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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Voulgaroktonou, post: 3248778, member: 84047&quot;]Oh, dear, I should not get started on this, but here are my 3 folles worth. I excerpt this from an interview my university library conducted with me a few months ago.</p><p>CELLULAR PHONES — and people on them all the time. I first noticed this phenomenon on the Tube in London in the spring and summer of 2001. People were holding these gizmos all the time and silently staring at them as the train hurled itself through the bowels under the City, just as I would meditate upon a miniature portrait of a loved one. It is an aspect of modern life with which I find myself most at odds. I do indeed carry a flip phone, I believe it is called, but I do so to placate my wife, who worries that without it, if I am kicked by my horse at the barn, or shoot myself in the foot at the firing range, I will die alone and un-helped.</p><p><br /></p><p>Everywhere I walk on campus, nearly everyone is on a cellular phone – 2 people walking together are at the same time communicating with other parties via the things they hold in their hand. This is like being on a dinner date with one girl, while holding the hand of the young woman at the adjacent table. While this may be fine for some, it is not my way.&nbsp; It seems as if everyone has a phone attached to the palm of their hand by superglue. I walk across campus to my office at 6:50 AM of a weekday; the person walking in front of me is on the phone, talking animatedly to someone. To whom at that hour? At that time of the morning, everyone I know is either asleep, as I too should be, driving to work, or getting kids off to school. And so it goes, everywhere I go. I (and I would capitalize “I” for emphasis, were not the first person personal pronoun in English already capitalized) eschew the notion of being connected all the time. When my cellular phone rings, I cringe - then I ignore it. While at work, I must talk with people all day. When I am home, I am grateful to hear little of human voices, save that of my wife, which I must include. I prefer a book on the table to my left, my dog Tetris on my lap, and one of my other 2 dogs in the chair to my right; WE communicate by constant eye contact and smiles. And such communication is enough.</p><p><br /></p><p>At our university several students have been struck by cars, because lost in their phones, they stupidly crossed the streets without paying attention. And university police have urged students to limit their cell phone usage while walking out alone at night because there have been instances of mugging – the children are just not paying attention to their surroundings. I should be more sympathetic, but important life lessons are sometimes taught the hard way.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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