We’ve all heard the whispers for years; cell phones may cause cancer. The last scene of Thank You for Smoking always comes to mind when I hear this… When the mobile phone lobbyist joins the monthly meeting of the “MOD squad” (MOD standing for Merchants of Death which includes big tobacco, firearms, and alcohol).
Not personally knowing much about electromagnetic fields, I tend to leave the conclusion to the experts. Most research studies have concluded cell phone usages has no link to brain tumors or other adverse health defects, however Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute has sounded the alarm on this topic.
“Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Herberman said.
Herberman suggests we use our speakerphones or hands free devices more often and try to limit our public cell phone use, in order to limit others’ exposure.
But my question is, can our society live without our phones? Mobile phones have become such an iatrical part of everyday life, I am not sure people could walk away from the devices that not only serves as their alarm clock, but also a map, a mini computer, and the main connecting point to all social contacts. I think mobile phones are now engrained so deeply into our society and everyday behavior that walking away is not an option. Our society would be lost without the constant connection.
While Kathie’s article yesterday covers a lot of the deeply saddening buzz around the Virginia Tech massacre and the schools lack of emergency communication preparedness I just wanted to point out a few more things. One of them very very ghostly in my book.
Its an article from this past SEPTEMBER in the Roanoke which eerily begins with talking about a Virginia Tech University man-hut for a double murderer. The story highlights how while they relied on e-mail, the Web and messages sent to dorm phones to get the messages out the ability to reach kids on their cell phone was out of the question.
The article then points out that university officials at Virginia Tech already met with University text message provider E2Campus. But Virginia Tech, like most schools, saw this as to much of an an innovative idea.
“We will certainly be investigating other kinds of communications vehicles,” Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said, though he cautioned that a text-messaging system was still a “blue sky idea” that would take investigation to implement.
“Blue Sky” idea, huh? Lets compare this statement to and jump to yesterday and some little blurbs from todays New York Post:
“Before the campus alerts went out, students already began using their cell phones and text messaging to warn one another.”
I was in my class… two buildings over,: Michelle Billman told ABC News. Someone got a text message saying something was going on. After that, we where told to stay in the building.”
The only reason we knew was someone got a text message… no one was there saying “This is what’s going on,’” said Billman, the general manager of the campus radio station.
Steger said the university decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means of notifying members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out.
Looks like someone’s idea of a “Blue Sky” solution actually seemed like the practical thing to do.
Rafat overt at MocoNews also thinks to think so. Besides pointing out the mobile phone citizen journalism that took place with a Nokia N70, Rafat also pointed out how NYC-based Rave Wireless, even has a blog on campus mobility. Its system differs in that, along with allowing text alerts, it enables college police departments to monitor the locations of students, both on and off campus.
The Roanoke article also lists more companies in the mobile university space.
But the crisis also speaks to a larger communication issue than just text alerts. It speaks to the difficulty that universities have in communicating with college students in general and therefore the concern does not just lie with universities themselves but with anyone trying to communicate with this demographic.
So if you are media empire, political campaign or non profit you may want to take a look at how kids on campus are speaking to each other (i.e over their phones) and start thinking about how best to go about with a mobile strategy.
The other day Yasmine over at M-Trends wrote a wonderful article about Ergonomics that I wanted to share with you. Yasmine states:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary online, ergonomics was in 1954 described as the finding of the perfect man machine unit so “to promote accuracy and speed of operation, and at the same time to ensure minimum fatigue and thereby maximum efficiency.”
Here in Barcelona, the home of this year’s 3GSM, is all about ergonomics, but not in the most obvious way. You can’t escape this city without running into one or two of Antoni Gaudí’s buildings. He is known for his innovative designs, curvy walls, incorporation of nature, and finally, for his attention to ergonomics. Not only did the man design the craziest staircases in the world, but he also paid specific attention detail. On his handrails you will notice they are different and much more comfortable than standard handrails. The same could be said about the small amount of furniture he designed; amazing comfortable and with attention to the smallest details, such as how your elbows will rest on the peice. What is most fascinating about the man and his creations is that the were built nearly a century ago… imagine if he was designing one of today’s phones… I am certain we would not have a single straight line or sore thumbs.
At breakfast this morning, a friend made a joke about the anxiety one blogger felt when being away from his computer for more than just a few hours. I guess his parents were getting upset they never saw him and he didn’t change out of his pajamas and stuff…. And while yes this anecdote is seemingly funny, at the same time it wasn’t because um, that’s the way I am with my phone. And I guess I am not the only one! The University of Florida released a study earlier this week in regards to anxiety people feel when away from their phones.
Although cellular phones and personal digital assistants such as the BlackBerry were created to make modern life more convenient, they’re actually beginning to interfere in the lives of users who don’t know when to turn them off, says Lisa Merlo, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the UF College of Medicine.
“It’s not so much talking on the phone that’s typically the problem although that can have consequences too,” Merlo said. “(It’s) this need to be connected, to know what’s going on and be available to other people. That’s one of the hallmarks of cell phone addiction.”
Unlike addictions to alcohol, drugs or even gambling, it can be hard to pinpoint problematic cell phone use. Almost everyone has a cell phone and uses it regularly. But if someone can’t get through dinner without sending text messages or furiously typing on a personal digital assistant during a meeting, it may be time to t
Hmm… I may send text message during dinner, but, idk, is that really a sign of addiction? Wait, I think I made it through breakfast without looking at it
I am not germophobic, but I will confuse, the NY subway totally scheeves me out. But maybe I am worrying about the wrong thing. Dial-a-Phone conducted a resent study analyzing the bacteria found on everyday items, including the mobile phone.
The shocking results found that there’s more muck on our mobiles than the average door handle, keyboard, and bottom of a shoe or even a toilet seat. The study found that without cleaning and disinfecting your mobile phone and keyboard on a regular basis, more bacteria could spread potentially causing illness.
So, maybe instead of gloping on the anti-bacterial gel when you get to your office, you should hose down your mobile with Clorox (or just use one of these).
Besides the fact that when you are text messaging you do not have to hold the cell phone up to your head, text messaging is now good for your health for other reasons, wherever you are.
usually when I give speeches on the use of mobile in marketing I always begin by asking the audience to take out their cell phone and open up the application that gives them first aid information. The usual experience is that no body
First their is this interesting article from the BBC about how Mobile Phones are being used to track diseases such as HIV and bird flu in developing nations.
The software is designed to allow field workers using handsets to send and receive data on disease outbreaks along with patient and drug information.
The project is a collaboration between technology firm Voxiva and the trade association for mobile operators, GSMA.
Trials of the relatively low-cost application are underway in Rwanda, Africa and in Indonesia.
When a disease is spreading rapidly, health authorities need information that is bang-up-to-date
Rob Conway, GSMA
The program works by sending the data through the general packet radio service (GPRS) network, and if this is unavailable, it can divert to an SMS data channel, normally used for text messages.
It is programmed using java language, so can work across different handsets and operators. [read]
Then there is this article that is has been floating around on how UK Citizens are now able to access important health information by SMS.
‘Health-SMS’ utilises the power and popularity of SMS text messaging to help raise the awareness and understanding of health issues amongst the general public. [read]
Earlier this year it was time for my Grandparents Mima and Papa to get new cell phones. They where still on AT&T Wireless’ Blue’s (which is now Cingular) TDMA network. My grandmother did not want to give up here phone. My grandfather was kind of excited about it. Until the guy at the store handed him a Sony Ericsson W600i Walkman phone (apparently because he liked the swivel feature… my grandfather used to make money as a trapeze catcher when he first came to America after the war).
My grandfathers experience with the Sony Ericcson W600i lasted all but a day. Understandably, it was to much for him. This time I went back to Cingular with him. Gave the guy you provided my grandfather with this phone a good piece of my mind. My grandfather then settled on my Razr, even though I was against it and my grandmother on a much more simpler motorola (who’s model I forget at the moment).
I then spent a good part of the afternoon putting numbers into their phone, showing them how to use speed dial and showing them how to take pictures (and putting pictures of one another as their wallpaper… cute… I know).
This made me realize that when the cell phone boom took off many elderly people where left behind and x’d out of the mobile future. From a marketing perspective they where left out of the entire picture.
All this time and hassle could have been saved if only the Jitterbug from GreatCall, which is being released to the world today, way already in play. Invented by Arlene Harris, wireless industry veteran and wife to Marty Cooper (one of the pivotal inventor’s of the cell phone)the Jitterbug phone and service is made to be “perfectly simple” and designed especially for the likes of Mima and Papa to work as a phone they way they know a phone should.
The specially made by Samsung phones have a special padding around the ears to block off background noise (which really does work) and sports a large bright screen with large numbers that are very easy to see. Sans all the other gobidlygook that cell phones have, the phone was extremely easy to navigate (finding the the contacts is what this phone was made to do) and its simple “yes” and “no” take the confusion away from from simple cell phone commands like answering a call. One thing I thought was really neat was that people can choose to have a “dial tone” feature so that it can experienced like a real landline phone and thus seem more natural to use.
There are two phones being offered right away. The Jitterbug Dial and the Jitterbug OneTouch. Both phones are the same model the difference being that the One Touch phone only has three buttons on each (for the three numbers you may need right away (preset by you or a relative) which is a smart choice if you want the security of having a cell phone in your car, purse or pocket for an emergency but don’t really need a full functioning cell phone.The Jitterbug Dial is more your traditional cell phone sans camera, text messaging and all the jazz.
All contacts will already be preset into the phone when delivered (thus is done via the ordering process) but you can always also just hit “0″ and get your personal Jitterbug operator who can connect your call at anytime just by asking “can you call “Justin for me” (just like in the good old days). Jitterbug customers can even add contacts this way as the phone and Jitterbug system are synced like that but a web portal is also available for that purpose if grandpa is into that sort of thing.
The billing is also made wonderfully simple with monthly and annual plans both of which include an SOS plan which is a basic emergency use plan (no minutes included) which starts at 10 bucks a month for the monthly or 244 dollars for the year. The plans seem fair (when you take into account there demographic). 300 anytime minutes per month os $40 bucks a month or 3,600 minutes for $569 dollars a year. Extra minutes are .35 cents.
The one catch is that a big selling point of the service, the Jitterbug operator-assisted call will deduct 5 minutes from your monthly account. There is no text messaging.
When I spoke to Arlene at a Pepcom event in NY she told me that the service has some exciting future plans in store beyond push for emergency help and simplicity. She told me that she imagined a service that will allow users to hold down a button to get a subscription refilled and delivered and or have the phone set with medicine taking alerts.
Nevertheless, there is now no excuse for grandma not to call you whenever she wants (which I guess could be a good or bad thing :-)).
We’ve all heard the whispers for years; cell phones may cause cancer. The last scene of Thank You for Smoking always comes to mind when I hear this… When the mobile phone lobbyist joins the monthly meeting of the “MOD squad” (MOD standing for Merchants of Death which includes big tobacco, firearms, and alcohol).
I am not germophobic, but I will confuse, the NY subway totally scheeves me out. But maybe I am worrying about the wrong thing. 
