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<\/a>When I see people respond to a cell phone ring, ding or vibration I am reminded of Pavlov\u2019s experiments with dogs. By pressing a buzzer and then showing dogs food, they would salivate, knowing they would be fed. The dog will later come to associate the buzzer sound with the presentation of the food and salivate even with no food present. It appears to me, folks are becoming addicted to cell phones and respond, regardless of their environment, if prompted by a cell phone ring, ding or vibration! This is not just young people, although they appear worse than older folk, but I have watched this with business men at an airport and now even on the plane as they pay for internet access! It also appears to me that most of the dialog is really dribble! Some conversations may be useful, but while driving-I don\u2019t think so! And it will get worse; <\/span><\/span><\/span>Google Glass<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, <\/span><\/span><\/span>Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Gear<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> and <\/span><\/span><\/span>Pebble Smartwatch<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> will create even more distractions from driving. Perhaps the insurance companies should just jack-up the rates for those in an accident when talking on a phone or texting like they do for DUI! NSA probably has the needed data now to prove you were doing more than driving! Perhaps Google already has a plan to flash an attorney ad when it happens! Having never had an accident with another car in over 50 years of driving, I am most concerned about the Pavlov reaction, wheather responding to a phone call or worse text message. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I have had several \u201coff-the-road excursions\u201d as I refer to them. In my 260Z, CJ5 Jeep and others. But these were not from being distracted, but rather finding the edge. My current daily driver is a new Corvette Stingray and my Street Rod has an 8.2 liter, 525+hp engine, so I do drive fast, where appropriate and when only I am at risk! However, I try not to be distracted and do not turn on my cell phone or use OnStar when driving.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nTechnology Background: <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t think this is just the ranting\u2019s of an old man! (Skip unless you think I\u2019m just not up on technology!):<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I bought the 1<\/span><\/span><\/span>st<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/span> PC in the \u201870s when I managed an R&D group in Ohio. When I frequently called to inquire when the <\/span><\/span><\/span>Tandy TRS-80<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, on order, was arriving the Radio Shack manager finally said \u201cYou\u2019re getting the first one in the state of Ohio\u201d \u2013 which we did, some months later! It was much better than the same priced <\/span><\/span><\/span>TI-59 calculator<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> I was using while all our engineers had TI-58s (same as the 59 less card reader.) One of the engineers was trying to have production workers use a TI-58 for a specific cost saving task. I knew that would not work-but the TRS-80, properly programed, might. Once it arrived I programed it to do the same function with simple inputs and even made a dot picture of the plant manager hollering when the data input showed the data input showed the product was out of spec!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Moved to corporate office and bought my own TRS-80 II, which now had 64K of ram versus 16\u00a0KB in Level I. When we became a separate business in 1985 bought my own <\/span><\/span><\/span>IBM PC XT <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>Okidata dot matrix printer<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> for the house (as I recall a $3500 investment.) PC\u2019s were not in the workplace at that time. In fact when the IT department finally allowed PC\u2019s to be used in the office I had one of the first and also the first laptop some years later.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Currently I have a desktop and laptop with Windows 7, an <\/span><\/span><\/span>Apple iPad Air<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, an <\/span><\/span><\/span>iPod<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> as well as a <\/span><\/span><\/span>Samsung III<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> android phone (although I use the phone mostly for emails when I am out of town on short trips.) I also have an internet business which daughter (a computer whiz) helped me start with MS FrontPage 10 years ago. It now has 160 pages and many thousands of visits monthly (<\/span><\/span><\/span>www.NetWelding.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.) Selling and licensing several recently patented products on the Net paid for the new Vette! Thanks to daughter\u2019s skills, was able to switch the site to <\/span><\/span><\/span>Dreamweaver<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> this past December!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Must admit, I should be using text messaging more, as it can be answered like emails when I \u201cdecide to make the time,\u201d as can my recipients response.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Business Folks Responding Like One of Pavlov\u2019s Dog\u2019s<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Young folks, until they are of driving age, are not the problem, assuming it does not distract from their studies. Hopefully the use of a smart phone helps them explore new areas and gain useful knowledge in addition to communicating dribble! Guess it helps their self-esteem and makes them feel important when they get many requests to respond. Kind of like TV personalities who judge their worth (or the station management does) by the number of folks following their Twitter dribble! Frankly have a hard time believing anything useful can be communicated in 140 charterers! However my observation of some top corporate management responding like teenagers IS troubling!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n