Phone Choices

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Phone Choices

How are our phones affecting the way we think and the way we work?

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fastd

Love it!! Hope it works. I went to night engineering school before cell phones existed. Nobody cut up in class: the other students wouldn't allow it. Biggest problem was sometimes staying awake, but everyone understood that. If it works, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, the students will be much better off.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, Seems to me this article clearly demonstrates the idea of "tough love". It's one of those situations where they aren't happy now, but will thank you later for making them focus on learning.
And a spoonful of humor does make the education go down!
Yours, Larry

EBEBRATT-Ed

Phone are a great tool but....there a big problem. Kids on the job cant put them down. they go on a service call and call tech support or a buddy to tell them how to fix it. That's ok if you tried to fix it and exhausted your troubleshooting but they do the reverse.. they call first

STEVEusaPA

"To me, the phone is a seldom used app...on my phone" -Comedian Gary Gulman

Intplm.

There not really phones anymore.
I talked recently with a twenty four year old who observed allowed that cell phones are the new cigarettes. There distracting. I also noticed that this kid is working well toward success.
I saw this and thought.....there is hope.

Mike_Sheppard

I’ve invested probably in excess of $20,000 out of my own pocket in sending myself to classes. Best believe I wouldn’t using my phone in class.

The Wire Nut

Dan, as a person fighting phone addiction (and I'm slowly winning, but my ADD still persists!), and trying to get two young boys to realize that they used to enjoy life without their eyes glued to a screen, your words should be part of every phone's login screen, to be acknowledged before you can post your corned beef sandwich photo on instacrumb or farcebook.

A phone should be a tool, and perhaps an occasional distraction, but riding the subway and walking the streets of the city, I see so many folks whose humanity is lost in the endless thumbswipes or mindless rounds of candy crash. They block subway doors, come to a dead stop half-way up stairways or block a narrow passageway, oblivious to the life around them. And our folks used to complain that TV was rotting our brains...

Thank you, Brother, for fighting the good fight!

ratio

My children don't have phones. The oldest one snuck an iPhone that he thought I didn't know about, but since I was working on him leaving the nest (successfully!) I allowed it. The others are less rebellious, & seem to have adjusted to being One Of Those Kids.

I love 'em so much. (The kids, not the phones!)

Sal Santamaura

"...it was always easy to park there. Not at all like Midtown Manhattan. In the South Bronx, my car was the only one on the block..."

My first job out of college was in the South Bronx. A co-worker who'd been at that location for quite some time told an "interesting" story. His car lost power on the Cross Bronx Expressway, so he coasted over to the right, got out and lifted the hood. While attempting to troubleshoot the problem, he was startled when someone walked up. "Don't worry, man, you can have the battery. I just want the tires" said his "visitor." My coworker said that was the first and only time he ever pulled out his switchblade, which convinced the "other vandal" to leave.

More on topic, I refuse to carry a pocket computer, which I refer to as a "stupid phone," because they result in brain atrophy. My wife insisted I shouldn't drive without some means of making contact, so she got a pre-paid flip phone that sits, turned completely off, in the center console of my car.

Leonard

Never owned a cell phone. Figured if I did it would fall out of my pocket and be lost while I racked the yard and end up in a bag of leaves going to the dump.

At ~ $100/month I figure I've saved ~ $24,000 over the past 20 years .....

Now that we're getting older wife is now thinking about a Track phone in case car dies.

Harvey Ramer

On the other side of the coin, a smart phone can be one of the most valuable tools in your toolbox. If used correctly it can give you more free time, make you more efficient and ultimately make you a lot of money.

It's very addictive though and there is a fine line between useful purpose and life wasted.

Leonard

Yes I can see it's value. I'm not "on call" so my opinion is if I'm out and someone wants me they can leave a message on the machine.

Just amazing how much the kids spend every minute a slave to it, suppose it's justified if looking for a spouse .

They are very usefull though. In ~2008 recession when banks failed I remember being lobby of failing bank hearing some big wheeler dealer sitting in lobby making hour long call talking about details of buying out the bank. FDIC gathers groups of competing banks to buy out a failing bank.