Posts tagged ‘text messages’
I’m a day late, but the Oscars were on last night and I had difficulty concentrating.
Consumers love to think that going digital means cheaper. Case in point, with e-readers and e-books, people think that cost of books can go lower than they really can. The New York Times breaks down just what goes into the cost of a book and how little savings a publisher really makes.
In relation, a new chip may lower the price of e-readers, which will make e-books more affordable than ever.
Ever sent a text you later realize could be bad for you? Tiger Woods did. Employees who complain about bosses do. Now, you can erase that text with TigerText.
The Pew Research Center had a survey that shows more people get news from the Web than newspapers. All around the country anyone who has been paying attention over the last year or two replied with, “No duh.”
March 8, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Getting headaches? Neck pain? You may not be surprised to learn that if you spend too much time texting or on a handheld device you may acquire these symptoms. After all, if you spend a lot of time, head bowed down, staring at a small electronic screen, you’re bound to feel the effects. They are also slight disturbances for some people. Pop an Advil and you’ll feel better.
But what about loss of lung capacity? Spine degeneration? These issues are a little more serious. And they are entirely possible side effects to too much time spent on your smartphone or e-reader or whatever small device you use. According to CBS 2 News, they’re calling it “text neck” but I think it’s easy to realize that texting is not the only thing that might cause these problems.
We all love mobile technology, or else, why are you here? But the fact remains that right now it’s hurting us. I don’t mean financially. I mean physically.
Using mobile technology is hurting people's posture and their health
“I personally feel this is going to be the epidemic because everyone young and old is using some kind of hand-held,” said Dr. Dean Fishman, a chiropractor in Plantation, Fla., to CBS 2 News.
An epidemic. That sounds awfully ominous. Or it could be evolution. There was talk that all the texting we do will cause our thumbs to evolve. Maybe our bodies will evolve to make using technology more comfortable. Maybe thousands of years in the future we’ll be more hunch backed. It’s not pretty, but if it helps us do things easier, better and faster, well, isn’t that what evolution is all about?
February 12, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Most people can text as easily as they breathe these days. It’s almost an afterthought to type out messages in your phone. It’s an instant gratification. You type a message, it gets received and a reply is instantly sent back. That’s why using text messages to make donations is a godsend to charities.
Text donations were available after Hurricane Katrina hit and donations to Haiti easily eclipse those numbers. After just two days, $5 million was donated via text message to Haiti. After two weeks the number had reached $27 million. Why is it that text donations are yielding such large results?
In 2008, charities, understandably, saw a dip in donations. After the disaster, text donations alone reached huge numbers. A cell phone is always with you. In order to donate you don’t have to call a charity and deal with a person or get to a computer and visit a Web site. You can flip open your phone type in a few numbers and letters and you’re done in 30 seconds. This is the sort of instant gratification text donations offer.
The best part is, the bill for that donation comes with your regular bill. Most people probably don’t even feel like the $5 or $10 they donated is making a dent in their wallets because they have to pay the phone bill anyway. This frame of mind is good for the charities and bad for them.
Charities are receiving all sorts of donations in large quantities and yet there is no way for them to contact these people again. We are making anonymous donations and putting it out of our minds. Good for us right this moment; bad for Haiti next week and the charities for the rest of the year.
Text donations, a natural evolution of having technology always at hand, is allowing us to become involved while also distancing ourselves. Is it good? Is it bad? I’m inclined to think that as long as we’re still donating and getting slightly involved it can’t be all bad.
Still want to help? Here are a list of charities, places to text and numbers to call.
January 31, 2010 at 1:06 am
