Driving with cell phones

[deevergote]

Actually a few months before I moved out of WA, I remembering listening to the news saying there were laws being put into place to keep them from using these devices while on the road. Since then I noticed a lot of police officers on the sides of roads or parking lots not clocking people but checking their computers.

Many of those officers may be running plates. Technology is such now that the officer doesn't necessarily need to hold the radar/laser/etc... to clock people.

Or they could be playing Farmville.

And I think the best point of all is that we are taking away from the driving experience (well besides the safety aspect). Personally I hate what technology has brought society to and cell phones is one of the major ones.

I listed to a radio broadcast in the car the other day about cell phones being in schools. The principal said that they tried to enforce a full ban of phones in the school but could not keep up with the enforcing. They now allow cell phones in the school and try to encourage students to use them in positive ways:
- take notes
- take pictures of drawings the teacher put on the board
- google the answer to something
- review items from last class (pictures)
- text a friend for advise when they are too embarrassed to ask

Most students that were interviewed said they don't talk to their friends, they would rather text. Even if they are beside them. The principal noted that the library (books) will be a thing of the past in the next 5 years. She said no-one uses it and all students rely on on-line information for data sources.

So... no-one plays outside anymore, no-one talk to each other, no socializing anymore at all. And like driving with a bunch of people in the car it's not a "road trip" anymore, it's a "We are going to play on our phones until we reach our destination" drive.


Makes me wish I could go back in time. Back when you made friends by walking up to people and saying Hi.

Funny that you're saying that on here...

But yeah, I know what you mean. My iphone is a very large part of my life now, more than I'd like, honestly... but I went through my entire youth without a cell phone at all. I didn't have a phone until i was 21. Didn't even have the internet until I was 17.
Smartphones, easily available wifi, and many of the resources one can find on the internet today weren't even common things when I was in college, all the way through 2005.
It is staggering to think of how different the life of a highschooler today is from my own experiences.

We (the older guys... thirtysomething+ especially) are to the new generation what the "old folks" were to us... the people that remember life without color television, or the people that remember sitting around the radio at night with the family. Or to them, the people that never had an automobile. Or to them, indoor plumbing in highly populated areas.

I'm about to tie an onion to my belt and reminisce about the good ol' days.