Finding The Moron Cell Phone Owners

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the good-idea-or-bad-idea? dept

So, plenty of people have discussed idiots who let their cell phones ring where they shouldn’t. The most obvious solution is the cell phone jammer, which isn’t actually allowed in this country. Now, there’s a new technology that will simply detect if there’s a cell phone that’s on in a certain location. It can then request that the user turn it off, or alert guards in another room or anything like that. It’s an interesting idea, but it sucks for one very basic reason. It’s not the fact that the cell phone is on that causes the problem. It’s the idiots who (1) leave the ringer on or (2) answer the call when they shouldn’t. If I go to the movies, I’ll leave my phone on, but in silent mode. Then, if someone calls, I can see who’s calling without bothering anyone else. If it’s really important, I can walk out of the theater. It does no good to force me to turn off my phone. As the article points out, we really just need a “jerk detector”.