Law, society sanction Bluetooth technology

Boy, I wish I had stock in Bluetooth. I say this even though I detest having anything in my ear, even earplugs, when I’m out target shooting a gun.

But, this little flashing unit that fits in the palm of your hand seems to be the lesser of two evils. The alternative, an in-car speaker, dash mount or whatever, didn’t seem to work for me. There was too much background noise. So, I choose to wear the Bluetooth while in the car and driving down the road. Period.

I think it’s going to be interesting to see law enforcement officers stopping motorists who haven’t acclimated to the in-ear or on-the-dash systems. Put a regular cell phone to your ear while driving and you will receive a $25 ticket. Right now, that is, with a promise that future infractions will cause fines to go up and up.

On July 1, I dutifully refrained from using my cell phone in the car. I didn’t have the Bluetooth charged. That is going to be a major concern in the future, remembering to charge the device with my phone at home. Right now I have several chargers on my counter – for the Bluetooth, cell phone, and two cameras and so on. I have to double check the connectors each time to make sure I’ve got the right one in place.

The thought did occur to me while driving down the road, watching for red lights in my rearview, that what if people stopped alongside the freeway to avoid a ticket? Will they be cited for pulling over to use the phone in emergency spaces only? I’ve always been under the impression that the roadsides are mainly for flat tires or engine trouble. In fact a while ago I did stop along the freeway to use my phone and a CHP office came up behind me and asked if I needed help.

I told him I was just using the cell phone and was fine. He seemed puzzled that I was using the phone on the side of the road. Well, that was before the law kicked in.

I’m wondering whether this new law will create similar dilemmas.

It’s going to be interesting how it all plays out. Frankly, I don’t see how patrol cars can catch that many violators at one time. So far I’ve talked to a lot of people out there who haven’t seen hoards of vehicles pulled over.

It’s like the seatbelt law. Spotting someone during the daytime might be easy, but at night, who can tell if a person is wearing a seatbelt or not? So who can tell what else is or isn’t going on in the driver’s seat at night?

One thing for sure is that a person is more at risk with a cell phone at their ear while driving than not having the device in a car at all. With the Bluetooth, a person has to tap the earpiece to answer in order to talk. Voice dialing is possible with most earpieces, but only a few are free, so if you need more phone numbers in the voice mode, you have to pay. Not much is free anymore. I had a friend who purchased a clip-on-the-dash speaker that he seems to like better than the earpiece. I guess I’ll stick with my Bluetooth for awhile longer, but there may come a day when I’ll switch to another mode. Life is so complicated these days with all the electronic devices that are supposed to make our lives easier.

Actually, when you think about it, all these little conveniences are making our lives busier. When something malfunctions, it throws many of us into a tizzy.

We can’t always fix the problems we encounter on a daily basis, at least not like in a simpler era. So we sit in our lawn chairs, our feet dangling in the current of the babbling brook, a cell phone Bluetooth in our ear so somebody back home can reach us. For what? We take trips away from home with our cell phones attached so our relaxation can be interrupted by unnecessary jabbering or things we can do nothing about unless we have the means and power to delegate over the cell phone.

I signed out of the office the other day with my destinations and return time logged on the board. I no sooner got five miles away and the cell phone rang with a person from the office needing me to pick up something. Sure it was handy. But, whatever happened to pre-planning?