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Shit, they're just now figuring this out? I can go into any public place and half the people there have a death grip on their precious phone while the other half have their noses buried in it.
It has to be a pacifier because there's no other reason on earth why they'd feel the need to have that damned thing right there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Yes indeed. I used to think it was the TV that was the worst of mans' inventions. We are a nation of entertainment addicts.
ReplyDeleteNot unlike Smeagol talking to his precious.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a "smart" phone. Don't need one. Don't want one. I'll stick to my 1963 black rotary wall phone. I wonder if Shiri Melumad uses her "smart phone" on vibrate to "spank the monkey"?
ReplyDeletePeople get pissed at me saying I tried calling you several times and it went to voice mail. It did because I left my damn flip phone at home and didn't take it when I went out, I am not married to it. I also turn it off when I am home and don't feel like being sociable. No worries mate, I used to do that with my wall phone after I installed a switch on the incoming phone line so the damn thing wouldn't ring at all.
ReplyDeleteI carry a flip phone. If I am in the middle of something it gets ignored until I am through. Same when driving. It gets turned off at night and doesn't get turned back on until I am ready to start breakfast. I am not married to my phone. I use it as a tool. I do not let myself get used by it. If I do not recognize a phone number, I don't answer. If a call is important, they can leave a message.
DeleteI spent 25 years carrying a pager back before cell phones. I am retired and am no longer "on call" for my job. I mainly carry it for family and emergency use.
I can recall more than a few times when walking into the cafeteria at work, seeing 20 or 30 folks there eating their lunches while texting, web surfing, etc. on their phones. No one was speaking to anyone else. It was utterly silent.
ReplyDeleteIt creeped me out and I went outside to eat instead.
I've long used that exact phrasing. Just look at any group of adults nowadays...a little bit of stress and a free moment, out comes the phone!
ReplyDeleteAngry Birds and Candy Crush have probably destroyed billions of dollars of innovation...engineers used to get bored and create something. Now they get bored and fling birds at buildings.
Very true! I couldn't agree more.
DeleteI miss my old flip phone. Stick it in a pocket on vibrate and forget it.
ReplyDeleteHave a smart phone more as camouflage than anything now. I have pants where it slides down in a pocket. Thing I have notice is smart phone Almost have to be carried in your hand. Very few easy ways to carry one.
I still have a flip-phone, soon to die because they're killing 3G.
ReplyDeleteI avoided getting 'smart' phone for a long time, because of what you describe, Ken. New job issued me one 3 years ago, non-negotiable. I figured 'shit, I walked away from heroin cold, I can avoid this addiction'. My girl, who refuses to have any kind of cell phone, even a flip, says I'm doing well. I use it as a tool, mostly for work. I keep Kroger coupons on it, too.
At a doctor's office last week, folks would check in at the desk, & before they'd fully turned away were reaching for the electronic teat, & stayed on it until called. I was sitting there with mine in my shirt pocket, looking out the window. I wasn't making a point, there was just nothing on it I wanted or needed to see.
Gallatin Kroger today: middle-aged Dad unloading cart for checkout, wife & 20s-age daughter(?) never looked up from their phones, let alone helping. I just though 'What useless excuses for human beings!'.
--Tennessee Budd
Sitting in an airport waiting area, maybe 30 people there, every one had his/her phone in front of face. A fine woman, and I mean fine, in not too tight jeans, but figure hugging anyway, walked through the area, to the windows and then away. Not a single phone starer looked up. Not one. That is one reason I do not stare at a three-inch screen. I don't want to miss any fine women.
ReplyDeleteHah! Weds 5?AM I was going through TSA security kabuki. Next line over was a Latina about 5’9”, 135, good face, enhanced 38DD. She was wearing a tiny tube top under a cardigan-zip sweat jacket (totally unzipped) and skintight leggings.
DeleteFor the “I ain’t flown since 9-11” crowd, you gotta take off your jacket and put it through the x-Ray scanner. So the TSA guy orders her to take off her jacket. Girl looks him int the eye while starting to take off her jacket. “Sure you want me to do that?” Points to a granny with her grandkids. TSA puke blanched and stammers, “no, no! Just zip it up!” Calls to the rapeyscanner operator, “Hey Louie, that’s her SHIRT! She don’t need to take it off!”
Fucking TSA wimp. Always call them on their bluff. “Yes ma’am. You have to take your jacket off. Federal policy.”
When "cell" phones came out years ago I bought two, one for my wife and one for me. Back then I was stationed at Coast Guard Mayport. I lived on Amelia Isand. Had to take the ferry across the river each day. As I am on the Ferry I turn my phone on..(I always had it off at work) There was 3 voice mails.....All three were from my wife "WHATS THE USE IN HAVING A CELL PHONE IF YA DONT LEAVE IT ON<!! After the half way through the third message I tossed the phone in the river!! Got by for a year till I got another phone
ReplyDeleteI always carried a book, never a phone. Now I have a tablet, which is a lot of books.
ReplyDeleteI never answered the land line much to begin with.
I guess this tablet can be a phone, I see the icon.
Last week I had escaped briefly from The Peoples Republics of California to Louisville. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! My Old Army Buddy & I went out for dinner and not a Cell Phone in Sight. Plus Folks were having some very interesting and intelligent conversations. All I can say is God Bless the South!
ReplyDeleteI call the DAMNED things 'Adult Babysitters' all the time.
ReplyDelete