Are Phones Making People Late... Or Just More Flexible?

from the depends-on-how-you-look-at-it dept

A few years ago, we wrote about a study saying that 71% of people were consistently late for social events because they knew they could reschedule or adjust thanks to everyone having mobile phones. With that in mind, people should be positively thrilled by this new study that seems to indicate only about 20% of people consider themselves "unreliable" about such things because of their phones. Three-quarters, though, do say that the phones have made them more "flexible." Of course, it's a judgment call as to whether or not this is good or bad. Being flexible on meeting people has its advantages. Obviously, doing it in a way that wastes someone else's time can be problematic and rude, but if it's done right, that flexibility can be valuable, rather than seen as a negative thing.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2005 @ 10:50pm

    Yes, but...



    What people consider themselves to be, and what they actually are, are frequently two drastically different things.

    So people may consider themselves to be prompt, courteous and reliable, when in fact they are late, rude and flaky.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anon, 18 Aug 2005 @ 4:27am

    Re: Yes, but...

    Absolutely. I consider myself a great lover in bed and a genius. In reality, I'm probably greater in bed than Einstein, and smarter than Ron Jeremy.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2005 @ 7:21am

    similiar to driving statistics...

    far greater than 50% of the population considers themselves better than average drivers

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2005 @ 7:58pm

    No Subject Given

    "71% of people were consistently late for social events"

    what does this have to do with reliability? It's a social event. It doesn't matter.

    "Oh my god, it's 20 til 7 and Bob isn't standing around sipping pinot grigio and making inane chit-chat yet. That unreliable bastard."

    If 71% were consistently late for taking their friends to the airport, they would be unreliable.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Bradford, 19 Aug 2005 @ 9:20am

    late with a cell phone

    It's great that you can call someone and let them know you are late. How about the people who are on time, but take every incoming call, using up about 15 minutes of your time, while you try to finish a coherent line of thought with them. It's like talking to an ADHD person.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    DV Henkel-Wallace, 19 Aug 2005 @ 6:22pm

    Re: late with a cell phone

    How about the people who are on time, but take every incoming call, using up about 15 minutes of your time, while you try to finish a coherent line of thought with them. It's like talking to an ADHD person.
    I sometimes call these people, even when I'm sitting in front of them. That usually does the trick.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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