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Five Antisocial Gadgets That Should be Banned |
Fatal Rocko Willis
Fleet Admiral
Fatal Squadron
Joined: March 01, 2003
Posts: 1336
From: Kentucky
|  Posted: 2008-09-05 01:09
Technology moves fast, and manners aren’t keeping up. In older times, real innovations were so few and far-between that social conventions had time to grow up around them. Did you know, for example, that there was a recommended greeting for use with the new-fangled telephone? People didn’t know what to say when they picked up the speaking-tube, so they were given a suggestion: “Ahoy!” I still do this today — it confuses the heck out of the telemarketers.
But now that tech is everywhere and ever evolving, people don’t know how to conduct themselves in public. The gizmos themselves are innocent, but the users are not. Here I list five gadgets that should be banned until people learn to use them.
Speakerphones:
A speakerphone’s advantages are far outweighed by the fact that it can be used to play music. Specifically (and you might detect the voice of experience here), really bad rap music on the train to the beach. Back in the eighties, there was a penalty involved in portable tunes, and it came in the form of a backbreaking boombox equipped with around fifty D-Cell batteries.
Now there is no barrier, and anyone can pollute public spaces with what they obviously believe to be music loved by everyone there. Worse, the speakers are terrible. Bass becomes buzz, drums become tinny taps and vocals distort. At least the old 1980s boomboxes packed a decent punch.
Bluetooth Headsets:
If the cyborg-like plug in your ear weren’t bad enough, you look like a crazy-person whenever you use it, muttering to yourself as you walk down the street. Throw it away, now.
Custom Ringtones:
Closely related to the Speakerphone (and not strictly a gadget), the ringtone is the bane of modern existence, and reached a nadir with the release of the Crazy Frog, a ringtone based on a piece of music designed to piss people off (and actually called “Annoying Thing”).
Custom ringtones can be useful — I have the office number set to play a silent tone so I am never disturbed by my tyrannical employers, for example. But they are invariably used as a way to make the owner of the phone somehow look smart or funny. This, as we know, never works. Even if you have downloaded the latest chart-topper to show your excellent tastes off to the world, we all know that you just spent more than the cost of the track itself on a tinny, truncated MP3.
E-Books:
A strange one, you might think, given my love of the e-book. Lightweight, convenient and offering hundreds of titles in your pocket, the e-book is surely a perfect gadget. It can’t even annoy your fellow-travellers on public transport. But it has a secret agenda: to destroy romance itself.
Satnav:
This one comes from my brother, a motorbike rider who commutes daily. His problem: Morons. He thinks that most of the time people know where they are going and don’t actually need a satnav unit. Further, he argues, owners use them when they don’t need to, to justify the purchase.
I don’t necessarily agree, but I can’t argue with the theory in this one case: My brother saw a colleague pull up to work – a place he has driven to daily for years – with his GPS unit switched on. When challenged, he said it was for traffic avoidance. The problem? On his trip to work, there is only one route he can take, whatever the traffic conditions.
Which gadgets most annoy you?
[ This Message was edited by: Rocko Willis (Recruiting) on 2008-09-05 01:11 ]
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Leonide
Grand Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: October 01, 2005
Posts: 1553
From: Newport News, Virginia
| Posted: 2008-09-05 01:14
people driving with cell phones glued to their ear. my main pet peeve with gadgets.
[ This Message was edited by: leonide *FM* on 2008-09-05 01:15 ]
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Ship-Of-Fools
2nd Rear Admiral
Angry Mob
Joined: June 10, 2004
Posts: 415
From: USA
| Posted: 2008-09-05 01:45
not many gadgets annoy me, bluetooth used to annoy me
untill i got one, a super trucker one that was a must have
12 hours talk time with 450 hours standby, with quad noise filter (designed to be used on a big rig)
problem is i use it everywhere, even on the can, and the dude in the next stall always thinks i am talking to him
" ohh hey, what u up to?!"
(dude in other stall) "wtf!"
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GPS r extremly usefull devices, and a godsend to a truck driver, not for the routing( as almost no gps takes in consideration that u in an 80 foot long, 13'6, 80000lbs vehicle) but it Does (the garmin at least) put a flag on your destination (where u never been before) and where your truck is.
u just have to figure out how to get there
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Tommas [ USF HunnyBunny ]
Chief Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: February 04, 2006
Posts: 581
From: Norway
| Posted: 2008-09-05 08:39
well heres some thats alot more antisocial then that:
- COMPUTER 
- TV and GAME CONSOLES ( PLAYSTATION and so on)
Would be much more social to live in a cave wouldnt it?
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SaturnShadow™ *FC*(Angel Of Darkness)
Marshal
*Renegade Space Marines*
Joined: February 03, 2007
Posts: 310
From: UK
| Posted: 2008-09-05 09:01
wat really annoys me is that ur driving along and a guy in a car is on the phone and is honking his horn trying to say ur in the wrong.. man i wish i was a undercover cop qwhen that sort of thing happens
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Sardaukar
Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: October 08, 2002
Posts: 1656
| Posted: 2008-09-05 09:34
The iPod. Get people to use something that's actually good...
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Veronw
Marshal
Joined: December 13, 2004
Posts: 554
| Posted: 2008-09-05 12:54
/quote
Bluetooth Headsets:
If the cyborg-like plug in your ear weren’t bad enough, you look like a crazy-person whenever you use it, muttering to yourself as you walk down the street. Throw it away, now.
/quote
it is now illegal in california to drive with a normal cell phone, you get fined $1000 or more.
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Sanity Assassin (K'Luth propaganda)
Grand Admiral
Sanity Assassins
Joined: February 19, 2006
Posts: 919
From: Pittsburgh PA, USA
| Posted: 2008-09-05 13:38
I agree with all. Lets add cell phones in general to that list.
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The Master Debator
Cadet
Joined: July 03, 2008
Posts: 114
| Posted: 2008-09-05 14:05
clearly you havent personalised ringtones, my dad's friend for instance, designates his wife the "imperial march" ringtone.
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Supertrooper
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: March 18, 2004
Posts: 1895
From: Maryland, U.S.A
| Posted: 2008-09-05 15:58
I actually love E-Books.
I like to listen to my Zune when I go to sleep, and it's nice to listen to a book every now and then, heh.
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Deltabacon
Fleet Admiral
Joined: August 17, 2007
Posts: 395
From: Liverpool, Great Britain
| Posted: 2008-09-05 16:24
mobile phones can be useful though....
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Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
| Posted: 2008-09-05 18:30
Computers.
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Sanity Assassin (K'Luth propaganda)
Grand Admiral
Sanity Assassins
Joined: February 19, 2006
Posts: 919
From: Pittsburgh PA, USA
| Posted: 2008-09-05 18:35
Quote:
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On 2008-09-05 13:38, Sanity Assassin (K'Luth propaganda) wrote:
I agree with all. Lets add cell phones in general to that list.
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If you need a cellphone to survive something, you SHOULD die.
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The Master Debator
Cadet
Joined: July 03, 2008
Posts: 114
| Posted: 2008-09-05 18:46
Quote:
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On 2008-09-05 18:35, Sanity Assassin (K'Luth propaganda) wrote:
Quote:
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On 2008-09-05 13:38, Sanity Assassin (K'Luth propaganda) wrote:
I agree with all. Lets add cell phones in general to that list.
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If you need a cellphone to survive something, you SHOULD die.
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no, but it makes everything all the more convinient
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