Re: Mobile phone logos

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:03:03 +0100, Champ <news@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:38:57 +0100, Paul Corfield
><aooy65@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>Even as Mr Phone Phobe I can understand your list of needs. Much beyond
>>that I wonder whether people really use the features for any valuable
>>purpose.
>
>Here's a cut and paste of the features I was raving about earlier in
>the thread :
>
>- phone, camera, pda, radio, mp3 player and now torch.

Phone - fair enough as it the essential element of a phone!

Camera - I have a "proper" camera as I can't get on with tiny cameras. I
do struggle to understand why they've been attached to phones though.

PDA - I'm sad. I use my brain to remember stuff rather than rely on a
box of tricks. If you're a bit disorganised I can see how a PDA might
help - if you could organise yourself enough to use the organiser
IYSWIM. I have to see a single person who has one of these units use
them even remotely effectively. Loads of people have them at work
because they "are the latest technology". Most of them are as
disorganised and clueless with them as they were without them - why
bother? My own suspicion is that people have them as status symbols or
as apparent tools to allow them to work "out of the office but remain in
contact if necessary." In other words it allows them to bugger where no
one can find them but there is the pretence they are "working" because
their little digital assistant is in their pocket. Call me a luddite.

Radio - Don't need or want a portable one. Rarely listen to the radio
otherwise.

MP3 - don't have any MP3s other than some Windy tunes. I've vaguely
teetering on the edge of possibly buying one but am struggling to
justify it.

Torch - I don't need to carry a torch with me all the time in my pocket.
I have one for emergencies at home.

>Now, these are all things that many people are prepared to go and
>spend money on. Even you, I'll warrant, for some of them. To have
>them all in one pocket size item is just so convenient.

It would be convenient if I needed them altogether. I am remain
unconvinced that people really have a need for these sorts of packages.
I accept you disagree.

>Please don't think I argue with you for the sake of it :-)

I know you don't. You must have better things to do ;-)

>I don't really think the phone companies have "built a dependency"
>around their products. I just think that the mobile phone is an
>enormously "human" piece of technology. We are social animals, and
>for the vast majority of the lifetime of our species have lived in
>small groups where communication between us has been pretty
>straightforward, requiring little more than raising your voice.
>
>Having social relationships that are spread over large distances is a
>recent phenomenon. Anything that allows us to get round those distance
>is automatically popular, which is why pretty much everyone in the
>western world has had a landline phone for the past 20 years, and why
>email took off so quickly. The mobile phone is the ultimate extension
>of that - now contacting someone is no more difficult than raising
>your voice.

And people have a desperate need to call from the train or the bus to
say "I'm on the bus. I'll be home in 10 minutes." or to own a tweety
bird ringtone or have an animated logo on their phone. People have
lived thousands of miles apart for decades and survived perfectly well
without suffering social crises and that without mobile phones. The
astronomic scale of mobile phone use is the bit I don't understand. I
don't see the point at all of telling someone you are 10 mins away from
home when you are on your normal bus running to time and there is no
reason for anyone to wonder where you are. Even if you are running late
then you can surely explain why when you get in? Why the need for a
running commentary?

>I understand that you are part of a significant minority of people who
>don't need this level of communication capability,

I'm not sure that is quite on the ball. I have the communication
capability - I just use it on very rare occasions.

>but I'm sure you
>can understand why other people behave differently?

Not entirely no.
--
Paul C - "the big camp ***" (tm d.a.r.s.y)
VFR800 | ZX6R | R1150GS
BOD#5, two#4, BOTAFOT#23, BOTAFOF#4, URMSBC#09, COFF#09
Admits to working for London Underground!
.