I begin today’s column with some cautionary thoughts on how we use our smartphones. Do you ever recognize an actor on a television show and say, “She is so familiar, what did we see her in?” When that happens at our house, I grab my iPhone, open the IMDb app to look up the show or movie and easily find the answer. I often have the same thoughts when in a movie theater, however I never follow through on that urge. In many ways smartphones have made our lives richer, but they can be both a blessing and a curse, and we should be mindful of how using them affects those around us.
We recently attended a concert at the Ruth Eckert Concert Hall in Clearwater. At the start of the concert, there were the usual announcements about not taking photographs and videos during the performance, but some members of the audience were not to be deterred. They held their phones up high to get the best view of the stage, marring the view of everyone sitting behind them. What surprised me even more was that none of the ushers appeared to take notice.
Before the concert began, I noticed numerous people sitting with their heads down looking at their phones and ignoring everyone around them. When we go out to eat, I am amazed at how many diners pay more attention to their phones than to each other — and it’s not just young people who seem to prefer phones to the company of their companions. We have observed many couples our age engrossed in their phones while sitting across from each other at a restaurant, and I often wonder what can be so important that it cannot wait until after dinner?
At the core of every smartphone is a telephone, and people tend to make calls just about everywhere. I do not enjoy standing on line at the grocery store listening to the loud, one-sided conversation of the person behind me, nor I suspect does the grocery clerk like listening to personal conversations while ringing up orders. My take away from these thoughts is that we all need to pay attention to how and when we use our smartphones, and to make certain we take the time to appreciate and interact with the real life people around us.
While I don’t appreciate being a party to other people’s personal telephone conversations, I am not opposed to obtaining “crowd sourced” information on my smartphone. “Crowd sourcing” is loosely defined as a form of online activity in which a group of unconnected individuals undertake a task, the most common of which is posting reviews of businesses online. I have found my iPhone invaluable when we are away from home and I turn to the cloud sourced apps to help us find a place to eat.
My go-to “find everything” app is YELP. Crowd sourced Yelp reviews of restaurants tell me what others think of the food and service, often with recommendation on the best items to order. After reading the reviews on Yelp, I often choose to check one or more other apps, such as TripAdvisior (featuring reviews of restaurants, hotels and airlines) and OpenTable (restaurant reviews only) to confirm my results. I figure that if there are good reviews on more than one app, it is likely to be a good place to eat, and we have enjoyed some very good meals as a result of these searches.
It is worth noting that the premise behind Yelp and similar apps is to post unbiased reviews. In the recent past Yelp was criticized for too many biased reviews posted by friends, relatives and employees of businesses, or even paid reviewers. They have since revamped their policy and cracked down on businesses suspected of unethical behavior. As the popularity of crowd-sourced reviews increased, many business’s have learned not to do anything that would limit their prospective customer base.
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