Why we love (and hate) cellphones
In a new study, people admit to being very dependent on mobile phones -- and some even use them to keep other people away.
This post comes from Jeanine Skowronski at partner site MainStreet.
For some time now, our cellphones have taken on many more tasks than just making calls. The devices, it seems, are both a blessing and a curse.
According to a new report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, many Americans admit that they would have difficulty getting through the day without their cellphones, relying on the devices to get information they need right away, contact people in emergency situations and simply stave off boredom.
Interestingly, some people even copped to using mobile phones as a way to prevent unwanted personal interactions. Pew found that 13% of cell owners have pretended to use their phones to avoid actually talking to the people around them. Post continues after video.
"Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information-seeking and communicating," the report reads. "These devices have an impact on many aspects of their owners' daily lives."
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However, as varied as our uses for a cellphone are, Pew also found that many Americans aren't exactly thrilled with being dependent on mobile devices.
Twenty-nine percent of survey participants admitted that they've turned their phones off for a period of time just to get a break from it, while 46% have felt frustrated by their phones due to long download times, small screens and an inability to send long text messages.
Pew's report is based on a national telephone survey of 2,277 adults conducted between April 26 and May 22; 1,522 interviews were conducted by land-line phone, and 755 interviews were conducted by (you guessed it) cellphone.
The survey found that 83% of adults own some kind of cellphone, and more than a third of them (35%) have a smartphone of some kind. The most common uses for our mobile devices include text messaging (73%), picture taking (73%), sending photos or videos to others (54%) and accessing the Internet (44%).
More on MainStreet and MSN Money:
Amazing how addicted people have become to these electronic gadgets; many act as though they are a life support system. People have become so rude with this device. They think nothing of grabbing their phone to answer a call or read a text right in the middle of a conversation with another person or in a group.
They are a hazard for both driving and traffic. I have even noticed that people walking on very busy sidewalks, the people playing with their cell phones disrupt and slow the flow of traffic.
The phone companies marketing these devices love it due to ease it allows them to rape people's checking accounts.
I don't have a cell phone and never will. People who feel they have to be connected at all times are pathetic.
Customers checking out in stores who don't even have the courtesy to hang up as they are being cashed out are rude.
What's worse are those who have expensive calling plans for themselves and their kids yet they'd rather complain about the COST of things going up than disconnect.
The one I laugh about the most are parents who justify the expense by saying "I want to know where my child is". So because you can keep in touch with your kid and he/she tells you they are "at a specific place" that that means they are? RU kidding?
Basically cell phones have replaced not only interaction but common courtesy. The sky won't fall if you stop using your cell phones but you may realize that you have become an island within yourself but shutting yourself off from those around you.
Did you ever watch the movie Wall-E ? Remember the people being conveyed around staring at screens, the one that fell off his conveyance and did not know what to do, the guy that, due to them always riding around staring at a screen, did not even know there was a swimming pool in the place that they were at? Please do so and tell me if you don't think the world will be like that someday.
The things that I hear walking to the parking lot from where I work each day, the neat stuff I see on the way home, the smells when you go by certain restaurants, the people that I see walking around, I don't think there is anything on any little screen that is going to beat the actual experience of living my life, seeing it, hearing it, smelling it. Living is a dying art.
Thats a crock We do not need that cell phone,(it's handy) but unreliable, And who ever talks on it and no one is on the other end are NUTS no excuses don't want to talk to people then don't And people who talk and drive are a RISK and should be considered DRUNK
The land line it has ten times better reception, Safer and reliable.
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