HuffPost Canada closed in 2021 and this site is maintained as an online
archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our
FAQ or contact
support@huffpost.com.
Cell phone
The death of my phone as the catalyst to the death of my attachment to the internet and social media. That the loss of my phone is the best thing to happen, ultimately allowing me to emerge not only spiritually superior but with a life philosophy on the art of a tech free lifestyle. Sadly this isn't such a tale.
We check our phones approximately 85 times in a day. It's time to disconnect.
What if the Internet and our mobile devices could become a reliable tool for your health? Would your phone then know more about your health than your doctor? One of the biggest developments in healthcare we have seen is mobile health, or mhealth, which is effectively is freeing healthcare devices of wires and cords. It is enabling physicians and patients to check their healthcare processes on the go.
Like millions of other cell phone users, I've had to suffer the trials and tribulations of my phone company's customer service or what might more accurately be called their customer disservice. It all started with a text message to my daughter Sarah's phone informing her that she had reached 100 per cent usage for our shared 3 GB data plan.
A company can still offer three-year deals if it wants to, but they are no longer permitted to enforce those deals with cancellation fees. They would be three-year deals in name only, therefore no company offers them, and consumers have fewer options than they did before. One result of this regulatory change: higher up-front prices for your new phone.
The survey showed that respondents overwhelmingly admit to using their smartphone to tune someone out, or to avoid conversation. Fully 75 per cent of people said they purposefully use their smartphone to tune people out and nearly a third (30 per cent) even admitted to doing so on the day they were surveyed.
We have just received word that the federal Court of Appeal has officially granted Big Telecom permission to take Canada to court over new customer-friendly rules laid out in June by the CRTC. This means that Canada's three Big Telecom giants will appear before one of our highest courts and attempt to overturn important parts of the CRTC's new rules for your cell phone service.
What really came as a surprise to me was when Dr. Davis mentioned that mobile phones actually increased dopamine in the brain. What does that mean physiologically? It points to the possibility that mobile phones can become addictive. Dopamine is the same neurotransmitter that is released with cocaine addiction.
Louis C.K. is a successful comedian who can afford to buy his kids practically anything. So it is a refreshing surprise to learn that there is one thing for which he refuses to open his wallet: cell phones for his children. Comedians can be modern-day philosophers and Louis C.K. has brilliantly nailed it. This touted technology is riddled with problems, especially in the hands of still-developing children and teens.