Are we too connected?
If you sometimes need to get up in the middle of the night to have a cigarette then a doctor would classify you as addicted. So does the same apply if you get up in the middle of the night to check your email or your phone for new messages?
According to a recent survey by iPass, half of the respondents said they have their iPhone within reach when they go to bed, and 30% admitted to having got up in the night to check their email. About one third of the respondents said they irritated their partner by their constant use of the phone or the computer, but it isn't clear what proportion of the remaining two-thirds are either single or too thick-skinned to notice. In the workplace, the survey found that dual standards apply. 80% of respondents said they objected to people using phones during the meeting, yet at the same time, 40% of people admitted doing it.
Some drivers are surely too connected. This month, one driver was pulled over on the 70mph stretch of the A47 in Norfolk after police spotted him holding a phone to his ear. When the officer approached the car he discovered the driver had another phone in his left hand on which he was simultaneously texting. To add to his woes, police seized his Vauxhall Tigra due to lack of insurance. A Norfolk police spokesman said "Using one mobile phone is silly but two mobile phones is amazingly silly."
Over in Austin, Texas, the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre displays a customer information notice before each performance asking people to turn off their phones, and warns of its strict policy of ejecting customers who break this rule. Even if someone is only reading text on their phone, the illumination from its display is very distracting to others in a darkened theatre. Well, one customer did break the rule and was ejected, and left an angry rant about it on the theatre's answering machine. This message has now been turned into a short public information announcement about not using your phone at the Drafthouse, suitably censored, of course.
24th June 2011
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.