Mobile Telephones – A Modern Menace

If mobile phones were ionising that means you could hypothetically cook a chicken in a powerful microwave for a few hours and it would mutate cancer cells.

 

Prove it UEA. I don't believe you until you provide me with proof of your statement, not just words. Ta muchly.

 

Maybe you should be more interesting...

 

I sent my phone off for repair recently and didn't bother with a replacement for a few weeks, it was nice.

I was surprised that my friends thought I was mad, given we're old enough to recall going out without phones.

 

Na, can't be arsed frankly. Proving a negative is a thankless task and I suspect Clive will believe what he wants to believe even if I did 'prove' anything.

 

This being the case. I will remain on the fence regarding that point then!

 

Life was better before their invention, not being reachable was not being accountable.

but now you can be tracked everywhere if you're not very careful and not just by GPS either.

Mine is mostly in flight mode, that suits me just fine.

 

I agree, but the opposite can also be argued, in that instant contact availability takes away some forms of stress.

Just one example, I often have to travel many miles to meetings. I hate being late, and the fact that I can just update people as to my arrival time, means that I can drive relatively stress free, even when delayed by traffic, etc.

Another example, is that when my daughter was going through a hard time over the past few years, without a mobile, I would have been worried and stressed most of the time.

Mobiles are definitely a plus for me, they just have to be managed.

 

Mobiles are truly amazing devices and I wouldn't be without one but etiquette is running a bit behind. We need to be a bit more in control of the device.

Another downside is the general pointing and laughing bullying mentality of people who will post anything they capture on their phone, an accident, a suicide, someone slipping on ice, an animal fighting another animal etc etc in the febrile attempt to get hits. ****ers.

 

The introduction of e mail was far more damaging to society

Gave people a chance to find it easier to boss people around, and caused everything to be immediate rather than to allow a more leisurely pace at work

To think when I started work we had no computers, and a phone system where we had to go via switchboard operator to get outside lines.

As for social media... it has given licence for people to hide behind a keyboard and be foul mouthed, cruel, hateful and abusive safe in the knowledge they can get away with it.

 

yeah moog

 

On this we can agree.

 

I mostly agree with Clive but I still have one. I don't give the number to anyone I don't want to have it, including companies and organisations but I don't know how I'd keep in touch with my children without it, so much contact is by messaging. It's the medium they use so I have to as well and it is very convenient.

 

Don't they have a MOTHER to pester?

 

erm.

Welcome back Afanof by the way, I thought you'd disappeared forever.

 

Oh! if that's an oops I apologise ...

I've been estranged to my daughter since she was small, I blame her mum but I can almost hear your tuts from here. Australia is an effing long way I'll have you know ... Like anyone, if she wants to call she'll just have to do it when I'm home.

 

Phone zombies on busy streets. **** off.

 

Thanks, SM. I'm pleased to see the forum is still going strong. Well done.

 

Manky Mackay scuppered by the mobile menace.

Well not quite everyone. If my phone was taken, they'd need to unplug it from the wall in my front room first. And it doesn't do texts.

Not if you don't have one you don't.

 

Number of offensive messages sent from my phone: 0.

Number of offensive messages received on my phone: 0.

Answer: don't be a ****. Don't associate with *****. Problem solved.

 

I no longer have a mobile phone/device thing.

I'm not missing out on anything.

Stop being in such a rush to see everything and actually look around and take in what you see.

 

That's fine but what if I'm exploring a forest and get mauled by a bear.

 

Then you will no longer be worrying about the trials & tribulations of the modern world.

Go to your 'Savage-Self' and think like a caveman - draw something crudely on a cave wall, providing you've escaped the mauling of course.

 

My phone hasn't got a caller ID screen. It does have a little lever underneath it though, where you can make the ring louder or quieter.

If they wanted to steal my phone, they'd have to unplug it from the wall first. And the great news is, when my phone is unplugged, it has a fabulous 'lack of electricity' safety shut down device which prevents any calls being made by anybody.

Tell me some more about how great these mobile phones are and why you can't live without one.

 

http://www.amta.org.au/newsletters/EME.Update.June.2012?Article=36639

Well that was hard.

 

I thought I would never say this but do agree with some of what Clive says, although I could not go without my phone now, so many people are more concerned if a bar, hotel, restaurant has free wifi now then what they are their for. If I was in a group I would never be at a table looking at my phone but out of a group of ten two to three will be on their phone most the bloody time, Twitter, face book etc.


i would never take a call or make a call in a bar, train, bus, unless it was urgent or about 2 seconds saying I am here.

On the other hand they are great for numerous thing, train timetables, flight delays, letting people know you are safe, late lost.

I went to a wedding in the summer and the littke village dud not have my network coverage, I had to let people know I was here and in the pub and had to use a phone box !

I think they are great and could not live without mine but people need to use etiquette when out or with people.

 

Mobile phones are amazing. Like Moose said, etiquette hasn't quite caught up.

So many inconveniences have been eradicated through mobile phone use. There was nothing worse than when you had to wait for a friend and they couldn't inform you whether they were caught in some sort of traffic, or wouldn't be able to make it. There was nothing worse than taking the wrong turning and realising your A-Z was in the other car, and there is nobody around to ask. And sometimes, there were always those perfect family moments where you wish you had a camera, but you left it back in the hotel.

Handsets are also known to cause bad driving and accidents due to the concentration limits we all have. But so do radios, having the window open and changing the cars air conditioning. It is just about driving carefully. I don't blame alcohol for drink driving, I don't blame phones for driving whilst using your phone.

The downsides mainly come from poor education and parenting. Teach your kids to never text at the dinner table, even if others do. Talk to your children rather than let them play in their own world.
Anyway, taking away a mobile phone is an incredible deterrent for children. Use this wisely.

 

"Vishing" has increased by 17% over the year, with £23.9 million lost to scammers in that time. According to reports, 58% of British people were affected by phone fraud in 2014.

Having asked some users of portable telephones, it seems that it's true that they are plagued with voicemails and txts from scammers. This is not a problem that I have encountered.

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-vishing-attacks-net-fraudsters/

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In the US, government planes fly overhead using a system with the charming name of dirt box, which mimic mobile phone tower transmissions, and handsets transmit back their location and unique identity data.

They operate in the same way as Stingray, a more commonly known mobile phone surveillance tool, security expert Prof Alan Woodward told the BBC. "The governments have access to Stingray which is available off the shelf to spy on mobile phones but governments aren't the only ones. For £2,000 you can build your own," he said. Tools like Stingray and dirt box are known as IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catchers because they collect the unique identification data sent by each individual device to its network.

I'm glad to say that as a non-user of portable telephones, my dirt box has not been violated! Has yours?

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Portabletelephones4U which collapsed in some shady corrupt business dealings will NOT be paying back money to deluded 'customers' who paid in advance for the devices.

Woosh! Sorry, it's gone. You've lost it. It's been had away by some rich people, who are away on their toes.

Fortunately I'm not one of them. I wouldn't pish in the doorway of a portable telephone shop, far less give them a penny of my money.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...NOT-receive-refund-administrator-reveals.html

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Always buy mail order goods and services with a credit card. - You're protected for purchases over £100.

Don't give details over to callers that you wouldn't give to some one who's just walked up to you in the street and asked for it.

Don't worry about government surveillance unless you are dodgy or like wearing tin foil hats.

If a fraud has been committed then the perpetrators will be subject to the rule of law. If you've lost out it's not the fault of mobile phones but the fault of the business/people that have defrauded you.

 

all of these examples are of people being idiots, rather than any inherent danger of the phone itself. and i dare say, even without a phone, these people would continue to be idiots

 

You have loved ones?

 

And how much effort do you reckon Plod or Carrie Mathieson is going to make to identify and analyse the routine communications of yer average Watford fan? (Luton fans, maybe.) You're most at risk from your partner finding out that you've been up to a spot of naughty with Debbie_ofthe_Forbidden City.

Meanwhile crims can be caught through DNA, CCTV or mobile phone records. Like all technological developments, there are pluses and minuses.

I don't have hands-free in my car, as I'm not sure I would be able to concentrate on a two-way conversation and the road - if it's likely to be urgent or important, I stop. I don't drink and drive, or take drugs and drive. But I do use my phone to check football scores or Watford news more often than I probably should.

 

I get stuff I don't want. Delete it - no big deal. Get unsolicited stuff on the landline too even though I've taken steps to avoid that. Just call them an effing c.nt. Makes me feel good. Couldn't give a toss about them. What really annoys me is when my mum gets a call. She's 91. Comes from an age pre cold calling. I had a minor RTA at the beginning of the year when I was staying with her. She keeps getting calls about an RTA and reports it to me as if it's really important. I tell her - look it's probably just a fishing expedition - they phone millions on the off chance. Loads of people have had an RTA. She doesn't get it at all. Maybe she's right. It is actually targetted. If so, where has that info. come from? C.nts ...

 

I think the insurance calls are just fishing. I've never had an accident which has needed the police or an insurance company yet I still get calls/texts about my 'accident'.