Hard time coming for cell phone users
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Some folks are wringing their hands over the new law, set to take effect today, that prohibits cell phone use while driving unless the cell phone is hooked up to a hands-free device.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand it,” one woman told the San Francisco Chronicle. She admits being addicted to her cell phone, and will now have to become addicted to a hands-free device or something else.
It is not going to be a problem for me. I already have a hands-free device. It is called Mrs. Doud. When we are driving together and need to make a call, she is the one who makes it if I am driving. If she is driving, I will make the call, if I can figure out how to make the new cell phone work. The call usually goes like this: “Hi, we’re lost. Can you tell us again how to get there?”
Our old cell phone was easy to use because it did just one thing — it let you make and receive telephone calls.
The cell phone we have now is far more complicated to operate. It has all kinds of adjustments. It plays music. It hosts games. It tells you what time it is in Moscow, Russia. It will calculate how much of a tip you owe in a restaurant. It will take pictures and movies. It will receive and send text messages.
And, if one can work it out, it will allow one to make and receive phone calls, and sometimes one actually can understand what is being said.
Young people seem to have been born knowing how to operate these complicated devices, but not I. I was born barely knowing how to use a box of Crayolas, which will never be a hands-free operation.
I’m not sure I could ever learn to use a hands-free cell phone. If I do, I’ll call you and let you know.
