After many long years holding out, I finally had to get a mobile phone. During my time without one, I was a true social aberration. Just try telling someone you don’t have a mobile phone. How do you live life? (I eat and sleep, like you.) Do you have any friends? (Not really.) How do you talk to people? (Have you heard of email? I can also talk.)
The fact is I hate the things. I hate the glazed eyes, the tongue hanging loosely from between their lips, when people play with the flashing buttons. I hate how loudly people talk on mobile phones, anytime, anywhere, regardless of how far they are from my eardrums. Do I really need to find out from two feet away at 90 decibels how hard you banged Lucy last night? And have you ever noticed that 50% of all mobile phone conversations involve detailed explanations of where the user is? “I’m sitting on the bus… I’m at Broadway and Granville… No, the other Granville… Ya, in front of GM Place… Dude, I’m looking right at you. Look up, look up…. whoooyaaaa!” Worse, unlike smoking, I don’t have the choice of walking away. Many of the most horrific instances have occurred stuck on a bus or waiting in a long line because people talk longer and more animatedly when they are bored. The sum effect of mobile phones on human behavior is akin to getting behind the wheel of a car: even the prettiest doll can be turned into a goading monster.
Including myself. I have suffered through the advanced stages of cellrage. And unlike the sources of my misery, I was not born with a pleasant disposition, continually struggling against my urge to smash phace and fone. I am well-aware that my woes can be solved with more technology: sleek new tongue-holders, more sensitive phone mics, and red man-earrings bearing tiny Warning! signs would surely clear up the many misunderstandings between me and my interlocutors. I would also probably possess fewer assault charges. Then again, loosening laws protecting mobile phone users from assaults would also help.
My point is that we need to be more inventive about how we as a society deal with violent offenders. I should tell you, however, that at night when I lay my head down on my pillow, I just wish that people would stop using mobile phones.
So it is with my own perceived best interest in mind that I present to you this rare and brief glimpse into
Life without Facebook: Infantalized
Infantilising The Human Mind (Listen to the audio)
The Health Effects of Social Networking
Stuff - Share files below.
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