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Cell phones...in the office and in general ?
Q. Living in Japan--the home of "every kid age 5 or over MUST have cell phone" gets a little too much. And now with those handsfree kits it looks like everybody is going around talking to themselves like psychotics!
A. Recently, my co-worker was in line behind a woman who was having a lucid conversation with the air. Her garden, the kids, the weather, what have you. I wonder how many schizophrenics would go unnoticed if you popped a cell phone into their hands. I'm also one of those people who really needs a cell phone, probably more than most. Most folks are at least within striking distance of civilization and a phone booth, but I'm often left deep down some goat path in a rural area, trying to find a trailer home among the thick forests of western Washington. If not for my cell phone, I'd have to drive back to civilization - sometimes as much as an hour each direction - to contact a customer. (I did just that for several years, till I got so sick of coming home at 8:00pm every night I dug deep for cell phone service - I've never regretted it). That said, I can attest to the fact that cell phones do indeed detract one's attention from the road. I drive about 800 miles a week, on everything from interstate highways to muddy by-ways. I sometimes need to contact fellow technicians to get technical info and background information on certain customers, so I find myself driving and talking more than I want to admit. Everyone is familiar with the robotic nature of driving. We can go for miles and realize that we've been on auto-pilot while our minds wander off to tropical islands and scantily-clad native girls. Then we suddenly "wake up" and notice that we've covered three exits without having remembered one road sign. Everybody does this, at least anyone who's driven long enough to have outgrown the "grip-the-wheel" school favored by sixteen-year-old's operating under a driver's permit. The cell phone - hands-free or not - exacerbates that highway catatonia. Phone conversations can consume a considerable amount of your attention, and numerous studies I've seen have shown this to be a significant contributor to serious highway "accidents".
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