Phonewalking addiction


Ever since the federal government started requiring universities to make publicly available knowledge about any incidents of crime that take place on or near their campuses, we get email notification of any incidents that occur. Initially it was somewhat jarring to get them, since they shattered the illusion that we lived in a crime-free bubble but it is a good thing if it encourages people to be more aware of their surroundings and take precautions to avoid becoming the victims of crime.

My university is in a city. As a result, there are public streets that cut through the campus. The most common type of crime that I read about is students having their cell phones snatched from their hands by thieves who then sprint away. I would have thought that this would convince people that talking on phones while walking is not a good idea. Not only are they so absorbed in the conversation that they are not paying attention to their surroundings, it makes it easy for the thieves to sneak up close to them and snatch it from their hands.

And yet, I still notice students continuing to do just that. It may be that they feel that making phone calls while walking somewhere is a form of efficient time-management. I suspect that it may also be due to a form of addiction that people cannot wean themselves out of, and for whatever reason feel the need to be in constant communication with others. I know some people who use their drive time as the period to catch up on their phone calls, even though they have been made aware that it is not safe to talk on the phone while driving.

Coverly-cell phone addiction

Comments

  1. Jim H. says

    I occasionally walk around with my phone out, but I hold it with a white-knuckle kung-fu grip. If someone wants to try to snatch it out of my hand as they pass by, they’re going to fail on the first attempt. If they don’t sprint away empty handed, I’m sprinting in the opposite direction.

  2. Jonny Vincent says

    As an unapologetic phone-walker, I take offence at being told I’m “asking for it” when I flaunt my wealth in front of the poor people who can’t afford a fancy iPhone 6* like mine. I know their desire is crazed, we keep them that way to exploit them. Why else would I be flashing my bling in front of poor people. Rich boys just wanna have fun. *teehee*

    * nb. My wealth is “cosmetic”. LOL. It’s funny as I have sex with poor girls before they realise I’m not actually wealthy. They’re so hungry, I just fool them with my cosmetic appearance of wealth. What? I have to or they won’t consent to sex.

    Don’t tell me how to walk. Tell the poor not to steal! This is just more “victim-blaming”. There’s no law against fraudulent wealth to induce sexual interest. It’s morally fine as it’s “normal”. I have the State monopoly of violence on my side, so I’m authorised to inflict suffering via fraud with the intent of leveraging real misery into advantage! I’m allowed to belittle and insult poor people with my illegitimate, unmerited superiority. Don’t tell me not to provoke. Tell them not to retaliate!

    My ancestors killed and coerced their ancestors so it’s not like I don’t have the Right. To blame me -- the victim of undesired desire I’ve induced -- is hateful! May I remind you that stealing phones is a crime? You’re just a theft-apologist.

    I’m not responsible for the consequences of my malicious intent, so phone-walking gets so annoying when I can only interest ugly and obese girls. Ugh! Why can’t the undesirables just leave me alone to solicit desired desire in peace? Poor people just want my money! They don’t value me as a human being. So I take pains to insult and ridicule them in public, to force them to respect me. I am not their ATM, okay? I’m just pretending to be to “catch” pretty girls. Arrest ugly women for objectifying me. My wealth may be fake but it’s still way too good for them. “No means No.” Creeps.

    “We need to teach the poor not to steal.”

  3. says

    1. No, sometimes I really don’t have the time to stay somewhere for 5 minutes longer and make the phone call there. It’s talking while walking or letting the kid wait in front of a closed school because I’m probably late. But while you’re distracted while making a call, you still can look in front of you and not walk into somebody else. So, no texting while walking.

    2. After dark I use the phone to create an audience. It might not deter a thief, but it might deter an attacker. There has been an attempted abduction on my campus. And yes, that’s rape pevention of the “make sure it’s not you but somebody else” variety.

    3. You failed at clever, Jonny Vincent, but you damn well managed creepy.

  4. Jonny Vincent says

    3. You failed at clever, Jonny Vincent, but you damn well managed creepy.

    I’m not a very good writer, I can even be incoherent on occasion. I think I try too hard, and it’d be great if I could give you some of my trying. I couldn’t help but notice, in my wanting to be convinced of the validity of your position, that you’ve done something very peculiar and exclusive to a particular subset of emotionally troubled victims of abuse.

    If you look at Point #3, you have failed to make an argument for anything other than your unwillingness to engage in productive, civil discourse and far more importantly, your utter unsuitability to care for impressionable children. How can I be convinced of your argument when you cannot even make one? It’s far more grave than generic antisocial conduct. You’re going to convince children with more bullying methods of persuasion. You should make the logical case for why your unwillingness to communicate any justification for your hostile disapproval will not present as violent ‘discipline’ of children who displease you. Humans are violent for this reason, incapacity to express emotional overflow when utilised as a poison container in infancy. You have a toxic leak, someone forgot to flush you after use. Whether they’re a wife-beater, a violent rapist or a mother hitting the devil out of her children in private, all violent impostion is cut from this cloth.

    “Oh she’s not representative of mothers.”

    Subjective experience has limited value but I have seen so much violence from women, I’m not inclined to doubt the more authoritative sources that declare my subjective experience to be representative of the global reality.

    “Hitting toddlers is just about universal.”
    -- Murray A. Straus (Beating the Devil Out of Them)

    Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never, never cruelty and lies.
    -- Alice Miller

    How can I value you if this is the extent of your contribution? You need to display that you have the capacity to do better or you will be a lock for abusing children when you’re emotional. Try working through your feelings before expressing them using reason, logic and sense. Or just try not being creepy, can you do that? I’ll give you another appraisal then. You’re entitled to nothing more than fairness and no child warrants your emotional degradation. Children are not reduced…yet.

  5. says

    I still have never gotten a cell phone. And I’m fine without it. I have nothing against them anymore (I used to) but I just can’t seem to get the urge to buy one. What happens is that cell phones partially create problems they were meant to solve. Remember…30 years ago and all of human history before that people got along just fine without them. They make people lazy planners and on top of that, if you HAVE one, people have expectations of constant availability from you. If you don’t have one and people KNOW you don’t have one, easy peasy… no problem.

  6. Chiroptera says

    ashleybell, #7: …people have expectations of constant availability from you.

    Heh. I just got my first cell phone this summer. Let’s just say that people are learning to have a different expectation about me. (As I explain to them: I’m not a physician. There is no need for anyone to be able to contact me at any time 24/7.)

  7. Jonny Vincent says

    Jonny: You should make the logical case for why your unwillingness to communicate any justification for your hostile disapproval will not present as violent ‘discipline’ of children who displease you.

    Giliell: I sure have better things to do with my time.

    Whenever a man says “I would never hit a woman”, you know his mother bullied him or he would say “I would never hit anyone” or “I would never hit a child”. I have never communicated with violence or force in my life, so I have always failed to protect children from emotionally degraded women who can’t justify their antisocial feelings. They have better things to do with their time.

    “Hitting toddlers is just about universal.”
    -- Murray A. Straus (Beating the Devil Out of Them)

    “Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life.”
    -- Alice Miller

    Perhaps you could find the time if you eliminated your cosmetics routine? It’s technically Rape by deception (“a crime in which the perpetrator has the victim’s sexual consent and compliance, but gains it through deception or fraud”) and your made up (fictional) appearance benefits no children, real men or real women. It’s just creepy fraud, if you think about it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *