Cellphones: With Great Power Comes Great Responsability

"What did I say?" - My parish priest during the third time a cellphone rang during that Mass.


Cellphones are amazing. Cellphones are convenient. Cellphones are also VERY annoying sometimes. No one has ever actually established a proper etiquette for cellphones, but there seem to be a few obvious rules...or at least they SHOULD be obvious.

1: "So then, I have this really important thing to tell you...um...are you even paying attention?"

If someone's trying to talk to you, the general rule is that it's rude to simply take a call in the middle of the conversation. At least without excusing yourself. For an example of how this rule applies, let's look at Bob & Rob:

BOB: ...look, I don't know why I've been trying so hard these last few weeks...
ROB: Wait, hold on, my phone just rang...hello? Blah blah blah blah...
BOB: ...........

I once saw a woman talk on her phone in the middle of a FlowerDay presentation. Apparently, she was under the impression that she wasn't interrupting anything, when in reality, I could hear her and I was on the other side of the crowd. Wonder how her child felt that mummy wasn't paying much attention to her celebration.



2: "Using cellphones can be hazardous to your health."

Believe it or not, the above statement is true during some situations. They include:

-Cars: One's attention span is drastically reduced when talking on a cellphone. There's a REASON why several laws seem to forbid it nowadays.

-Airplanes: Cellphones are prohibited on most flights nowadays because it can interfere with its wireless communications. While I have not heard of such an incident, it would certainly be a shame for a plane to crash all because of a guy who was using a cellphone.

-Hospitals: Cellphones can interfere with several equipment on site.

-I heard of a train crash situation in which the driver's last moments were apparently spent texting.

3: "We now ask you to take this opportunity to turn off your cellphones. Not ask, actually, DEMAND."

Related to point #1. The only thing more rude than to talk on your cellphone while someone is trying to talk to you is to talk on your cellphone when someone actually ASKED you to turn off your cellphone. This applies in movie theatres, masses, etc.


Besides, it's just very, VERY embarassing when your cellphone happens to ring in an inappropriate place in where EVERYONE hears your cellphone. I saw an unfortunate man who's cellphone rang in church. The priest actually stopped and made a joke about it before continuing. Ouch.


4: "If possible, can you please get OUT of the room before you talk? I actually don't care about your conversation."

No, I don't care that Tommy just got himself a new girlfriend. Actually, you're not even talking to me, so you might want to get out of the room before Tommy - who is just a few metres away and is actually looking at you with a weird look on his face - approaches you.

5: "Can you please speak a little softer? You're polluting the air."

Sometimes, rule #4 is just impossible. Understandable if you're on a bus or somewhere where it's hard to maneuver. But still, complaining about how crowded the bus is on your phone using a really loud voice isn't exactly the best thing to do.

I saw a man outside Scarborough Town Centre the other day who was talking via Bluetooth. Granted, he was outside the mall and as many people as he would inside of it. But he was still getting looks from various shoppers who were saying in their heads: "Why is this guy talking in such a loud voice anyway?"

Meh. It's only advanced technology. Nothing special.

“It can always be better,” Anonymous

I have a confession to make; I’m guilty of being annoyed at computers for not loading fast enough, and complaining about how boring airplanes are.

Then again, we all have, right?

Every single technology out there is destined to be obsolete one day, if it hasn’t already been. New car models come out every year, and new computers, IPods, and other technologies are developing at a very scary rate. Back then, no one would have said that cellphones could one day be described as “mini-computers”, and that television would have life-like quality. Every single newfangled gadget out there is dated; even holographic televisions and floating cars won’t seem so amazing after they’re made because we’re always going to be striving for something better.

Lots of people talk about how “the good ol’ days” were, and about how our generation is rather unappreciative. The truth is that we’re not really an unappreciative generation – I think – but that we just have no idea what life was without today’s technology. By growing up in the world that we’re in, I don’t know what life was like back then. I can’t appreciate the easiness of today’s phones because I have never used yesterday’s phones. For me, colour television is a norm because I have never had to watch a black-and-white TV. We’re not really a “crappy generation of idiots” who just don’t care, maybe we’re just unknowing.

So since we don’t know what life was like back then, it’s gotten to the point where we can’t live without technology. Does anyone still remember that blackout of 2003? I still have memories of making an outdoor fire and not being able to use the computer, the telephone, and the television. While it wasn’t too bad for me, some people couldn’t use the subway and were stranded in downtown, while some businesses suddenly shut down for a while. The blackout informed us that we have begun to depend on technology so much that we cannot return to “primitive” standards and expect to survive.

Then again, during that same blackout, I spent a lot of technology-free, pure family time, and

now I realise that we managed to get along well without our precious technology.

So what’s the moral of this entire story? Well, if we have to depend on our technology, then we can at least be appreciative of it. I have a newfound appreciation of today’s technology; I’m happy with today’s technology, and I think I’m going to be using it for a long time to come. It’s ok to strive for something better, but we need to realise that technology was always a bonus for humanity anyway. It can always be better, but it’s good enough.

(Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Originally published on December 30, 1990.)

P.S. On Youtube, search up the (rather primitive-looking) Spider-Man cartoon theme from the 80s. As the text at the beginning says, it’s in color!

RE: Gaming Gone Wild

(Editorial cartoon by Grahm Harrop. Appeared on the Vancouver Sun - February 15, 2001)

"I think great video games are like favourite playgrounds...Wouldn't it be great to have a whole drawer full of 'playgrounds' right at your fingertips?"

-Shigeru Miyamoto - the man behind Mario and Zelda

For a few years, I had a reputation as a "Mario Maniac"; no one else knew as much or played as much Mario games as I did. Therefore, I've seen both the fun and the ugly that comes from these games.

I've invested so much time and effort in these games, in the process sacrificing loads of (my parents') hard-earned money, eyesight, sleep, homework opportunities, and various other things. Not only that, but after a few years, I began to think..."Do I really want people to remember me as a Mario freak?" Well, it's a little late for that...

So, what made me invest so much time in it? Well, Game Boys aren't just a mess of wires and chips, they're portals into another world! Where else can one beat up turtles, fly into space, train electric mice to battle for you, run at supersonic speeds, and save the universe? After all, the life of a princess-saver is definetely more interesting than the life of a schoolboy. The virtual world can sometimes make the real world seem bland in comparison.


There's also a sense of achievement. Looking throughout the internet, people love to brag about their high scores or post videos showing how fast they can run through a level. Playing through Level One leads one to try to get to the last level. Playing through the last level leads one to try to collect all the secrets in all the levels. And so on. And games like Tetris are made so that you do a challenge over and over in an attempt to get a high score, one of the most addicting things ever.

Way back when in my pure "Mario freak" days, I didn't know when to stop. My parents have disconnected and hid my gaming systems three times (possibly more, I lost count). To be honest, though, I have to thank them for saving my sanity. I've always been prohibited to "weekend-only gaming". Gaming is fun, but when it consumes your life, it's too much.

I've been gaming a lot less lately. Not to say I've given it up entirely, but at the very least, I do know that achieving an amazing score on Dance Dance Revolution isn't worth giving up my real-life achievements, and that surprisingly, real life can actually be pretty amazing.