Another cell phone thread

[gvidas]

Yeah, that sweet spot of an exhausted / overwhelmed consumer: "fuckit, I'll just buy this maybe it'll work."

Wasn't there a psych study involving bombarding people with questions and then asking them to resist eating cake, and if you bombard them with more questions they can't resist cake as well?

A phone is so central to life now. The stakes feel higher. But it's really just a piece of techno-consumer crap. I could probably stop answering the phone and do just fine for the next several months, conduct all business by email. Maybe "no phone" will be the next curmudgeonly small business trend, like the hip new bars/restaurants that are cash only.



Do you say "designed to shatter" as a sarcastic critique of the design, or is there some practical advantage, like crumple zones on a racecar?