Cell Phones Advance Faster Than Common Sense

We Love Our Phones! Yes We Do! (Image by Anirudh Koul via Flickr)

With technological advances come new dilemmas for mankind to consider.  Few examples of this phenomenon are as clear as the cell phone.  Once a novelty, the latest statistics suggest that 80-90% of all Americans (not just adults) use cell phones, and an increasing share of them are so-called “smartphones”, capable of accessing the Internet.  Aside from the known hazards of driving, walking, or doing just about anything else while using a cell phone, there is the fundamental question of what RIGHTS a person has to use his or her cell phone.  A Constitutional expert I am not, but most arguments in favor of unrestrained cell phone usage seem to hinge on the First Amendment right to free speech.  Difficult as it may be in a litigious society, it seems like common sense ought to solve most of these dilemmas.  Unfortunately, it has not.  Instead, our prisons are constantly on the lookout, not for drugs or weapons, but for cell phones used to orchestrate crimes from behind bars over airwaves that cannot legally be blocked.  Restaurant and theater owners who install signal blockers are found to be criminals.  Law abiding citizens using public transportation have found their cell phone service intentionally blocked.  When does the madness end?