Instructions:
Find the Issue (neutral state of the argument).
Write a cogent argument taking the opposite view of ‘chip Johnson’.

Cell phones are standard issue in the urban day pack of the 21st century, a modern necessity for our daily activities and duties. There isn’t a grocery store, coffee shop or U.S. interstate where someone isn’t chitchatting at a fierce pace. It’s talk, talk, talk, and most of the conversation has nothing to do with business.
And last week’s Federal Communications Commission ruling allowing people to transfer their home phone numbers to their cell phones means the handheld, wireless devices are likely to take another giant leap into our lives when the new rule takes effect next Monday.
Don’t fear, Ma Bell. I will not be one of the estimated 6 million Americans who will pull the cord on their land lines in the next year. I don’t even own a cell phone.
And if I can withstand the peer pressure, I never will.


My annoyance for the incessantly beeping communication devices is strictly personal: There are certain times, places and situations where I just don’t want to be reached, and don’t want to reach out.
For example, I don’t like driving and babbling endlessly about how it will take five minutes less than the last phone call to get where I’m going.
And although it may seem that everyone in the country, from senior citizens to grade-schoolers, is using wireless, some people have concerns about the proliferation of cell phones, concerns that speak to the quality of our lives — and our communications.
“What happens if you try to tell me a story and half of my mind is somewhere else?” asked Monisha Pusapathi, a psychology professor at the University of Utah who has done research on cell phone use.
Pusapathi’s research indicates that cell-phone conversations — almost always part of a multitasking effort — simply don’t contain the key elements needed to engage someone in a meaningful or even efficient conversation.
“The way we talk, we’re optimized for face-to-face conversations, and there are a whole bunch of signals that help us at every level,” Pusapathi said. “Distracted listeners don’t give those signals adequately, on time or with sufficient detail.
“They don’t do as good a job at providing those signals, and that makes speakers cut things short, get stuck on the significance statement and repeat things over and over again to emphasize their point,” she added.
In other words, cell-phone conversations can be downright inefficient. And sometimes dangerous.
In one case used in the Utah professor’s research, a cell-phone caller made the person on the other end of the line — who was driving — repeat what he was told, to prove he was listening, she said.
Her research partner, University of Utah Professor David Strayer, has conducted studies on cell-phone use by motorists that suggest that people’s eyes track only about half of what they would normally see while operating a motor vehicle and talking on a cell phone.
And risk-assessment studies, done at Harvard University and the Brookings Institution, that initially determined the economic benefit of cell-phone use while driving far outweighed the risks have been toned down in recent years, said Stayer.
Stayer said it was common for cell-phone users to disengage from their physical environments — while at the office, walking down the street or navigating a 2,000-pound SUV through rush-hour traffic — while talking on the phone.
And the prospect of 77 million cell-phone users across the nation answering every single call made to their home, office, checking fax transmissions and e-mail could present a significant danger on the highway, not to mention our collective sanity.
All of us have stood in line behind people who conduct a phone conversation at the same time they are trying to order a cup of coffee or make a store purchase.
Add to the current volume of insignificant phone calls, every call made to your home, and it’s pretty clear that we could soon have a large social problem on our hands.
If the FCC wants us to be inundated with wireless communication, the federal agency should at least include recommendations about how and when cell phones should or shouldn’t be used.
Barring that, perhaps political activists should organize moratoriums, and elected officials should set enforceable limits on cell-phone use.
Stores should enforce policies regarding wireless chitchatting in their businesses.
The adage that silence is golden and children should be seen and not heard (babbling on their own cell phones) is as good as dead these days.
Forget the sound of one hand clapping.
The best we can hope for is a moment of silence at services and events to honor the dead. But even then, you can bet that a spiffy ring tone will sound before that minute is over.
Custom essay writing services ESSAY-911.com. Buy essays online!