According to research conducted at Sheffield Hallam University, men flash their cell phones in order to: attract women, look important, and show off to male peers.
They needed research to prove this? I have always thought that looking important and/or popular was the single biggest driver of cell phone use. It’s amazing to me how often someone will use a phone in public and then, once they’re away from inquisitive eyes, do something else.
I am also amazed at how desperate people are to turn on their phones the moment a plane lands. I admit that I am among those desperate people — because I want to read my e-mail. But I like e-mail a lot more than talking on the phone. E-mail is the ultimate time-shift mechanism, and I am thankful for it every day.
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That’s amazing. I don’t see why that would attract women, when every guy and his dog has a cell phone and it would just make him look edgy. I’d like to know what women make of this.
Just curious. Really.
I do remember an NYT(TIME? Mewsweek?) article some years back about young men in South Africa who would buy discarded cell phones, then spend time in public pretending they were having conversations on them.
— Jun OkumuraI was thinking about this the other day. Fumbling with PDAs /pagers when you are feeling insecure is common in Tech circles. Another very common “give” is looking at a watch (which I do) or just rotating it around ones wrist. This occurs whenever there is any level of “discomfort” or social anxiety.
The South African example is mind blowing. Thanks for sharing it.
— arthur.orangeI’m not really a big fan of phone conversation either. However, as far as airplanes go, I know that I want my phone on as soon as I can because it doubles as my timepiece. I know plenty of people don’t bother wearing a watch these days because their cellphone serves that purpose…
— sphaeronAlso humorous:
Anyone ever pretend to be using their cellphone so they don’t have to have a face-to-face conversation with someone? I’ve done this a couple times in the past to get out of mind-numbing workplace conversations, for example. ;)
— sphaeronAs Tom Wolfe would point out, it’s all about status.
One one level, phones are taking the place of cigarettes: something that looks cool, something to do with one’s hands.
But more important, we’re social creatures; anything that increases our available bandwidth is useful to that end, and so we’re going to want our phones (and, as in Stephen’s case, e-mail) available as much as possible. I believe there have been studies to indicate a correlation between communications amount and social ranking.
— thundtI’d like to add two frustrating elements to this discussion of cell phone braggart behavior.
1. The earpiece. The people you see with the bluetooth earpieces in their ear while out in public take this to a whole new level. Am I supposed to believe you are so important that you must be reachable at all times, including the gym at 10pm, and that this importance is of the urgency where you can’t take the stupid earpiece out of your ear when you aren’t on a call? There is nothng funnier than going to a bar or restaraunt and seeing people walking around or dining with earpieces in their ears.
2. The ringtone. While my cell phone (which they hand out nearly free at nearly every mall) makes me “cool and edgy”, my hip ringtone makes me even more so. Obnoxious ringtones are the new pinkie rings when it comes to bringing unnecessary and unwarranted attention to yourself. A phone on vibrate works just fine, and isn’t annoying to those around you, but for some they need a poorly digitized version of whatever top 40 track is in their head at the time to show off, among other items, that a) they have great (horrible) taste in music. b) they must be wealthy, since they have a cell phone, and c) they must be important, since this Nickelback ringtone just wont stop going off.
— DuffmanWhat does Stephen mean when he calls email “the ultimate time-shift mechanism?”
— eric01001Obviously it has the opposite effect on the male as I find a woman on the phone as appealing as she would be smoking a sig.
— GrinderIf the last post means it is unattractive, then I have to agree with Grinder, whereas when I see a person on the phone in public, it is not exactly a turn on. I see it as being somewhat arrogant and often times unnecessary. I understand that sometimes it is important to make a phone call, but to pull the thing out and show off is ridiculous. Although I do believe that people will do this for attention. Like the guy who revs the engine of his S500 at a red light, like it will find him some sense of happiness in either sexual attention or jealousy. Kind of pathetic. Also, it seems that most people who have Blackberries have them paid for by their employer, so it’s not even like they dished out the cash to pay for it, but so are they just proving that they are important enough that someone feels they need the thing? Sad.
— jsannicandro2002Oh the earpiece, Duffman! The first time a stranger walking up to me on the street started talking loudly, randomly, when there was nobody else near by? That still ranks as one of the weirdest moments of my life.
Of course this was Manhattan, so I came to learn that such things, earpiece or no, were not that unusual there.
— Jun OkumuraThey needed research to prove this?
— steveSorry, but that’s not a sentence I enjoy hearing from one of the authors of the book “Freakonomics”. In hindsight (see hindsight bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias) a lot of things seem obvious once you learned about them. True, your anectodical evidence is consistent with the research, but you personal experience could have proven wrong beforehand nonetheless.
Men think using a cell phone makes them attractive to women?
Helloooo?
Any woman who’s ever had to play second fiddle to a “Crackberry’ knows that you want to date the guy reading a book, not yammering on his phone.
And if the book is titled “1001 Ways to Give a Woman Your Undivided Attention” even better.
I never thought of talking on a cell phone as sexy.
When men see me slogging through the airport with my cell glued to my ear, blathering on to my husband what time the kids need to be picked up, or frantically calling my assistant to find out where I am actually going, are they thinking-
That is one sexy important woman?
Wow, who knew I was so cool.
I can only image what the woman in the bathroom stall next to me was thinking last time I was in the airport and decided that rather than interrupt my stepmother’s long winded account of my dad’s knee replacement, I would just head into the stall, and keep up my, “uh huh, wow, mm hhmm’s “ while I took care of personal business.
I don’t know if that qualifies as a time shift mechanism, but that level of multi-tasking freed up enough minutes to complain about how tired I was.
— Lisa McLeodI don’t think using a cell phone makes anybody look sexy, but men have never had a clue what women are attracted to anyway. The proof in this theory is available at any airport, anywhere in the country. I refuse to believe that ANYBODY is so important they have to yammer on their cell phones to clients as the plane is pushing back, but every flight I’m on the attendant has to ask several people to shut it down. What they might want to think about is that in the close confines of an airplane, nothing they say is private, that includes client’s names and what they need, etc. An alert competitor could make a small fortune just by hanging out at O’Hare for the day!
PS - I agree with the ladies comments on the man with the book being sexy. My Ex used to think he was sexy coming into the house all drippy with sweat after a run. YUCK! I had to clean those stinky clothes! I’ll take a snuggly book worm any day!!
— hslobodaA friend of mine came out of an executives’ meeting in the mid-nineties noting that mobiles were the only thing men boasted about having the smallest of
jenpalex
— jenpalexI flew from Phoenix to San Diego this morning and was amazed at how absorbed the under 25 group was in their cellphones/PDAs.
Driving up Interstate 5, I pondered on the sad state of human disconnect the myspace generation was in.
I stopped at McDonald’s for a Coke when I noticed a beggar approching me…I whiped out the cell phone and started a very important but non-existent conversation.
Ironic…huh?
— Brian Brady