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OT: Distracted living - cellphone rant

J

JML755

Well-known Member
I just got back from a run to Meijers, HD, Target, Lowes. Rude, discourteous, dangerous cellphone use is now an epidemic. Was walking down an aisle at Meijer's when a woman turned the corner into the aisle with a cart and kid in it. She was totally absorbed in the phone and was coming straight at me. I stopped and she got a few feet from me and looked up and moved to the side. I just shook my head and walked by her. She seemed annoyed at me shaking my head. Next, at Target a woman was at the end of an aisle with her cart sideways blocking access to it while she typed into the phone. I bumped her cart slightly as I went around it and she jumped as if I startled her. Then, as I drove through the main driveway that runs parallel with the building in front of HD, 2 young men (teens) were walking IN THE DRIVEWAY towards me but in the opposite lane. Both were absorbed in their phones. One of them looked up every few seconds as if he was the "lookout". I was tempted to blow the horn as I went by. At Lowes, there were no "incidents" but I couldn't help but notice how many people were talking on their phones as they walked through the lot, loaded up their cars or shopped.

I drive metro Detroit freeways every day and if people aren't on their phones talking, typing or reading something (texts? emails?), they're holding their phones up in one hand like they're ready to access them in a split second. Surface roads are worse. Stopped at a light and many use that as a chance to use their phone for 20 seconds or so.

I can't imagine where this will lead. People seem addicted to these doggone things to the point that they're missing out on living "life".
 
I work for a major railroad.we have drive cams in all vehicles,if we are caught even looking at a
cellphone while the vehicle is moving it is cause for termination and they are not kidding!
 
Come and sit on my front porch between 4 and 5pm any week day. People are on their way home from work. I live at the top of a hill,just beyond some curves,a mile from town. The top if the hill must be like the "safe zone" for them. I'd bet at a bare minimum 9 out of 10 are looking their phones when they top the hill. God help a calf or anything else if it was in the road just beyond the driveway.
 
Here in my area we have had a few recent accidents involving teen aged drivers running into someone at a stoplight or crossing the center line. No reason was given for this behavior but I can pretty well guess what the drivers were doing right before the accidents.
 
Neighbor has been rear ended twice each time by a texting teen. I guess that text or call is more urgent then life to them??

John T
 
After one of my friends daughters got killed driving and texting I convinced my wife to quit texting and emailing on her phone while she drives. She knows if I am driving and she text or calls me I wont answer until I get where I can pull over.
 

I remember my grandpa thought that people watching television in the evening would ruin the work ethic of the whole country. Everyone was supposed to "know" that we were meant to work until dark, have supper, then go right to bed.

My Dad thought car radios would be the death of us all because of distracted drivers.

I would send you a DVD copy of Grumpy Old Men if I knew where to mail it.
 
Highway deaths are up 14% for the first 6 months of 2015; biggest increase since 2007. DD is actually down so you know what the main cause is.
 
I think that Kent Gordon, and maybe Rich, are the only YTers, that have my cell phone number, in this group, But if any one calls me, and I tell them that I will call them back,It will be because I am talking face to face, with someone, and I feel it is rude, to stop, and hold another conversation. I rarely bothered my maintence supervisor, at Boeing, but when I did, it was job related, and not trivial. However if he got a call, while we were talking, I was left standing, while he BSed With someone. I hated that.
 
Easy now, next thing you'll be saying
that old tractors have killed/maimed
more people than cell phones!
 
Being a little older I have seen and remember many of these crazes!!! The cb radio, Ham radio, walki talki, Intercom, video arcade, movie rental and so on. Just wondering if these cell phones, Face book and so on will pass????
 
Yes, who do they find to talk to so much?

We had a few young'uns working here a couple years ago... All day long, head down poking at that phone! The expected work was way down the priority list, that phone was #1.

They're all gone now, good thing, everyday I expected somebody was going to get hurt, completely tuned out of what was going on around them.
 
Better yet, one of those aerosol can air horns like they use for boats. Reason number one, you will definetly get their attention. #2, they will have to try and figure out which isle their phone landed in.
 
It makes my blood boil when I see someone check
out at a store and talk on the phone at the same
time. I always crowd them and as soon as they get
their receipt I ask the cashier how they are doing
and tell them I won't be talking on my phone. Nice
and loud. I've made quite a few enemies. That's ok,
they have enough friends. Obviously, cause they
were just talking to them.
 
(quoted from post at 14:05:12 08/20/15) Being a little older I have seen and remember many of these crazes!!! The cb radio, Ham radio, walki talki, Intercom, video arcade, movie rental and so on. Just wondering if these cell phones, Face book and so on will pass????
Click to expand...

I a word no. With Ham and CB's size weight and area coverage/range made it so not everyone had them. Now you can talk to anyone almost world wide on a device that is light, compact and fits in your shirt pocket. Plus the cell providers have made it seem to people they have to be connected. Hams? Maybe 1% of the US population had them. CB's were most likely no more than about 10%. Today people without cell phones in the US is I bet only 20% or so. Home computers killed the arcades. Movie rentals was killed by the ability to stream movies online. Until another form of communication comes out that will let you talk, text, access the net and use it as a credit card reader the cell phone is here to stay.

Rick
 
Several years ago, my wife was in a head on collision caused by a 17 year old girl talking on her cell phone. My wife walked away from it at the time, but the law officers at the scene said if it hadn't been for the air bag and belts my she wouldn't have survived.

The gal that caused it got her face and arm messed up some, so she has a few scars as reminders.
 
I and the wife both have cell phones but seldom ever have them turned on......We don't even know how to text.....We are both
lost in the 60's and intend to stay there...
 
Smart Phone GPS application works very well and cheaply for farming with that old 8N, 3010, VAC, 4000, or whatever since the application is probably already on that smart phone that many are already paying a monthly bill for anyway. Unlike the new tractors, GPS wasn't available for yesterdays tractors. One can go out and purchase an aftermarket system for $1,000 or $6,000...or use the GPS from their smart phone, tablet, and materials from Menards. Some say "Google is my friend" while others say "An iPhone and duct tape and a few other things are fuel saving friends of my IH 1566".

Mark
Properly retrained, a AC 8550 can do this too
 
Had the strangest thing happen last month. I was headed up I69 and a woman passed me--and she was not talking or texting!!
 
I agree, I agree, and I'VE DONE IT! Left Lowes, after I saw a nice Husky mower a friend might be interested in. I called his office, on my cell, but a gal answered I hadn't talked to for months. I was so glad to talk to her, it was such a nice surprise, I forgot what I was doing and ran right thru the red light at the highway. No oncoming traffic, but I would have been T-boned.
 

A Couple years ago there was a thread about laws against talking and texting while driving. A few ranted about intrusion on their rights. The law took effect here in NH and I am very glad that it has! It was really getting out of hand and really scary when someone is coming over into your lane at you. Now everyone uses a blue tooth to talk and just wait to text. Well I guess I can't say everyone because I had a very close one a few days ago.
 
Pardon me, sir, but I beg to differ.....
How can you call a collision that results from texting while driving an ACCIDENT?????????

I have a problem with calling every collision an ACCIDENT. An ACCIDENT is something that happens when you are doing things the way you should, minding your own business, and being reasonably cautious. Texting while driving in particular is ASKING for TROUBLE. Just like weaving in and out of traffic at an unreasonable speed.

My (not so humble) opinion is that if a person is driving aggressively, inattentively, incompetently, or just plain stupidly, the resulting collision is NOT an ACCIDENT. It is the result of bad behavior, and is therefore in no way accidental. Calling something like that an accident is basically absolving the driver of the bad driving that caused the collision.

Sorry if this seems like a rant, because it is. It really torques my jaws to hear people euphemize what should become a criminal offense and should come with heavy fines and even jail time.

Not really directed to you personally, fixerupper, but I needed to add my 2 cents someplace.
 
Call someone on their phone and they don't answer, but text them and you get a reply in 30 seconds!
 
I don't understand the sudden need to be available 24-7 for calls or texts. Like most I have a phone, but wont use it while driving or when I'm in a store or most public places for that matter. I think it's rude. When I do get a call I tend to walk off somewhere out of the way of everybody else.

A few years ago I get a call at work that my daughter has been in a car wreck while driving down the highway. I left work and drove to the scene of the accident. Her car was completely demolished. Not a straight panel on it or a piece of glass left in it. The front suspension was ripped out and fluids running everywhere and air bags all deployed. Single car accident. Nobody else involved but her. After finishing up with the state patrol and her newly acquired piece of scrap metal loaded on a roll back headed to the crusher I asked what the heck happen. Her answer was " it just went in the ditch". Really? straight stretch of dry road no other cars involved and it just jumped in the ditch? Yep. The guy behind her stopped and when I was talking to him he said it was the strangest thing. She just drove off the road and never hit the brakes. He said the car went over twice before it stopped and ended up on it's top.
It took her a year to fess up to what really happen. Texting while driving. Cost her a really nice Volvo I bought her for graduation a year earlier. We were really lucky. All she had was a small cut and a sprained wrist.

Greg
 
I agree with, you, jocco, it will pass, but what do you suppose the next "latest and greatest gotta have it" trend will be? And will it annoy the rest of us?
 
I don't see the need either, but those who run a business or have a high level management job are required to be connected 24/7 with smart phones.

It seems the rant was over mostly woman using cell phones. I'm guessing they are trying to manage someone's business, like a man's business.
 
(quoted from post at 16:23:09 08/20/15)
I remember my grandpa thought that people watching television in the evening would ruin the work ethic of the whole country. Everyone was supposed to "know" that we were meant to work until dark, have supper, then go right to bed.

[b:6eee476fa8]My Dad thought car radios would be the death of us all because of distracted drivers.[/b:6eee476fa8]

I would send you a DVD copy of [b:6eee476fa8]Grumpy Old Men [/b:6eee476fa8]if I knew where to mail it.
Click to expand...

:lol: I assume from your reply that you don't see a problem with distracted driving (texting, talking, etc). Distracted driving has shown to be extremely dangerous as evidenced by a number of YT'ers who post here. Extrapolate those experiences to the general population and we've got a real problem. Distracted driving isn't caused JUST by cell-phone use. A neighbor's daughter rear-ended someone years ago because she WAS fiddling with the radio. (See? Your dad was right! :D )

My observation was mostly about how many people are on cell-phones constantly (not just in their cars) without any concern about their surroundings or that they are being rude.

Last night while working in the garage, I heard a voice and looked up to see a guy jogging by, talking to someone (cellphone strapped to his arm). He was huffing and puffing and I can't imagine how this sounded to the person on the other end of the conversation. Then, not 5 minutes later, 2 women walk past together. It's not unusual to see this in our neighborhood and hear them chatting to each other as they walk. But this time I hear BOTH of them talking at the same time. Sure enough, they're BOTH on their cellphones having separate conversations, seeming oblivious to their walking partner.

I am NOT anti-cellphone. I have an iPhone 6 for work, have had them since they first came out in the early 80's when they were installed in your car. They can be very useful. But I have never felt compelled to be on them every waking minute of the day.
 
I like it when they talk on their 'Bluetooth device' in the middle of an aisle. (Shouldn't it be a 'blue ear?). I like to look at them and nod during their conversations. Tends to get them upset.
 
It for sure is an epidemic ! I bet the deaths or injuries from cell phone operating drivers surpasses that of guns.

Good news is when I totally loose my mind and start talking to myself out loud full time, I can clip on a blue tooth and seem "normal" again !
 
I have two Blue Parrot blue tooth head sets, one to use and one to lose. LOL I talk through them more often than I talk through the regular phone, mainly because I can understand the Blue Parrot much better. I always use the Blue parrot when driving any vehicle and it's very handy when I'm in a tractor doing field work and need free hands for steering, hydraulics, etc. I have never used one of those stupid looking things that stick to your ear with the short little mic sticking out.

Texting can be a handy tool in the right circumstances, always when NOT driving, of course. This year I was in charge of the shuttle drivers in the visitors parking lot at our local threshing show. I had the cell # for most of them so I texted all of them to find out when or if they could drive. When they texted back I had that text on the phone to refer to when I made out the final driving schedule. It was a real time saver.
 
There's absolutely no accountability in America now for bad behavior. A precious little 5 year-old girl was killed about a mile from my place when some distracted idiot rear-ended her grandmother's car. She was in back seat. Should be considered murder one for these scumbags or the sentence should be that THEY get rear-ended at 60 MPH.
 
Bonnan,

Yep, make the penalty of texting the same as dwi. Wouldn't take much to verify when a person was texting. No breathalyzer; straight to jail, pending fines, court times etc. Immediate changes would occur!

D.
 
(quoted from post at 15:45:15 08/21/15) Bonnan,

Yep, make the penalty of texting the same as dwi. Wouldn't take much to verify when a person was texting. No breathalyzer; straight to jail, pending fines, court times etc. Immediate changes would occur!

D.
Click to expand...

Dennis: A state trooper I know here in MN says they are checking cell phone records with serious accidents. They get a search warrant and the phone companies tell em everything they need to know.

Rick
 
Just read in there was there was another rear end accident not too far from here. Truck was waiting to make a left turn and a car driven by a woman rear ended it. You can make your own assumptions.
 
Just on Wednesday a guy got sent home for his phone. He got caught 3 times, and got a verbal, then a written, and then a suspension. I can't believe he let it go beyond a verbal...

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
(quoted from post at 22:09:46 08/21/15) Just on Wednesday a guy got sent home for his phone. He got caught 3 times, and got a verbal, then a written, and then a suspension. I can't believe he let it go beyond a verbal...

Donovan from Wisconsin
Click to expand...

One of my sons worked at a place where using a cell was ground for immediate dismissal (loading docks running fork lifts). He knew people who got fired over that rule even though they were told.

Rick
 
Had a guy at the Dealership once, checking in a piece to be worked on. Suddenly got this glazed look in his eye and started talking on his phone.

Some friend or other, not a business call.

I got mad! walked away-before I said anything. Went to the bathroom. Did a #2. Was gone several minutes. When I walked back in he was still on the phone and I don't think he knew I had left . . . .
 
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