Mobile Phone News:

An American psychologist has stated that sending too many text messages is a sure sign you’ve gone mental, and wear your underpants on your head, as reported by The Inquirer.

Apparently, if devices like your PC and your mobile phone are taken off you, you’ll get withdrawal symptoms, and according to Dr Jerald Block, a sure sign of becoming a nutcase is if you want better computer gear, and need more time to use it.

Erm, hang on, there is a name for that. It’s called ‘being a man’.

The idea of internet addiction has been around for ages, but Dr Block is the first person to say the same thing applies to text messages. And… well… to be fair to the guy, and I can actually see what he means, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near the global pandemic he seems to suggest it is. You see, I think he’s fallen into the classic trap of automatically thinking technology is bad. What he may not have considered is not that the technology is the problem, but that human nature is the problem, and has been since we evolved.

Let me explain.

We are a communicating species. We know this, and it’s probably one of the big factors in how our levels of intelligence blossomed in such a short geological timescale. We were evolved to communicate, hence why we have such a wide range of complex languages. Mobile phones and the internet, well, they’re just tools. They’re just new ways for us to do something we’ve been doing since we first fell out the tree and started walking upright.

Come to think of it, do you reckon proto-psychologists were saying “Too much use of log drums makes people mad”?! (is it wrong I just had a great idea for set of Sony Ericsson log drums, there?)

And as for shorthand text speak, well, that’s just kids, isn’t it? Kids always do things that adults don’t get or think is right, and then they grow up, and their kids do new things that the previous kids don’t get. They did it in the 50’s (“Don’t be such a square”), the 60’s (“Yeah, free love, groovy baby”), the 70’s (punk)… and they’re doing it now, just with text speak.

So, it’s like any new technology, people need time to get used to it, for it to go from being “oh my god, it’s awesome” to being “oh look, he’s texted, I’ll answer it when I can be bothered”.

And don’t complain about people being addicted. Of course they’ll get withdrawal if you take away something they like, and use regularly. I’d get withdrawal if you took my drums away. Then I’d punch you very hard in the face…

Surely that’s just obvious…?

Think people text too much? Or think the haters should keep their ideas to themselves? Either way, leave us a comment and have your say!