Brad Shorr is running a project highlighting the uses and abuses of cellphones, aka mobile phones.
Listening to other people’s phone conversations is one of the strangest things we have adjusted to in modern times. Listening to other people’s business deals, meal plans, lovers’ tiffs, fights with neighbours, worries about a bill that’s not been paid, complaints about a colleague who’s driving you crazy, detailed (detailed) arrangements about a night out, arguments with children, arguments with parents, tearful putdowns, sorrowful reproaches… we hear it all.
It’s so much noise.
I hope, hope, hope that blogging doesn’t become the same kind of noise pollution. At least online we have the choice whether or not to listen. Not so on the train.
To avoid adding to the noise I’m keeping this short.
If you want a reminder of the noise of other people’s conversations… and a smile, here’s a classic clip from Dom Joly’s mobile phone man.
I’m on the train. Enjoy.
Rules of the Competition
Topic. The topic is Cell Phone Users and Abusers. What cell phone behavior drives you crazy? What strange cell phone experiences have you had? How are cell phones (or “mobiles”) helping society … or hurting it? These are the topics we’d like to explore. (Please keep your posts G-rated.)
Deadline. All contest posts must be published on or before Friday, December 5.
Submission. Please include a link to this post in your entry. Please leave a comment with a link to your entry on this post as well.
Prizes. There are EIGHT prizes in all for a total pot of $1000. We will have ONE $500 winner, THREE $100 winners, and FOUR $50 winners. Winners will be selected RANDOMLY on Monday, December 8.
Background
One of Brad’s clients, Dr. Mike O’Malley, has written a book called Cell Hell – 55 Cell Phone Users You’d Like to Silence. In an effort to promote his book, he’s generously agreed to put up the money for this blog contest.
These are seriously good prizes. Anyone who enters has a chance of winning, and since pretty much everyone must have some experience of mobile phone uses and abuses… what’s stopping you from taking part?
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@ Lori, I know it's a long…
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Hi Joanna,
Thank you for joining in the conversation and the good laugh. It won’t belong before there are 10 or 12 gentlemen or ladies like that on the train. Actually, you don’t need a phone to be annoying, as I rediscovered yesterday in a Starbucks, trying to prepare for a Webinar. A woman at the table next to me was going on and on about her relationship problems to a friend, just about as loudly as the guy in the video. Needless to say, I relocated! As you say, we really don’t need to hear all this.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..You Know You’re Old When …
It’s no accident that iPods and the like have paralleled the use of cell phones in public places. They block the noise around you with noise you choose!
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Brad, indeed. I think it’s something to do with losing our awareness of other people round about us. Which seems like a worrying trend…
Jim, hello. You’re right of course – though this also strikes me as something that isn’t so welcome, as we lose ourselves in a ‘bubble’ cut off from the natural sounds of the world.
I am deaf and surrounded by visual noise constantly.
If you do not know what visual noise is, a good way to discover that is to go to a rock (or rap or any pop music) concert, plug your ears up until you cannot hear, and then watch how your eyes begin to dart here and there, to and fro, left and right, up and down.
The idiot in the front row standing up and shouting something? Visual noise.
The drunken fool two rows to your left, waving like a madman to nobody in particular? Visual noise.
People talking on cellphones in public places? Visual noise.
Babies screaming their heads off because their iPod’s wireless connection won’t work in a restaurant? Visual noise.
I dunno.
Sometimes, I think the world is just too noisy, anyway.
Paoties last blog post..College Football: Early Saturday Morning Rankings
Oh, Joanna; that video makes me want to build a giant cell phone and try that at work! Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Can you imagine the looks you’d get if you pulled something like that out?
Robert Hruzeks last blog post..Why I Hate Cell Phones
Hi Paotie, thanks for stopping by:-)
I hadn’t thought about visual noise before but you paint a very vivid picture of it. I guess it’s part of the same phenomenon – people’s restlessness, thoughtlessness, lack of awareness of others which is so acute it’s painful to our senses. Guess that’s one of the reasons I enjoy walking in the natural world with nothing but my own thoughts for company…
Robert, you have a soul mate. Through the wonder of Zemanta I found this:
Trigger Happy TV huge mobile phone built
I’m in! I was actually working on an article on this subject and planning on submitting it to Root & Sprout for the January edition, but with a cash money prize I’m keeping it to myself! (Keeping my fingers crosses)
Love the video. We need one like that on the elevator (lift) also. They blue tooth has really made things even more annoying. You’re in the grocery store and this person is talking away, but you can’t figure out to who. Then you realize they have that stupid thing on their ear. Or another of my favorites is the bathroom. Uhm, sometimes a phonecall can just wait.
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Joanna, I love it! Y’know, I gotta meet this guy sometime. I wonder if he wears a hat?
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oh my gosh that video is obnoxious! Perfect choice. Hey I tagged you today. Perhaps you can play?
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahans last blog post..Playing Tag
Its rare for me to laugh at YouTube videos, but this one is great.
I wont part with my cell phone, but I don’t like talking in public places. I at least go outside if I’m in a public building (grocery store, etc) and don’t raise my voice I if I need to have a conversation.
I refuse to stick anything in my ear as well. Thats just to…strange.
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Paotie, Visual noise is quite a concept, and very bothersome now that you mention it. Joanna, it’s amazing how much fascinating conversation is taking place on these mobile-related posts, even when you’re not trying to hit the 100 mark.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..What Are You Thankful For?
LOL Joanna – that was too funny. It’s even worse when you’re the only person in a room and someone is talking on hands free and you think they’re talking to you.
Debbie, it’s a great competition with v generous prizes, so definitely worth putting in for it. The hands free is weird isn’t it… We could do a whole other series of posts on that topic I’m sure
Robert
Karen, thanks for the tag! I’ll try and do it next month…
Cath, glad you liked it. I don’t know what it was about Trigger Happy TV, even though you knew pretty much what was going to happen, and it stuck to a really simple formula, it cracked me up every week. Come to think of it, maybe that’s precisely why it was so funny.
Brad, yes, it’s definitely a topic that people can connect and engage with. Should be a good sign for your client…
Carla, I’ve watched it I don’t know how many times since preparing this post and it’s still making me laugh!
Well, Joanna. I’m not the busybody type and I’m quite annoying when there are someone that standing or sitting beside me talking their handphone as loud as thunder!
I even will switch off the handphone when I’m sleeping lol
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You sound like me – appreciating peace and quiet