Signmakers Don’t Mince Words When It Comes to Their Smartphones

“SMARTPHONES ARE TOXIC to everything they come into contact with. They are ripping cultures apart, ripping communities apart, and making everyone less focused,” according to one sign pro who shared his opinion with us. However, another sign pro suggested that modern mobile phones are “an excellent tool to keep us updated with our office, emails, and social media.”

Technology has shaped our industry for the last couple of decades. We have watched how it has grown through our companies and shaped our employees and customers. Due to this, mobile phones have become so integral to daily living that it’s hard to imagine how we ever got by without them. And as with every technological advancement in society, our assimilation with smartphones has had both positive and negative impacts.

We asked our Brain Squad for their main feelings about modern mobile phone life. We wanted to understand their thoughts and how they perceive technology in the working world. And here is what they said…

Can’t Stand My Phone

• Modern mobile phone life is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. While constant connectivity is great to a degree, I feel that it has disconnected the person from the personality. Daily, I see a larger disconnect in personal interaction, and it’s unfortunate. — John K. ,Fort Myers, FL
• Needed but I don’t rely on it like some I know. I still prefer typing on a computer or explaining over a conversation. I have no social media accounts as they are the biggest time waste ever. — Corrie L., Mount Vernon, NY
• I’m old school. Prefer talking over non-verbal communication. Takes forever. Emails and texts which take minutes to talk. — Gary W., Cape Coral, FL
• Smartphones are [among other things] … spying on everyone that has one and anyone that comes close to someone that has one. All supposedly in the name of convenience (Orwell must be rolling over in his grave). This is without even getting into any of the more controversial aspects of mobile device usage such as long term physical health effects, or how destructive it is to actually get the raw materials needed to make them. Lucius Fox (played by Morgan Freeman) had a line in The Dark Knight when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) builds a computer that can access the microphone on every phone in Gotham City live in order to capture Heath Ledger’s Joker: This is too much power for one man. It is also clearly too much power for the relatively tiny groups of people in charge of that data, and it would be too much power for any government to be in charge of, too. The sooner the world stops buying the BS marketing used to sell and propagate these things the better. — Jake Z., Randolph, VT

• Unfortunately, texting has replaced talking. One cannot express feelings with emojis. — Tish S., Los Alamitos, CA

• I long for the days before cell phones, when you left the shop, your workday was over and no one could intrude on your personal life unless they had your home phone number. — Michael J., Buford, GA
• I wish they had never been invented. I get texts and calls from clients at all hours of the day and night. The old answering machine in the office worked fine. It seems everyone wants instant gratification. — Robert B., Oakdale, CT
• Mobile phones and all the related technology were supposed to make our lives easier. What it has actually done is tether us to our work 24/7/365. — Mike M., San Francisco, CA
• Overly complex, expensive, time-consuming, and battery hungry. I keep it shut off as much as I can. Otherwise, can be very handy for extra capabilities. — Larry M., El Dorado Hills, CA
• This just came up in conversation between me and my husband, over breakfast at a local coffee shop. We were saying we were glad that phones weren’t as important when we were raising our daughter (now 24). We watched a couple and their older (approximately seven years old) children stare at their phones while the younger child was doing everything in her power to get just a little bit of attention. Personally, I do find cell phones convenient and entertaining at times. But man, I really miss small talk with strangers in a waiting room — am I weird? — Jamie P., Tewksbury, MA
• I wish we could go back to phones just being phones. I view social media as cheap entertainment. I’m old school and for me, the phone is a communication device. — Dennis S., Nevada City, CA
• Mobile phones have definitely served a purpose with regard to business uses as well as information, connection, etc. BUT, they have also caused a fair amount of problems in the way of distractions, addictions, etc. Our firm actually had to terminate a low-performing employee due to beyond excessive cell phone use (Addiction). — Derek A., Columbus, OH

• Need to be unreachable sometimes! Ha! Really, a valuable tool…. but it is hard to disconnect… — Michele B., Asheboro, NC

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