The thing is Chris, I'm not sure why people have this strange notion that it's a telephone, it isn't it's a handheld computer/camera that is also able to make phone calls. I hate them and I won't be a sheeple enslaved to a profit making lifestyle product, that really doesn't enrich lives at all, it actually makes you dumber.

I chuckled the other evening as I left work

Up to the entrance of the estate
Girl walking from right to left in front of me - on the phone.
Nothing unusual about that
Pulled up to the junction to come out, looked left
On my left girl no.1 walks past another girl on the pavement, also on the phone, both wrapped up in their own conversations


Saw a bloke walking down the road recently - and he wasn't on the phone !!!

I nearly took out a bloke clean a few weeks ago. He was walking right down the middle of the road without paying attention to anything else but his phone. I drove right up to him before banging on the horn. Poor guy flew up a few feet in the air all by himself. I bet that he must have wet himself.

Here's one for you Chris, I was in a Costa Coffee in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago before seeing First Aid Kit and it was early evening, so not heaving, but I was surprised at just how quiet it was in there, so I started to people watch.

Tables:

1 = Family of 3, 2 adults and small female. The child had an iPad, mum had a smartphone, each were actively engaged in using them and the male had nothing and looked bored.
2 = Older couple, male with an iPad propped up on a stand on the table in front of him, creating a social barrier between him and I assume his wife, he was actively engaged in using it. In the 20 or so minutes I was there, I didn't see this couple converse. They were in their 60's
3 = Young 20 something group, 2 females, 1 male. Both females using smartphones and only engaging with each other to show the other one something on their device. The male sat in silence.
4 = Single male with smartphone, using heavily the entire time I was there
5 = Single male with laptop open in front of him, using as at 4 above.

The future





It's an addiction and I think a worrying one.

The thing is, these are acquired behaviours and nothing to do with the phone per se. I like my phone a lot, it does things I could hardly have imagined 20 years ago. But I don't sit in a cone of silence with it, I don't walk while using it and I never use it while I'm in company.

The people who do this are just as vacuous as those who queue up for days to acquire the latest Apple white goods.

Ha ha, yes indeed, my very worst pet hate. My ex, who I have a really good relationship with, loves a lot of the same music I do, but her hubby isn't interested. We used to go to a lot of gigs in London, but her iPhone use pisses me of, constantly checking it through the show. She knows it annoys me and I didn't invite her for ages, but acquiesced at the last Ryan Adams gig and got her a ticket, as she's a huge fan. What does she do when we sit down, gets her iPhone out to tag her Facebook page and let everyone know she's at a Ryan Adams gig - she just can't help herself! I haven't invited her again and if she asks, I'll tell her why.

I agree Martin, but I don't know many people that treat their smartphone in that way, it's not the device per se, it's the behaviour of the owners. Smartphones are a great bit of tech, I just despair at the trolls that are totally addicted to them and the way you as a user become a marketing product, which ultimately leads to my dislike of the device - it's a chicken and egg scenario. But doing the job I do, I also know the implications of owning one, what they can do and the encumbant risks of using them for any tasks involving personal data. I also really object to being tracked and targeted as a commodity, so I choose to stick with my dumbphone. I know you can turn stuff off, but then there's no point in having one if it's just a phone. I pay £6.00 a month to Tesco and that'll do me thanks very much.

Suum cuique

I find some of this discussion quite baffling; perhaps it's a generational thing, but - aside from the odd occasion when a person has taken a call at a massively inappropriate moment (weddings/funerals) - I can't say I've ever been bothered by other people's use of their phones, or other devices - the idea of being so strikes me as somewhat odd. Perhaps I'm just too self-involved to notice or care. I say this as someone who doesn't own any kind of phone, smart or otherwise.

An enviable position to be in, I'm very jealous

Unfortunately I have to carry two most of the time, as I like to keep my personal number, personal. But I need one for work as well.

I suppose I'll have to relent at some point - the sentence "Get a phone!!!" is regularly uttered by my partner. If we move out of the city, or have kids, then it might become necessary, but for the time being I'm safe