Re: phones and human welfare

[Chris Doss <lookoverhere1@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx> wrote:

it seems to me that cell phones are at best a mixed
blessing. (I have
one, but I hate it: it rings when I'm driving, so I
either have to pull
over to talk or drive in a risky way. This morning it
interrupted a
good song by Townes Van Zandt.)  They are only really
necessary if the
land-line system is broken for some reason. If you see
phones as part of
some sort of human development index, it would be as
"cell phones _plus_
access to land-lines" or something like that.

---
Russia practically has a full-fledged cult of the
mobile phone. About half the population has one (as
opposed to about 5% in 1998). It's a social symbol
that says you're part of the middle class, even if you
really aren't. People practically organize their lives
around those things. There are dating services run
through mobile phones in Russia (maybe this is true in
the US nowadays too -- I haven't been back there in years).



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