Micro(tele)phones

By Todd Stadler · Sunday, January 28, 2001 9:02pm

There was a guy on the train the other day with his new Nokia 8260 cell phone. What struck me as unusual was how he was using it. He would put it to his ear to listen, and then put it in front of his mouth to talk. Back and forth, back and forth, through the whole conversation. Apparently, the phone was so small, he figured it couldn't pick up his voice unless he spoke right at it. And really, this isn't surprising.

We've been conditioned to think that you have to speak into a phone, not just near it. In spite of the apparent advantages made in cell phones, home telephones remain big enough to encourage this behavior. I guess this guy had never bothered finding out if the phone would work normally up against his ear.

It's all very interesting to me. I've seen cell phones that had flip-out extensions for no good reason, except that to give people something to talk into, even if there was no microphone in it. That something also gives a (false) air of privacy, since one's voice is blocked by this piece of plastic, right? Indeed, when I'm using my hands-free earpiece with my cell phone anywhere outside of my house or car, I feel oddly as if I'm talking to the world, since there is no microphone in front of me. It's funny how a wee bit of plastic builds an imaginary cocoon of silence around me, although everyone in my vicinity is perfectly able to be annoyed by my chatting.

But then humans are prone to wrap themselves up in their own little worlds that completely ignore the laws of reality, let alone neighboring human beings. Cars, anyone?