(Manu Fernandez/Associated Press)

Recently at a Van Halen concert I tried video recording performances of some of my favourite songs with my new cellphone. Within seconds it became evident I could either stand still and record, or jump up and down and enjoy myself. I chose the latter. Concentrating on taking a video was ruining my actual experience of the show.

The number of people around me who kept recording clips to send to their friends underlined something interesting, though. What once was just a handy gadget to make our lives easier has crept in and transformed everything from family time, to commuting, to simply walking the dog.

It seems no one can simply stroll along a street anymore and just smell the roses. If they have a cellphone with them, they’ll likely want to take a picture of those roses or call a friend to describe their beauty.

Or they might not see the roses at all, because they’re too busy text messaging a buddy to make plans for the evening or talking to the office on the phone.

Cellphones allow us to work from anywhere, take pictures and videos of disasters as they happen and e-mail them to TV stations, reach our friends as they grocery shop, listen to music and even track our kids. They're the key technology driving society to accept multitasking as a way of life.

Sacrifices all around

Jenna Ruble makes a business call while on vacation near Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz., Aug. 23, 2006. Recent travel-industry surveys report that people feel tethered to the office even when they get away. (David Wallace/Arizona Republic/AP)

Kaan Yigit, president of Toronto consumer market-analysis firm Solutions Research Group, believes technology has obliterated the boundaries between work and home life. And that means a real shakeup for both workers and managers.

While some people may feel like they never get to leave the office behind when they receive calls and e-mails at all hours, others now take a more casual attitude toward work — with justification. Says Yigit: "It used to bug me when my staff played games on the job, but it has to work both ways. If I can e-mail them at 7:30 at night, I can’t turn around and tell them not to play solitaire on their computer or talk to their friends at 10:30 in the morning."

Technology expert Jesse Hirsh says cellphones are indeed driving the concept of the virtual office, but it comes at a price. "People can work out of their car, briefcase, knapsack or from home, which is very empowering to small and medium-sized businesses. However, I wonder if people are sacrificing their families and their personal lives."

Time is obviously an issue, but people who carry out business or even make pleasure calls in their cars sometimes end up sacrificing their lives as well. Five teenage girls were killed in New York in June when their vehicle crashed head-on into a truck — text messages had been sent and received on the driver's phone shortly before the accident, it was later discovered. A Toronto-area man, Richard Schewe, and his two-year-old daughter Mikaela were killed at a rail crossing as he chatted on a cellphone in 2002. Sadly, he was phoning to share his daughter’s excitement about seeing her grandparents, but instead created a terrible tragedy.

While people frequently use their cellphones to share something wonderful with a friend (yes, I also called several friends from the concert to share guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s guitar riffs with them), others use mobile phones to escape the tedium of life. In fact, a 2006 report by Ipsos Reid showed 35 per cent of young adults had sent an e-mail or text message via cellphone under the dinner table during a family gathering.

Many of them felt guilty about it, too, but it didn’t stop them. Johnathan Steuer, a vice-president with Iconoculture, a U.S. consumer research and advisory firm, says, "It makes it easier to opt out, but to physically be there."

In a grocery store these days, you're apt to run into someone pushing a shopping cart with one hand while being instructed on where to find the peas with the other. At Loblaws' Wonderland Market in London, Ont., cashier and customer service rep Allison Osborne says, "I’ve heard everything from business calls, to dads getting instructions from home and moms telling their kids they’re on their way home. It's the 'Bluetooths' [people with wireless Bluetooth headsets] that get me. When I'm working the cash, I wonder if they're talking to me, it or themselves."

As Steuer says, "You used to be able to tell who was crazy when you saw someone talking to themselves on the street. These days with new headset technology, you can't."

The best thing about cellphones is that they keep people connected, but it can also be the worst thing.

Mother of seven, Esther Kniznik, says, "I keep my cellphone on at the gym because I have ill family members. If they need me, they can call me. The bad thing is I don’t feel that I can ever turn it off. If I do, then they'll get angry. Keeping it on is sometimes a real pain. I also have call waiting, and I'm constantly being interrupted."

(Coincidentally, when I phoned Esther she was on another call. At the same time, I knew I would be able to reach her, because her phone is always on.)

On your trail

Some people are learning to turn their phones off to escape, especially teenagers who have transformed not answering a phone when their parents call into an art. But leave it to cellphone companies to add a global positioning system (GPS) to ensure that anyone can be found, whether they want to be or not.

Asks technology expert Hirsh, "Are we creating a stalker's dream? The GPS tracking will be used by jealous boyfriends and girlfriends, but probably more often by parents on teenagers who will simply leave their phones with friends to outwit them."

As well, there’s now location-based tracking, allowing companies to send coupons or advertising to people's phones as they pass a nearby store. "Phones will become a magnet for marketers," Hirsh says. "There's even talk of cellphones using advertising rather than charging you [a monthly airtime fee]."

That always-connected feeling can be overwhelming, says Steuer, and it's showing up in the way people disconnect.

"People are deliberately going out of their way to schedule vacations off the grid," he says, purposely taking vacation where they can't be reached by cellphone. "There has also been a huge increase in yoga and meditation mirroring the evolution of these 'hyperlife' technologies. People may be trying to balance their lives this way."

Sometimes it's difficult to disconnect. Advertising Age reported in 2005 that 14 per cent of cellphone users had stopped in the middle of a sex act to answer a phone. Because cellphones are tied to people and not a home, people know the call is for them and often find it difficult not to pick up. It's known in technology circles as 'disconnect anxiety.'

Hirsh says, "Some people can turn off their phones when they go away for the weekend, but most people can't. They become addicted."

Those people should take heed, though: Others are becoming sick of their sometimes loud and often unnecessary conversations. Cellphone jammers that can disable nearby mobile phones cost between $50 and several hundred dollars, and though illegal, they're becoming increasingly popular as people pine for some peace.

Steuer says, "People forget they have control of the on-off switch. You can put it down and not answer it. The one thing your cellphone doesn't have is a gun to your head."

Not yet, anyway. But the modern smartphone does foster an acceptance of the idea that multitasking your way through each day is the norm.

So how about my Van Halen video, brief as it was?

The image was so small that I was embarrassed to post it on YouTube (although I did). You can't see David Lee Roth or the rest of the band. On the other hand, those women screaming in front of me and the picture bouncing up and down do bring back certain memories.

Next time, though, I plan to make sure I simply enjoy the moment — phoneless.

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