This is getting spooky!
On a recent Saturday while I was in a Shoppers Drug Mart line-up, a young women behind me using her cell phone proceeded with a very intimate discussion with a person who appeared (from the conversation) to be her boyfriend. I mentioned this to my wife when I got back home, and how disgusting and annoying it is to be forced into other people’s talk space. Cell phone users think nothing of the people around them.
Imagine my surprise when later that day I picked up ComputerWorld Canada and read your editorial “Inaccessibility has its advantages” (June 1, 2001, page 12). And then later in the same issue is Ken Hanley’s comments regarding his experiences with LA (page 19).
I am seeing more and more written about the evils of cell phones and the personal intrusions of these wireless gadgets. I have always refused even to get call waiting because I am a firm believer that when I call someone I should not waste their time taking another call at the same time (apart from the fact that the kids would just use it anyway to talk to two friends at once instead of one ). So the manufacturers tout these wireless gadgets as the ultimate modern conveniences. I have come to think of them as the ultimate time wasters – my time: any discussion takes so much longer all because of the so called convenience of cell phones.
Phil Parsons,
Newmarket, Ont.
