The Phone Stack

[mangosteen]

lifecollage and I were out at brunch today, and we decided to play a version of The Phone Stack Game:

Rules: lifecollage and mangosteen's house rules for the Phone Stack Game

Comments

[spacehawk]

For the record, I refuse to get a smart phone.

I have a cell phone, with no internet access, and it is almost always off (which bothers folks trying to reach me!).

I am tethered to my computer when I am home, but when I'm out, I'm out.

[mangosteen]

Makes sense.

One of the interesting things about mobile telephony c. 2012 is that, just by having a cellphone, a person implicitly sets expectations (warranted or not) about their reachability. Setting expectations otherwise is an interesting problem because, IME, it doesn't always take.

Analogously, this goes for mobile email reachability. When I go on vacation, I have to make sure that everyone around me at work knows that I'm turning off mobile access to my work email, otherwise it's assumed that I'll check it every now and then, just to not fall completely behind when I return. I beg to differ. :)

[vatine]

I have not had voicemail on my (private) mobile for all the time I've had one that is mine. This seems to break a lot of people's assumptions.

My main line of reasoning here is that when I have tried "do not bother leaving a message, it will never be checked" for the short while I had an ansaphone on my landline (many many years ago, it basically said "I can't answer the landline right now, try my mobile at NNNNN if it's urgent"), people insisted on leaving messages. So, rather than having people leave messages that I won't check, it's better if they can't leave messages in the first place.

[spacehawk]

One of the interesting things about mobile telephony c. 2012 is that, just by having a cellphone, a person implicitly sets expectations (warranted or not) about their reachability. Setting expectations otherwise is an interesting problem because, IME, it doesn't always take.

Yes. I've been talked into agreeing to leave my phone on when en route to important work-related meetings, which makes sense, but I also made clear that I will not keep it on when I am driving.

[melebeth]

I try very hard to not be on the phone when I'm around other people. It's just polite. I don't always succeed, but it's usually because

a) the other person pulls out their phone
b) I have no idea what time it is

[mangosteen]

Completely agreed on all counts. :)

[perspicuity]

it's a cute game for many people, due to the intrinsic difficulty :)

tending to be one of those weird people who will silence rings when i'm talking to someone, with the caveat (actually told to the person), that i MIGHT be expecting a particularly important message; beyond that, the person gets my attention.

DEFINITELY don't have a need to fidget with the thing while driving. esp texting. i just don't GET that. most people just do NOT have the ability to do it right. oh well :)

hope to play this game at a dinner or something.

message pad: cheating! i'm always pushing and popping the mental stack... but if it's important to someone's process, i can see how it might be useful.

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[mangosteen]

I do not understand the "texting while driving" thing, and I don't expect I ever will. Human cognition just doesn't work that way.

[beah]

I am guilty of texting while driving despite being fully aware of what a bad idea it is. I am compelled. Maybe its just that I like to talk?

[rosefox]

I've started defaulting to turning off the internet connectivity on my phone. It's very handy to have it when I need it--to map an address, or pull a confirmation number out of email when picking up tickets, or what have you--but the rest of the time it's too much of a distraction.

[mangosteen]

I remember working that way while up in Canada, where the data roaming rates were annoying, but not outright punitive. Thinking of Internet access as a costly, limited resource only to be used for targeted fact-finding really brought me back. :)

[miss_chance]

I'm playing a similar-but-different game with myself lately. One of my own lack-of-mindfulness foibles is that I planplanplan, and when I'm in the middle of doing one thing, I'm working on the next. Now this is not necessarily always bad, and in some work contexts, it's downright useful. But, seriously, if I'm lying out in the grass with a sweetie and what I think of to say is something about the *next* thing we're going to do, that says to me I'm not exactly fully in the present. So whenever I find myself about to do that, I look around and find something in my immediate environment to comment or reflect on

[mangosteen]

One thing I don't understand in the game you're describing, is how it keeps from being annoying when various people's devices are vibrating or ringing alerts. I keep my phone on silent in my pocket, specifically so my dinner *won't* be interrupted by ringing/buzzing sounds. Once you have a pile of them, don't they become an object of distraction?

Not knowing the inventor's intentions, I think of it as part of the game. I personally would turn my phone off in such a situation, but it becomes an interesting object lesson if everyone leaves their phone ringers on and audible. That is, "take a look at the aggregate distraction of just 4-6 peoples' mobile devices." I can imagine people getting so annoyed that they a request a dispensation to pick up their phone, if only to turn it off. Alternately, it becomes a test of willpower if your phone is right there, and you hear it calling it for your attention, but now have an incentive not to pick it up.

[debsquared]

Yeah. I really don't like that my brain seems to need constant inane amusement, which is met far too well by the smart phone or having many browser tabs open. Living in the future, rather than the present, has always been an issue for me, and seems even more so with technology enablers (disablers?).