What the Cell...& Lucifer's Dream Box!

 My grievances with cell phones & TVs

“It's Stalin's dream. Cell phones are tools of Big Brother. I'm not going to carry a tracking device that records where I go all the time, and I'm not going to carry a surveillance device that can be turned on to eavesdrop." Richard Stallman

Cellphones 

    I don't want a cell phone - I hate talking on the phone at home, and I don't want to be accessible to everyone 24/7.

I do not like that people can be tracked so easily with cell phones.  I also have problems paying that kind of money every month.  Over 80% of the people in the USA have cell phones, so if I did need one, I could just borrow someone's to make a call.  Cell phones make people more disorganized because then they plan less.   

Cellphones disrespect your freedom!

    Watch this interesting video on cell phones and see how easy it is to spy on someone who has one.

Alternatives to cell phones 

    I think an interesting alternative phone service would be Omma because it would cost about $200 for a one-time purchase for the hardware, but after that, it would only cost $3.50 per month.  Having one at home would let people contact me there and the cost would be very low.  I could also see setting up one at my business office once I start it.

    As a mobile service, I would use a CB radio when driving.  This is a good idea because you can find out about current road conditions and yet not be bothered with incoming calls.  Once you buy the hardware, there is no extra monthly fee with it.   

“Email, instant messaging, and the internet are connected. Cell phones are leashes... and they are on proprietary networks that work hard to reduce your connectivity." -Brian  Huff 

TV = Lucifer's Dream Box

    Entertainer Bill Hicks called TV "Lucifer's Dream Box" years ago, but I think it still holds true today.  People spend too much time and too much money watching TV and wasting their lives away.  They could spend their time doing so many better things for the universe than watching some sitcom on one of the 500+ channels that they pay well over $50 per month for. 

"You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on."- Steve Jobs

    In the UK, anyone who owns a TV has to pay the government a fee per year per TV so that they can support the "BBC".  A color television license is $192, and a black and white TV license costs around $64 per year.  Owning a TV in the UK means that the government will go after people who do not pay their TV fee.  I think a lot of this has to do with their TV network being mostly government run.  But privatizing their networks and selling them off to a media king like Rupert Murdoch wouldn't be any better.  So viewers in the UK are damned if they do, or damned if they don't.       

"At its core, TV is an advertising box." - Ron Kaufman

Doing battle with Lucifer

    I could see having only one TV in my house.  It would be an old one with a digital converter and it would be able to watch the Free-to-air TV networks (e.g. ABC,CBS,PBS and others).  One thing that has happened since TV started going mainstream in the 1950's is that community and civic involvement has declined.  Most people would rather sit around and watch the idiot box rather than socialize with others.  A very good book that documents this trend is called Bowling Alone Collapse of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam.  I can get other content that I want on the internet and not have to deal with fees and commercials and be able to muti-task. These are some of my thoughts on TV, cell phones, and technology.