The Inland Echo

By Michael Breckenridge

On Jan. 25, 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service. Since then, dinners have been interrupted, gossip travels faster than any good-neighbor fence dared to dream, and teenagers discovered the ultimate way to connect with friends in preference to family. Would Bell have guessed back then that a technology capable of uniting people in ways previously impossible would one day divide them into atomized units both instantly accessible, capable of communicating as a kind of hive mind through incessant texting, and at the same time disdainful or incapable of traditional methods of communicating? Perhaps the outcome was inevitable. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it – not by a mile.

Engineers are currently working on ways to use cell phones as credit cards in the United States. The technology, which allows a person to wave the cell phone over a payment device similar to the card-sliding devices currently used at checkout to complete a sale, has been in wide use for five years now in Japan, and is being tested in selected American cities, including Atlanta, New York and San Francisco. All of this advancement, however, has worrisome implications. Using cell phones for payments means the cell phone can never be allowed to go out of service, and experts point out there are privacy issues. 

One of the worst aspects of cell phones is the loss of control of one’s privacy. It used to be that if a person didn’t want to take any calls, just unplugging the phone would do the trick. Then came screening calls through an answering machine. The sanctity of the home was still violated by the recorder, but at least a person could decline to pick up. If an annoying caller persisted, it was possible to block that person’s number from ever reaching home again. Cell phone companies have declined to permit that function. And hence, one of the most potent weapons against harrassment was deleted from the average person’s arsenal of freedom.

The TV news recently reported that schools in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are desperately trying to rid their classrooms of cell phones, yet students continue to sneak them in for everything from cheating on tests to cyberbullying. As much as the parents of the “Safety Generation” love to be able to call their kids on a moment’s notice and check up on them, this same enabling technology is cutting into the effectiveness of the very reason why kids leave home – to attend school and get good grades – on their own.

In the St. Petersburg Floridian, Michael Kruse wrote about cell phones, “Studies from Michigan to MIT say a majority of us think we can’t live without them . . . and think they’re the most irritating of modern technologies.”

The invasiveness of phones of is just beginning, however. Six years ago, the concept of implanting cell phone technology in a tooth was first demonstrated at the Royal College of Art. In an Associated Press interview, Caitlin Caddies, 8, who tried the prototype at the Science Museum in London, said, “It felt strange. It was weird. But I’d be delighted to have it if it would allow my friends to call me at night while I was in bed without my parents knowing.”

Then about a year ago, a technology was introduced that allows cell phones to be subcutaneously injected into the body. A blood-powered touchpad on the arm operates the device. Talk about being armed with a phone.

A joke is circulating the internet about implantable cell phones that goes something like this:

Three women, two younger, and one a senior citizen, were sitting naked in a sauna. Suddenly there was a beeping sound. One of the young women pressed her forearm and the beep stopped. The others looked at her questioningly. “That was my pager,” she said. “I have a microchip under the skin of my arm.”

A few minutes later, a phone rang. The second young woman lifted her palm to her ear. When she finished, she explained, “That was my mobile phone. I have a microchip in my hand.”

The older woman felt very low-tech. Not to be outdone, she decided she had to do something just as impressive. She stepped out of the sauna and went to the bathroom. She returned with a piece of toilet paper hanging from her rear end.

The others raised their eyebrows and stared at her. The older woman finally said, “Well, will you look at that…I’m getting a fax!”

The competition between the women is indicative of the problem we face as a society. It’s unsettling to realize how the simple idea of finding a way for people to talk to one another without meeting face to face has led to so much grief and complication today. We aren’t advancing communications technology for the good of people. It’s all just a race to see who’s the most technologically savvy, who can most closely emulate the cyborgs of science fiction. The question too few people are asking is: how do we opt-out? For those who want to partake of modern society, the question is rhetorical, because phones are here to stay. However, I will remain “low-tech” and leave the phone outside my body.

 

Related posts:

1. Severe space weather can disrupt Earth-based technology, study says
2. Galveston newspaper never missed a beat during Ike disaster
3. Be the change you want to see in the world
4. Nation marks 7th anniversary of terror attacks
5. Teens found posting and sending nude and partly nude images of themselves and friends using internet and cell phones