Thursday, April 11, 2013

Happy Birthday Cellphone! You're almost as old as me...

Last week the portable phone turned 40.  It's freed us to move around the country, the world even -- but at what costs? Take a look at this article:  http://bit.ly/10SWCo0

We love our little machines.  First we used them to talk, then we used them to read email, to text, and finally that little machine brought the world to our fingertips, literally.  But at what cost?  Public and private is blurred and we can often be found in the middle of thousands totally ignoring our fellow man.  Recently I was on a trip to Boston to watch the Red Sox play and half the crowd was watching the game and the other half was staring down at their laps.  We are connected but we are disconnected.

Still, the phone is useful.  On that same trip I was held up in traffic by a huge traffic jam.  Mary got on her phone and discovered there was a fire nearby and traffic was being diverted.  In no time she was able to figure out another route to get us back to Maine.  Along the way, she started reading tweets about the fire and what was going on.  Connected.  We were part of the scene and in the know.  That has its appeal.  But I'm wondering at what cost? This article gives the good, the bad and the ugly of cell phone usage and its future.

The next time you are lost in your phone on a city street, put the phone down and look up.  I am gonna try it.  I really am.  But first I better tweet about it. 


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