maudibe wrote:Ludwig mentioned mobile phones...just as a quick question (I dont own one believing they are spawn of the devil) anyone here anti-phone or doesnt own one through choice???
Moi. Welcome, fellow spirit. I detest mobile phones. OK, no, I detest the way they are used.
I refuse to use one or even touch one, let alone buy one. In a pub recently, a friend thrust a mobile phone at me and said, "So-and-so wants to talk to you". I backed off, saying I never use mobile phones.
If someone cranks up in a café or on a train with a loud one-sided conversation, I put down my book, fold my arms and turn to look at them, smile or look quizzical, sigh, whatever's appropriate. If I'm with someone, I often repeat what the offender is saying but they rarely hear me, they're so much in a world of their own.
I saw a woman today negotiating a mini-roundabout in her army assault vehicle, with her left hand having to push the steering wheel round roughly 300 degrees, because her right hand was texting quite openly. How on earth do you multi-task when you only have half a brain?
Most people who talk on the phone whilst driving are completely out of it. I sometimes either wave to them or do the thumb-and-little-finger and draw-the-first-finger-across-the-throat mimes but they
never see me - they are not on the same planet, so why they believe they can deal with their killing machine and those of others around them and still have an argument with a disembodied voice at the same time is unfathomable. I couldn't trust myself to do both.
I see bunches of schoolkids and none of them are talking to each other. They're texting/on the phone/whatever you do with these gadgets these days.
I think it is amongst the heights of rudeness to answer your phone:
(a) in someone else's house;
(b) when you're having a one-to-one conversation of any kind;
(c) when you might disturb other people with your speaking (think cafés, restaurants, theatres, weddings - yes, it happens - libraries, trains, buses, toilets etc).
And why do people have to talk so loudly on mobile phones? I often put my finger to my lips but again, they're oblivious to the real world.
Rant not yet over by a long stretch.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
