Turn it off!

When you Google "cell phones", you get around 78.5 Million hits. They are everywhere. Most are duplicates and "buy it here" links... with one important exception.

Cell Phones on Hip May Weaken Bone

Hmmmm... if it weakens hip bones, maybe it also weakens skulls. Perhaps while frying the brain inside.

What else explains the behavior of the cell phone user?

Not so many years ago, it seems to me anyway, we had no cell phones. We barely had cordless phones in our home that could be used beyond the back or front door. A few brave (and rich) souls had "car phones" (which were really radio telephones).

The cell phone industry in the US started up in the years following the breakup of ATT though it got its start in Japan and then Europe a bit before that. A great convenience, they started proliferating. Like rabbits in Australia. Like Tribbles.

They are now virtually everywhere you'd rather they weren't. In restaurants, on golf courses, in the hands of teenagers, in the hands of bad drivers everywhere, even in restrooms.

They have shrunk from large, clumsy devices that required a large briefcase to conceal and carry and morphed into units the size of credit cards and almost as thin.

While the sound quality has improved, it still is terrible compared to land lines. Yet we pay more for the service. In the 70's, we complained that there was static on the line. Outrageous! When it cost $8 a month for flat-rate service! (San Diego, CA) Unbelievable!

So, a couple of decades later, people are paying by the minute, racking up $200+ monthly phone bills, getting barely audible connections, and dropped calls, and they are ecstatic because they can have a conversation while not paying attention to driving.

And, now, there is nowhere one can avoid the blasted things. We have to be subjected to one half of conversations (usually spoken quite loudly) in restaurants, at sporting events, while walking down the street, and at the golf course. People get these little Bluetooth thingies latched onto their ears and walk about jabbering. We used to be able to identify the nutcases by that behavior. Not anymore, could be a businessman, or a lawyer, or a nutcase.

And they have added features. First, it was games and then internet access and then, of course, an MP3 player was built in... and texting (don't get me started on texting!)

And now you can get turn by turn instructions on how to reach your quarry while harrassing them on the phone (See Nuvifone).

Well, turn them off!

Back when we had only those land lines, we could take off for the day and the world didn't come to an end because we missed a chance to chat with a friend, business associate, or an enemy for a few hours. It was expected that we might be out of touch from time to time.

Turn it off! Unhook the leash! Give those of us who do not want to listen to your conversions a little peace. Give yourself a little peace.

I feel like such a Luddite.


But in a Good Way.