Mobile phone conversations often suck
Posted on 24 Jan 2011 by Alan Burns
Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams can hardly be called a technophobe, having worked with telecommunications engineers and as a computer programmer. Yet, he is among a small, but I hope growing, group who are tired of mobile phones.
In his blog, Adams wonders whether mobile phones have become useless for voice conversations other than in limited situations, such as: “I WILL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES! TEN MINUTES! I SAID I WILL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES! HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
Adams writes that a mobile phone conversation is a frustrating failure if any of these conditions is true:
- You have a weak signal.
- You are using an earpiece or headset.
- The other person has a weak signal.
- The other person is using an earpiece or headset.
- The other person has a mobile phone (delay problem).
- You are multitasking and can’t think.
- The other person is multitasking and can’t think.
- You are in a noisy environment, such as Earth.
- The other person is in a noisy environment, such as Earth.
- You get another call you have to take.
- The other person gets another call he has to take.
- You have a dying battery.
- You have a phone that drops calls for no good reason.
- The other person has a phone that drops calls for no good reason.
- The other person has a dying battery.
- You are in a restaurant and you’re not a jerk.
- The other person is in a restaurant and isn’t a jerk.
- There is a child within 100 yards of you.
- There is a child within 100 yards of the other person.
As can be seen, that covers almost every situation. There was a time when most mobile phone calls involved a land line on the other end, so at least one end of the conversation was likely to be trouble-free. Now an increasing percentage of calls are mobile to mobile, and there often seem to be issues.
My clients and friends are often surprised to learn that I no longer have a mobile phone. Not only am I not a technophobe, I am usually the one they ask for advice on new products or technical problems. But, in addition to some of the technical annoyances Adams mentions, I find that I do not need to be instantly reachable by voice at all times.
When on extended trips in Europe, I found a Blackberry to be very useful as I arranged to meet people at various destinations. But, I rarely used voice calling, doing most of my communicating via e-mail and text.
So many people yell into their mobile phones while annoying train passengers, restaurant patrons, or other innocent bystanders, due either to technical issues or their own cluelessness about the capabilities of microphones and speakers. If we could eliminate or reduce their numbers, we would really have accomplished something.
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