Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
April 10, 2013 |
Cell phones are handy, but boy do they come with some unpleasant
side-effects. Cell phone radiation isn’t making us any healthier, and
our phones aren’t doing much for our personal relationships, either.
They also increasingly cut us off from our surroundings in a way that
degrades the quality of our public spaces and trap us in the virtual
office of every stranger we meet. Here’s a list of places your phone
doesn’t belong and may even be doing you and others harm.
1. In the car: Research by scientists at the University of Utah shows that a driver talking on a cell phone might as well be drunk. And that includes both handheld
and
hands-free devices, people. "'We found that people are as impaired when
they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive
intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit' of 0.08 percent, which is
the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S.
states, says study co-author Frank Drews." You’re not only putting
yourself at risk when you insist on using your phone while driving,
you’re putting other people at risk, too. So put the phone down until
you can pull over, and if you’re talking to someone who is driving,
politely tell the person to call you back. How would you like to be the
number that comes up on the phone when your friend or coworker wraps
herself around a tree? If you’re in a New York taxi, it’s illegal for
your driver to talk on any kind of phone. They often do it anyway, but a
reminder will usually solve the problem. I always say, “There’s a tip
in it for you if you put down the phone.”
2. On your belt: I
can imagine certain scenarios in which having a cell phone attached to
your belt actually makes sense – let’s say you’re the guy repairing the
power lines at a precarious distance from the ground. Fine. You’re
excused from this one. But really, in most circumstances it looks
ridiculous and may even have certain health consequences you don’t want
to deal with.
Research has shown
that wearing a cell phone on your hip or your belt weakens bone density
in that area. It may even impact fertility. Sperm, it turns out,
may not be a fan of cell phone radio frequencies.
3. At a restaurant:You
know the guy. He keeps his cell phone poised next to the water glass,
periodically scrolling through his incoming messages, or worse, picks up
the phone in the middle of a meal. It’s always something that just
can’t wait; something terribly important. One guy I dated briefly used
to plead that his teenage daughters needed immediate attention. Others
will cite an overbearing boss. It really doesn’t matter. Your phone does
not belong on the table, and if you feel that you absolutely must check
a message or make or receive a call – which should be a rare occasion –
politely excuse yourself from the table and make it quick. How hard is
that? Doing anything else conveys that you’re not really present and
also that your parents didn’t teach you any manners, which I’m sure they
did. A recent study shows that cell phones can
negatively impact personal relationships,
and it’s not hard to guess that table-dialing is a big culprit. Some in
the restaurant biz, like Bill Miller of L.A.’s Malibu Kitchen, have
really had it,
banning cell phones altogether. Food and phones are a bad pairing.
4. In the gym:Many
of us look at the gym as a desperately needed respite, however brief,
from our busy offices and noisy lives. An hour or even a half-hour to
recharge, get physical and connect to sinew, muscle and breath. But just
when we’re getting in the groove, some jerk inevitably whips out the
cell phone in the stretching area, on the treadmill, or even, as I once
experienced, in the sauna. My gym has signs posted asking members not to
use cell phones in certain areas, but many patrons blithely yack away
as if they were the center of their own solipsistic universe. Just the
other day I was on the elliptical trainer happily immersed in a new
music playlist when a woman stepped onto the machine and shouted on her
phone so loudly it went straight through my headphones. I politely asked
her to finish her conversation elsewhere and she shot back, “My phone
call is not your business.” “Exactly,” I agreed. “That’s why I’d rather
not listen to it.”
5. In bed:You would think this
goes without saying. You would be wrong. I once left an amorous scene
to answer nature’s call and returned to find my partner on his cell
phone. “She’s a really old friend,” he pleaded. “I had to take it!” As
if the mood-killing weren’t bad enough, it was a she! I hit the eject
button immediately. Even if there’s nothing more exciting than sleep
happening in your bed (which is pretty exciting, actually), you might
want to put the cell phone out of reach. Researchers have found that
using a cell phone
may cause insomnia, headaches and confusion. The artificial light and radiation from many phones
may cause sleep problems if we keep them too close at night.
6. On a bus or train:
Obviously, there are cases in which information needs to be conveyed
while we are traveling. If a text or a non-vocal communication like
email won’t do the trick, a brief call in low tones wouldn’t seem to be
much of a problem, unless there are rules stating otherwise. But
carrying on as if there’s no one else on the bus but you – nobody
reading, napping, or perhaps just not interested in the details of your
latest sales report – is rude and obnoxious. It’s another way of
conveying that you really don’t have awareness of your surroundings or
those two-legged hominids known as “people” who may find the sound of
your voice somewhat less soothing than a lullaby. Put the phone down.
Then again, maybe you’d like to get a brain tumor. For years, the cell
phone industry has denied the connection between usage and tumors, but
recent evidence makes the risks look
more likely.
In an Italian court, a man who developed a brain tumor sued the cell
phone company. The court backed his allegation of a causal link, scaring
the bejesus out of American firms.
7. In a store:This
will be a tough one for many people, who like to sail into a
supermarket or clothing store without interrupting their phone
conversation, breezing through the vegetable aisle in full cell phone
throttle. Guess what? It’s completely annoying to people around you, who
don’t care when you need to be at the recital or what your spouse
thinks of rutabaga. A brief call to exchange some kind of vital
information may be excused, but anything more should be taken outside.
You may wish to silently use your apps, of course, but just know that
doing so
increases the chances of transferring malware. Maybe you should just power down and do something radical, like have a chat with the guy at the cheese counter. He's nice.
Lynn Parramore is an
AlterNet senior editor. She is cofounder of Recessionwire, founding
editor of New Deal 2.0, and author of 'Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt
in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture.' She received her Ph.d in
English and Cultural Theory from NYU, where she has taught essay writing
and semiotics. She is the Director of AlterNet's New Economic Dialogue
Project.
Follow her on Twitter @LynnParramore.
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