Cellphones. Smart phones. I like to call them T.I.R.E.D. or "Temporary Intelligence Reduction Electronic Devices". Particularly the ones that have no raised buttons you can feel to know what to press by memory instead of staring down at it. I dont spend any time in a large city, but can only imagine how many people stumble into traffic, trip, walk into poles, or miss important physical cues due to their various "TIRED" devices such as the ironically named "smart phone" or their iPods etc.
Context has kind of gone by the wayside in our society, and we seem to think getting information in any context, any setting, is just as valueable as getting it in the context for which it was designed.
Movies, for example, were designed to watch on a large screen in a dark room free of external distraction. The scripts are written subtley and visual cues are often only noticable on a large screen, so a small screen tends to mess up the experience.
Training is the same thing, you learn best when focussed on the task, and free of distraction, this is why we have classrooms and texts and lecture halls, no one tries to teach calculus in grand central station.
Gaming as well, at least high end simulation games such as WoW, Fallout 3, Second Life, all best experienced on a large screen with surround sound and free of distraction, glare, and external noises, or suspension of disbelief and immersion just arent possible.
Some people do have the misfortune of taking a subway to and from work which means a long period of time in a small space with little to do. This is where context can be created for these kinds of activities and a "smart phone" actually can be very good. You can find a corner on the bus or train and tune out everything with headphones. Same on an airplane, where this kind of coping with being in a very small space for a long period of time is greatly enhanced with some kind of small entertainment device.
If you have a house, though, or an apartment, you can generally find a space for a large monitor, a land line, and gaming system, and for some who work at home a workstation. You can create individual contexts for each of these activities that is optimal for getting the most out of them. Your "phone room" can be small with a comfortable chair and perhaps a notepad for taking notes. Your "TV/Gaming room" can be made dark and cozy, with full surround sound and bass to shake your chair and help create an immersive experience, and your "working/training" room can be a desk perhaps with reference materials handy or various other kinds of equipment necessary for the tasks and an ergonomic chair.
No matter how many apps a smartphone has, it still does not create contexts condusive to using the "apps" and encourages antisocial, sometimes bizarre behavior in public that can and does often disrupt what should be considered normal social behavior. Even in the subway example, phones and ipods break up communities and form tiny isolation booths where once humans would have interacted when finding themselves in an enclosed space with each other. In some cases, cell phones and ipods create dangerous situations such as when driving, operating equipment etc. really doing any physical activity that requires attention.
The iPhone in particular requires the user to put their head in an unnatural position (angled downwards towards their hands) to effectively "navel gaze". This position encourages social isolation and lowers confidence and self esteem. There is truth to "keeping your chin up" because it forces you to look "people in the eye" and acknowledge them, show respect or friendliness, and perhaps interact with them. Not to mention keeping your eyes ahead of you so you can see where you are going and dont trip or walk into something.
What about people being able to reach me if I'm out? Well, when I'm out, I'm out. I'm placing myself in a context that is not likely condusive to giving my full attention to the person calling. I'll either be driving, shopping, meeting other people to spend time with them, or working on a project that requires my undivided attention. I have voicemail to pick up the call.
What if the message is "urgent" ? I think people have gotten far to liberal with applying the term "urgent" to things. Unless you are dying, or someone else will die or become seriously ill and hours or even minutes can affect the outcome, nothing is "urgent" and can wait. If you are expecting a call, you can always check voicemail/email and even in the case of being a doctor, a pager is more than enough to handle all "dire circumstances".
Texting...seriously. An athema to language and communication skills, texting is fullfilling the 'urgent' need of many people to dumb themselves down as quickly as they possibly can. Like "twittering" which removes all context and meaning from information. Now that said, its possible that texting will vastly enhance the interconnectedness of human beings, I suppose it could be considered an important step in the evolution of a collective conciousness, but I can wait until texting has moved to a more meaningful, context rich mode of conversation. I have no doubt it will.
The one place I can concede cellphones are good is a roadside or local medical emergency, but in this case, ANY nearby cellphone will do, so I do keep one in my car with no accout tied to it because by law, 911 is supposed to be free for all cellphones. This is a cost free solution to this issue.
So that is my reasoning for not having a cellphone. I should state for the record though, as they evolve and become more capable, I could indeed have one or whatever they are called by then (perhaps an implant) ? But for now, they are just TIRED.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment