Thinking above the din and between the nodes
“We approach our technologies through a battery of advertising and media narratives; it is hard to think above the din.” Turkle, Sherry. (Ed.). The inner history of devices. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. p4
Todays clamor is about
the iPhone 3G S; The fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.
So i thought i"d just review the media hype on mobile phones, a quick and not very broad search through google looking at what comes up for news and mobile phones. here's what i got in ten minutes of searching.
Its not what i expected.
It should come with a health warning.
And what its not saying seems even more important.
If i was an alien from wherever wondering about such a device, I think I'd still be looking for the weapons of mass destruction...
Time magazine:
Press M for Murder: Cell Phones That Kill from Feb 2004
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040202-581402,00.html
so far no phony phones are known to have surfaced in the US...but lets not stop this from making a headline.
ABC 20/20 (Dec, 2007)
Cell Phones Are Dangerous in Flight
Aviation safety database maintained by NASA shows a handful of incidents each year reported by pilots who suspected cell phones and other electronic devices had caused a problem during flight. Despite these reports, not a single air crash has been proven to be caused by the use of a cell phone onboard a plane
Yet in the same year...
Invention of the year (2007)
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1678542_1677891,00.html
Primarliy because its (the iphone) ghost of things to come...
to
Wired:
The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry
The iphone upsets the balance of power.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone
And not only do they alter the businesses involved, they are also altering us, just not in ways we expect
BBC news (2004)
Radio waves from mobile phones do harm body cells and damage DNA
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4113989.stm
to
CBS June 2009
"cubital tunnel syndrome", the condition is said to affect those who hold their phones to their ears for long periods of time.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/03/earlyshow/health/main5058984.shtml
and
given the propensity with which such a device will propel you into your next one, this is sorted too :)
Wired August 2004
Cell phone users are finding God, the mobile phone is finding a niche as an instrument of spiritual enlightenment
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64624
Many thanks to arti for provoking this.
just been on a plane, the message is to turn off your cell phone, or put it into flight mode, during takeoff and landing. But what really amused me was an instruction when it was safe to turn the cell phone back on during the flight but not for taking or receiving calls nor for sending or receiving text messages... So a mobile phone is for doing what?
ReplyDeleteA rhetorical question; you might play games, spell check, calculate, have a torch, use the note function...and i found myself needing to use it for my outsourced memory regarding where i would be staying & what my contact details would be in case i needed to be contacted regarding health risks such as swine flu.