The best cell phones are not nearly as clear as a land line. I hate talking on a cell phone. I have to ask people to repeat themselves due to poor connections, wind noise and the positioning of their mouth.

In my office I have no distracting noise and I can concentrate on the call and the other party.

While on the subject,  cell phones in the car are dangerous. Texting while driving is as dangerous as drunk driving.  In the time to enter a single character you can go 160 feet. But even talking, even hands free, is more distracting than you realize. It is not the same as listening to the radio. On the phone you are engaged in something other than driving and safety.

Constant attention to your Blackberry or iPhone while you are meeting or dining with others is just plain rude.

Another  phone thing that bugs me-  If you do not have time to talk, then don’t answer the phone.

Some people are engaged in business that requires one to be constantly in touch. But most just labor under the delusion that they are indispensible.  There is a lot to be said for calling from a quiet distraction free office.

I feel like a dinosaur whenever I use my simple LG flip phone.  I am surrounded by iPhones and Blackberries and the growing inability of anyone to have an eye to eye conversation for thirty seconds without checking their hi-tech appendage.

I do respect the technology, but I find the constant interruption and stream distracting and inefficient.  It breaks focus.

Still the change it is bringing is significant. In the August 22 edition of New Scientist  they note that users downloaded over 1.5 BILLION apps on the iPhone alone in the first year of the iPhone App Store.  Over 64,500 NEW apps were added in the first year and 169 non-gaming apps are loaded every DAY. 1/3 of the users say that “apps have changed my life”, and app users spend 22% less time at a computer.

Like so much new technology we wonder how we ever lived without it.  We no longer find a need and fill it; we discover what we can do and then do it.

It is a poor picture of progress to do more efficiently that which does not need to be done at all. But I cannot deny the seduction.