Cell Phones

Author Stephen King calls cell phones “21st-century slave bracelets.” In many ways, it’s hard to argue with him.

An amazing bit of technology, the cell phone nonetheless can create a sense of anxiety for many people, who would feel naked without theirs. And although it allows communication in the case of emergency, it also encourages banter in situations that might be better without it.

In bookstores, libraries, churches and virtually everywhere else, people gab into their mobile phones. Those with hanging earpiece/microphone attachments often start talking into them “without warning,” initially prompting searching glances from those around them, who thought they were being spoken to.

And while the cell phone has essentially reached the miniaturization level of the Dick Tracy radio-wristwatch or the Star Trek communicator, who knows what might arise in the future? Perhaps cell phone-like devices will be implanted in our heads, creating truly hands-free electronic communication.

But many of us, without being Luddites, may wonder how far the mobile phone concept should be taken. Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, has stated that he does carry a cell phone, but keeps it turned off and only uses it for outgoing calls. He sees no need to be constantly available to whoever may feel like calling him at any particular moment (see his great book, The Success Principles). And who can blame him?

The need for constant communication and mental stimulation is becoming stronger with younger generations, who’ve grown up surrounded by cell phones, instant messages while online, and internet-enabled wireless devices. The pace of life is ever-increasing, and those who’ve whiled away childhood hours playing frenetically-pace video games often have little patience for grammatically-correct letter-writing or other slow means of communication. Instead, abbreviated text and chat-messages are the norm, and it is considered de rigueur for the modern human to be able to send or receive calls, anywhere and anytime.

In addition, the ubiquity of cameras in cell phones is creating a privacy issue in many ways. Nowadays, one can often not be sure that he or she isn’t being photographed at any particular time.

And there are of course considerations on the health side of the issue. Newer, digital phones transmit less energetic signal “bursts,” not continuous higher-powered signal streams like the older analog phones. Yet who really knows the ultimate possible health hazards of frequently holding a microwave transmitter next to your head? After all, remember Johnnie Cochran, O.J. Simpson’s famous defense lawyer? A near-constant user of cell phones virtually from their inception, he died at age sixty-seven of brain cancer. His neurosurgeon stated that Cochran’s tumor was on the side of his head where he habitually held his cell phone, and that he had noticed the same pattern with other brain cancer patients.

The world’s first call on a portable cell phone occurred in 1973. Cochran died in 2005 – the maximum possible time he could have used cell phones was no more than 32 years (certainly a long time in itself). But what of today’s children? Because while the mainstream medical profession hasn’t in any way condemned cell phone use (and also took a long time to really criticize cigarette smoking), who can know what possible ill effects could be someday experienced by individuals who may have commonly used the devices for 40 or 50 years, or more?

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