Do you ever long for peace and quiet? A little tranquility? A charmed little spot in Charm City where people are so relaxed, no one even needs to speak? Good luck finding it. For some reason these days, no one can seem to shut up. People are all by themselves and yet they talk. And talk. And talk. Cell phones are more than just a way to stay connected. They?ve enabled us to never be disconnected.
Just when you start inching away from the weirdo standing next to you because he?s talking to himself, you spot a plastic thing on his ear and realize that?s just some guy making dinner plans with his wife. But it can be confusing because even real weirdos are using cell phones. I took a day trip from Charm City to Manhattan, N.Y., and saw a guy dressed in trash bags walking down the street. Even his head was draped in some sort of plastic chapeau. He was talking on a cell phone. Do you mean to tell me this guy has no clothes, but he can walk down the street saying, “Do you hear me now?”
What has this technological advance done to us? What does it mean if no one calls? Are we somehow unloved if we have no voice mail? I know a young woman who came out of surgical recovery at a Baltimore hospital in terrible pain, but for just a quick moment, she reached over to checkif there were messages on her cell phone. Am I the only one who thinks this is insane?
Now, don?t get me wrong. I have a cell phone. I even talk on it. And I?m apparently guilty of the latest moving violation: DWT ? Driving While Talking. That?s right. You?ve heard of DWI ? Driving While Intoxicated. Apparently, DWT is just as bad. According to the latest study from the University of Utah, talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel makes us just as dangerous as someone who?s drunk. Not that I actually believe this. First of all, the study is reported in a publication called Human Factors, the journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. I?d feel better if the research came from Johns Hopkins and was reported in a publication I knew. I can?t quite get my head around the idea that talking on my cell phone is the equivalent of sipping martinis before getting behind the wheel.
I?m telling you this because I don?t want you to think I?m one of those people who thinks cell phone use in the car puts us on a slippery slope to hell. But I do wonder whether society is better off just because we can talk at any time. Imagine how the use of cell phones might have changed Greta Garbo?s famous line. Perhaps she would have said, “I vant to be alone. Vould you turn off my phone?”
Deborah Stone spent 15 years as a reporter and anchor at WJZ-TV and is currently a freelance writer. A 22-year resident of the Baltimore area, her dog, Elton, allows her and her husband to share his home in Baltimore County.
