Muleskinner

Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Opinion

Commentary: Lora Powell [Click to enlarge]

Like any rational-minded college student, I realize it is important to keep up with current technological advances. Individuals, especially of our generation, have been bombarded with new technologies since we were small children.

However, my most recent memory of important new technology was the coming of the cellular telephone.

As a child, my parents had the huge bag phones nestled safely in the consoles of their cars, picking them up immediately as soon as they rang.

Then, when I turned sixteen, my parents equipped me with the latest Nokia 3360, which seemed very small compared to the bag phones of old. It was short and fat, with no color screen and no fancy music or video applications.

The greatest thing about it was the fabulous game of Snake (which I'm sure most of you remember). It got service only when it wanted to, but that was fine with me. After all, I was the proud new owner of a cell phone!

Today, we enjoy such fabulous features as built-in digital cameras, mp3 players, ring tones that resemble actual songs, Bluetooth technology and full Internet access.

As convenient and wonderful as all these features may be, I question the relevance of this new technology and the sanity of some taking advantage of it. In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to provide you with my own list of cell phone etiquette rules.

Camera phones
As we have all heard on the news, there have been some serious legal repercussions regarding cell phone camera usage. For all of you who are wondering, it is completely unacceptable to take voyeuristic photos with your camera phone.

Amazingly enough, camera phones are the best friends of junior high school students, pedophiles, and peeping toms alike. Just because you can take pictures under the doors of public restroom stalls or fitting rooms, doesn't mean you should.

Text Messaging
"Texting" has opened up a whole new world of socializing during inconvenient times. For high school and college students, text messaging allows for sending important messages such as "He's so cute LOL," and "OMG can you believe her," during those pesky classes that always seem to get in the way of important social time. For those in the working world, it provides an outlet for announcing workplace boredom to any and all of your closest family members and friends.

Continued...

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