Individually, we have almost all benefitted from the wonders of mobile phones – communicating with family and friends in ways only dreamt of before, booking tickets for trains or exhibitions at the last minute, being told how to get from A to B and booking GP appointments (which, yes, does digitally exclude some people too).
But have we let our individual dependence on phones impinge on the freedoms of others too much? I am sure you know what I am driving at! When you are on the train wanting a bit of peace and a passenger is talking on their phone at the top of their lungs, it can start to grate, especially if the conversation drags on. Or worse, what if the noise of someone’s video game or music – on at top volume – is filling the carriage?
Of course, you can always move down the train or bus if the noise starts to get to you, but what about if you can’t move? If you are in the theatre or at a concert and the phone of the person next to you lights up half-way through, and they start texting away with complete oblivion, there’s not much you can do. This happened to me at the Proms recently. In the middle of Britten’s War Requiem, a haunting piece about the futility of war, someone near me got out her phone at least five or six times to text; she was smiling so it didn’t look serious. It felt disrespectful to the musicians on stage who had worked so hard to put on a great performance, and to the audience around.
This is by no means my only experience of phones ruining concerts. At a memorial concert I attended once, where the audience had specifically been asked at the start not to film the performers, out came the phone of the lady in front who was videoing her offspring for at least 10 minutes, her raised arms blocking the view for others behind her. In the end a person in the audience tapped her on the shoulder and told her to stop. Friends tell me they have had similar experiences at the theatre. In one concert some years ago, the famous violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter actually stopped playing and asked a lady in the front row to stop filming as it was so distracting.
As we look down the carriage at people on their mobile, sometimes people only half listening to each other because they are texting or scrolling, have we got the balance right between the rights and responsibilities of phone users? Phones are clearly proving to be more addictive than smoking in many cases, with the addiction potentially becoming a serious health issue, both in terms of people’s mental health and wellbeing and their eyesight.
So, is it time to reappraise the use of mobile phones in public places, especially where one person’s freedom to use their phone can impinge so much on another person’s choice not to?
* Judy Abel is a Lib Dem member who has worked in health policy for several major health charities. (She is still working)
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Mystery at Witchend is Went the Day Well? and Seven White Gates is A Matter of Life and Death
The long role of the Jewish community in Liverpool
Labour's post-election (non-)honeymoon: The Week in Polls
September now
Farron photos
Joe Bourke
Peter Martin
Mick Taylor
Michael BG
Jennie
5 Comments
No comments on this, but I know the use of mobile phones on loudspeaker in enclosed public spaces is affecting people negatively – just as smoking did!
Public nuisance, anti-social or inconsiderate behaviour did not begin with mobile phones – we’ve have graffiti, litter dropping and dog fouling for decades or even longer.
What’s really anti-social is the forced individualisation that is going on, with the withdrawal of phone boxes, app-only payments systems and businesses you can’t call or go to in person (which carries the risk that they might not be the trusted institutions they purport to be). Not to mention all the poison amplified by social-media malgorithms. Life is becoming more and more difficult without a smart phone, and that brings extra costs (buying an expensive gadget and maintaining a contract).
it’s not just the disadvantages listed above. Our increasing use of technology requires more and more power. Literally burning the planet. Technology has long gone past the point where it is demand led, if it ever was, now it is supply led. Everyone I know hates having to deal with AI. We mindlessly accept the latest gadget foisted upon us by the mega rich tech bros, without considering the environmental impact. Their business models are dubious – forcing us to update our devices by withdrawing support for the system you are perfectly happy with, for example. Like drug pushers they get you addicted to their products. The only way to stop them is to refuse to buy their products. My addiction to my computer taught me not to get a smart phone. Consumers of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your addictions.
Nice to see articles like these that cover topics that impact people’s lives but are not typically addressed by party politics.
It seems to me that there are several issues here:
1. People using devices in anti-social ways (playing noisy videos on trains, or the example Judy cites of a person blocking other people’s view of a show in order to film). For this we really need more of a public debate about what behaviours should be considered anti-social, and companies/venues being encouraged to enforce bans on those behaviours.
2. Requirement for apps etc. to interact with Government/book stuff/etc. Realistically this is going to continue happening because it is convenient for many people, and hugely saves costs in making those services available. Probably needs more thought about how to serve people who are unable to use those apps though (and how to pay the extra costs of that).
3. People using smartphones too much, which impacts brain development/concentration/etc. in all sorts of ways we are only just starting to understand. Probably more research and public education needed. Potentially a very difficult issue.
@Simon R and others – thank you for replying – I think we are only just beginning to understand the impact of mobile phones on health – a bit like in the early days of mass smoking. And yes @Catherine think of the energy needed to power up laptops and phones worldwide- it must be phenomenal! And yet as you say Andrew life without a phone is becoming increasingly difficult. But we may be forced to review our behaviour one day especially if people’s eyesight and mental health becomes too badly affected e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32452059/