However did we manage before the mobile/cell phone.??

dick

dick

LOTSW Fanatic
I know we've been through this before but I thought I might give it another airing.
As I sit at my computer in my first floor new flat I look out of the window and see the world pass by. Teens listening to music on their I phones , young mothers taking toddlers to school but having the phone glued to their ear. Not taking a ha'porth of notice of the kiddy.Other teens with eyes on their phones not looking where they are going. Watching the same young mothers coming back home still with the phone to their ear ,not talking to the child. I know I sound very old fashioned but my kids were all full of their school day and we had to do our best to listen and answer their questions etc. The number of kiddies these days that are semi-dragged across the road because mummy is "on the phone" is mind boggling. If one should meet up with a car because of lack of concentrating on the road it will be called the fault of the driver! To add to these problems ,just below my window is a junction with bollards. The bollards are there to feed traffic up a side road from my street ,traffic for what ever reason is always using the wrong side of the bollards. Any young mother and her toddler/s would be sitting ducks if someone cuts the corner at speed. :20:
 
cciaffone said:
Don't know! Don't have one, and don't want one.
Click to expand...

Mine is a big button old style one Chuck. The family insisted I had one so I could keep in touch. I thought about one with all the bells and whistles but decided just to have one to message on and phone for taxi's if I needed. My grand daughters can use one but I certainly cant.:-[
 
As I was pondering your question Dick, it occurred to me that we (a collective "we" meaning mankind) are usually looking for a faster, more efficient, and more convenient way of doing things. The automobile replaced the horse & buggy. The airplane allowed for faster travel than automobiles and trains. Television has replaced radio, cinema (movies) and to a certain extent live theater. Computers and pc's have replaced any number of things. Digital photography replaced darkrooms. When introduced, there were probably many who said they would never last. Now we ask the same question that you asked: "how did we manage without them"?

I think cell phone technology is still in its infancy. On one device that fits in your pocket, you have a still camera, a video recorder, map, clock, stopwatch, timer, flashlight, calculator, music source, worldwide text messaging, web browser/email, etc., etc., etc. The applications that can be added to a phone are unbelievable. Oh, and it can also be used for telephone calls. I suspect in the next few years, bigger and better things will be introduced for cell phones.

Of course with the efficiency and convenience come the consequences: face-to-face interactions are being minimized, communication skills are suffering, people become emotional detached as you pointed out.

An interesting subject to contemplate.
 
One thing that's just clicked! What happened to the scare about "micro-waving" your brain with the cell phone.??Was it ever resolved??Or is it something we may see the results of in years to come??:confused: ???
 
Dick Tracy or the Man from Uncle may be upon us soon 8) Fancy holding a conversation with your wristwatch?? 8)
 
I am a bit old-fashioned and never embraced technology. I would love to go back to the old days, but know it is not realistic. However, I could only wonder- if we were to go back to the rotary phones, would human beings answer on the other side?

This takes me back to a defining moment in May of 2014. We were trying to book a hotel for the night with the hotel chain, the Red Roof Inn. I always booked by phone. However, I had a hard time finding the phone number so I tried booking online. The website indicated there weren't any available rooms. I just didn't trust that, so I dug further and came across the actual phone number of the hotel. I called and I did get a human being. However, when I mentioned that I wanted to book a room the lady said, "Hod on as I connect you to the reservation hotline!". So in short, I called the actual, intended place of business only to get redirected to a number possibly overseas!
For me that was a defining moment for the world I live in, and this was not defining in a good way!
 
The next time you happen to see a rerun of the original Star Trek, just stop and think. When Capt. Kirk flipped open his communicator, did we ever ever think in a million years that millions of people would do the very same thing for real??? All the time? Yes, as a factoid, the inventor of the cell phone was frustrated that he could not make a phone call from the beach and actually used the idea of the Star Trek communicator as his beginning idea for a cell phone.
 
Further to my original post.....I saw the other side of the coin this morning, Mummy was walking holding the hand of a 4 y o boy and talking to him. In front of them both was a "big sister" 6 or 7 , busy talking on her phone!:29:
 
One thing that bugs me with mobile owners is the total disregard for the law when driving and using a mobile phone,something I see happening in quantity every time I am out and about,not just the white van man, but drivers of large expensive cars which would be fitted as standard with built in hands free,so I can only assume that these drivers have no idea how to connect their phone or use the hand free system.

I have often said if they made the fine if caught doing this a minimum £1000 and made some effort to police this they could pay a large chunk off the national debt

A few years back I spotted a policeman helping a young lady stuck on a icy road, he was pushing her car she was driving it with the engine reeving trying to get a grip,she had the window open,shouting at someone on her mobile that she was stuck and would be late, she managed to get free after the policeman had struggled for 5 minutes,all the time she had the phone held to her ear give someone a running commentary of the situation, the policeman took no action other than to wave her off
 
A couple of years ago my car (and I) came within a hair's breadth of being T-boned by an over-sized pickup truck at the main 4-way intersection here in my village. The traffic light in the truck's direction had turned red and the one in my direction had turned green while the truck was about half a block back, so the driver had plenty of warning to stop, but he was oblivious because he was talking on his cell phone. It was a hand-held instrument, but I doubt if hands-free technology would have made any difference. A conversation with someone who can't see and react to traffic conditions is equally distracting regardless of technology.

As I entered the intersection, I realized that the truck wasn't slowing at all, so I stood on the brakes and the truck just missed grazing my front bumper. The driver didn't react even to that. He was going too fast for me to note his license plate number, so I couldn't even report him!

Marianna
 
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