There are plenty of people out there who are already saying they expect mobile phone manufacturers to be the next “big tobacco” of legislation. I have heard plenty of debate about how mobile phone companies are paying for reports to play down the danger (much like tobacco companies did in the past), just as I have heard plenty of debate about how the dangers of second hand smoke may have been overstated for political purposes.

Depending on your views on these debates, it could very well be argued that the two are a lot closer than some might think. However, what I think we can all agree on is that there is no physical way use of a mobile phone could ever be physically addictive like nicotine is.

There are plenty of people out there who are already saying they expect mobile phone manufacturers to be the next “big tobacco” of legislation. I have heard plenty of debate about how mobile phone companies are paying for reports to play down the danger (much like tobacco companies did in the past), just as I have heard plenty of debate about how the dangers of second hand smoke may have been overstated for political purposes.

Depending on your views on these debates, it could very well be argued that the two are a lot closer than some might think. However, what I think we can all agree on is that there is no physical way use of a mobile phone could ever be physically addictive like nicotine is.

However, I will also add that the analogy to smoking is ridiculous…I don’t think we’ll see people getting terminal forms of cancer from BB usage, like with smoking.

What made smoking so “obnoxious” was that it literally destroys the tissues in the lungs of those around, not that it’s “addictive and compulsive.” If people had wanted to twiddle their thumbs as a habit, no one would have complained.

However, I will also add that the analogy to smoking is ridiculous…I don’t think we’ll see people getting terminal forms of cancer from BB usage, like with smoking.

What made smoking so “obnoxious” was that it literally destroys the tissues in the lungs of those around, not that it’s “addictive and compulsive.” If people had wanted to twiddle their thumbs as a habit, no one would have complained.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.

Have you ever seen an article talking about landline phone addiction? People depend on that every day to get along in the modern world, yet no one suggests that the use of a landline phone is a sign of some sort of compulsive disorder. How about car addiction, or Fax addiction, or electricity addiction, or TV addiction? These are all technologies that fundamentally changed the nature of our society, just like video games, online communities, instant messaging, mobile phones, and PDAs are now. However, unlike those other technologies from different eras, a great number of people today think that there must be something ‘wrong’ with anyone who behaves differently than people behaved when they were growing up. I suppose the author of the article would have been just fine had the person she was having dinner with would have interrupted her to ask the waiter for a pen and piece of paper to give her a phone number like a “normal” person? I mean, by her own telling of the story, she had asked him for someone’s number, and then found it rude when he emailed her the information she wanted!

Thus, perfectly healthy behaviors making use of new technologies suddenly become “inconsiderate’ or “addictions.” It is completely asinine. Even suggesting it is “inconsiderate” is like saying that someone must not like you because they won’t take the time to walk up five flights of stairs with you, instead letting their personal relationships get ruined by their sick addiction to that newfangled elevator thing. In my opinion, people like this author are just intimidated by new technology, and then project their feelings of inadequacy onto the person who is using the technology that intimidates them. As such, they assume the person is specifically using the technology out of some lack of consideration, or mean spirited desire to make them feel bad, as opposed to just seeing it as a normal occurrence.