad loved gadgets of any sort. He died in 91 at age 88, he would have loved today’s phones. He had one of the first wireless land line type phones. He used to experiment with different self devised apparatus to increase their usability further from their base station. He would walk down the street looking like someone out of Startrek and repeatedly call and say can you still hear me!!! Anyhow, I know he would have gone wild over an iPhone!

@Bellatrix You are correct that there are some negative consequences. But let us look at carts for a moment; would you deny that those are progress because of emissions and road rage? You know the old song; “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life.”

And you still seem to be missing my earlier point that phones are to give you access, not necessarily to make you accessible. Mute and Call Screening are your friends :)

@zensky if you read the sarcasm as a sort of personal attack, then I apologize. It certainly wasn’t meant that way.

All that I did want to point out was that every human advance has carried (will always carry) its own set of drawbacks and other negative externalities. That’s why I agree with you that “misuse” of cell phones and technology (including using it for purposes of stalking, for example) is not a good thing, “having the technology in our hands” can hardly be a bad thing in and of itself.

Better?

@CWOTUS I concur. For every change, there will be some that look only at the negative though, and they may make up stuff to be negative about. Look at bringing machines into manufacturing; many feared that that would mean that human workers would be entirely replaced. Instead, we have people operating those machines and an entire industry cropped up since those machines don’t install, maintain, or repair themselves. The net effect was that peoples fears turned out to be baseless; they were merely scared of change even when the positive outweighs the negative.
True, not all changes are positive to all people, nor is moving forward (progressing) always painless, but I would say that it beats stagnation.

As for the OP wanting a phone that its just a phone, that is fine if that is all they need, but that is no excuse to begrudge those of us whose needs/desires are different.

I agree. I think that there are some definite upsides to ‘smartphones’ and all that, but a lot of it is just lower quality stuff all put together so it seems like it’s really something.

Not particularly about phones, but I have an ipod, and I do think it’s very convenient and I like it quite a bit. My ear isn’t sharp enough to notice a lesser quality in mp3s than CDs or records, so I don’t think the music quality is poor. However after taking good care of my old ipod for about 4 years, one day it simply stopped working. No warning, nothing, just didn’t turn on. And ipods are expensive!
Of course I complained to anyone who would listen, and nearly everyone I complained to said they were surprised it “lasted so long.” What!
My elderly neighbor passed away recently, and I got her old record table. She’d been using it since the 50s. It still works.

Also – and I guess this isn’t technology’s fault, but the people who use it – everyone is so obsessed with staying ‘connected’ through their phones, but when you actually see people they have so little to say. I don’t exclude myself from this – I’m on the computer way too often, and am not a very sociable person – but I am aware of the problem and I think I know my limits…

I think phones have become more of an obstacle in communication than an aid and the existence of ‘shuffle’ on mp3 players takes away a lot of the beauty of a good album (not to mention our attention spans).

Funny. I have a couple of MP3 players that have far outlasted your iPod. That is why I don’t buy Apple!

Regarding staying connected when you have nothing to say, I think that that illustrates that we are still in the “teething pains” stage of the Information Age; we are so infatuated with our ability to say and/or show anything we want to everyone that we really haven’t bothered figuring out a few things like:
1) When bragging to all your FB friends about the hot chick you nailed last night while your wife was away, make sure that neither your wife nor any of her friends are on your FB friends list.
2) Being loud and obnoxious is not somehow magically made tolerable merely because you have a cellphone in your hand; mobile devices don’t excuse poor personal behavior.
3) If you don’t have anything to say, shaddup!
4) Hang the fuck up and drive!
I could go on, but I am sure you already have your own list.

As for the shuffle feature on MP3 players, I fail to see how that differs substantially from a radio station. Granted, I have a few albums that are utter shit unless you play the tracks in the right order, but usually when I shuffle, it’s various singles from dozens of different artists. I find that those albums where the songs really make an album more than the sum of it’s songs are so rare as to be nearly inconsequential. But that gets back to old ways conflicting with new technology. And who knows; shuffling may lead to a new musical style that allows nearly any two songs to “flow” together much as a well-mixed Trance/House set or the various tracks from The Wall do!

Lastly, voice calls are one of the things I do least frequently with my phone. Net-surfing, email, games, music, videos, GPS, photography… I do many things with my phone, but talking to people with it isn’t the real reason I chose the Droid X over a simpler phone.

@jerv OMG @ 1 :S .PS. Why do you presume it’s a husband bragging about a wife he’s cheating on?

I have a good getting-back-at-him game.. that sounds cruel.. but I have a GOOD getting-back-at-him game..

This stems from convergence of technologies.
Each technology had its own device: Gaming Console, PC, Cell phone, MP3 Player, Pager, etc.
Manufacturers, marketing and engineers goal is to find a way to create a product niche or some way to distance themselves ahead of their competition. We choose to buy it or not. We have and this is what we get. It evolves rapidly. The moment you buy it and walk out the door, there is something new to pine for the next day.

There is a market demand for cell phones for seniors that may apply.
at first glance I thought is was a shoe
OMG, that is the next thing, “would you believe” shoe phones

I so though of Maxwell Smart when you said that – I didn’t even need to click on the link.