The Limits to Anytime/Anywhere

The big challenge to the future of wireless isn’t security or dying from a brain tumor; rather it’s a sociological shift driven by technology doing what it does: changing us as beings.

While many continue to worry about radiation exposure from handsets (I still believe that only a tiny number of people with a certain genetic proclivity have anything to fear here) and wireless security (the problem that will never be 100% solved, so go for it on that one), there's another challenge to the use of wireless communications that is surfacing with increasing frequency, and it's sociological in nature. I've argued for some time that our first duty in a civilized society is to each other, and not to ourselves. We must always have respect for our fellow human beings, especially when it comes to physical safety; the world works if everyone practices this. At the very least, good manners are always in order; disturbing others in the pursuit of our own convenience is objectionable at best and uncivilized, and perhaps even dangerous, at worst.

That's why I found Michelle Singletary's recent column in the Washington Post so interesting. She recounts a number of tales of the inappropriate and disturbance-causing use of cell phones, the first one listed being among the most egregious: the person who talks or even texts on a cell phone while sitting in a movie theater. I long ago gave up on going to the movies, an activity I dearly enjoy, because of exactly this problem. My ADD-driven brain needs to focus on what's up on the big screen, and disturbances like people chatting on the phone are major distractions. Sure, I could be a big boy and just buck up, but not for $10 (or whatever movies cost these days), thank you very much. Good manners may be dying altogether amid the selfishness that passes for society today; we'll see.

But I digress. On the other hand, advances in wireless services depend upon the carriers getting the revenue needed to both drive their suppliers to innovate and to deploy the resulting innovations. While the carriers have been conducting a subtle don't talk-or-text-while-driving campaign, lower usage undoubtedly means less money for LTE and related advances. Quite a conundrum, but I'd still argue that we must still err, if that's the right word here, on the side of personal safety and respect for others.

Speaking, by the way, of talking while driving - did you hear about the tugboat pilot who killed two people because he collided with another vessel while using his cell phone? He got a year is prison. My suggestion for a punishment would have been significantly harsher.

When will we get that anytime/anywhere doesn't mean anytime/anywhere? Are handsets making us stupid? Maybe there is something to electromagnetic radiation affecting our brains. Or maybe we just need to use our brains a little bit more.

• Wireless / Mobile
• Smartphones
• cell phones
• civilized behavior
• distractions
• good manners
• handsets
• rudeness
• stupidity