How Mobile Phones Are Changing Reality
from the watch-out-for-cell-yell dept
We all have experienced the annoyance of "cell yell", where someine in a semi-public space is overheard talking much louder than they should about something personal into their mobile phones. This article takes a look at this, and many other, social changes caused by the proliferation of mobile phones. Employees suddenly feel as if they're on-call 24 hours a day while others feel they need to be in touch with everyone they know all the time. Some people use the phone to bring them closer to others, while some use it to separate them from people. The writer also points out that cell-phone based conversations have a different dynamic, since the person on the phone isn't in familiar settings (usually) and can often be distracted. Things are, of course, only likely to change more as mobile phones become more advanced with more features. It's always interesting to see the "unintended consequences" of new technologies - and, as per usual, not all of them make people happy.
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