Extra! Extra! People Want To Use Cell Phones for Talking

I remember seeing the musical, Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off in the 1960s in New York. The music was great, the story was funny, and I thought of the title so many times over the years when everything seemed to be moving too quickly.

This week's Advertising Age has a story by Mike Vorhaus of Frank N. Magid Associates that provides some hope that technology might be preparing to take a breather.

In a "stop the world" kind of revelation, Vorhaus reveals that "some folks just want to talk on their cellphones."

Yes, he notes, that as the younger generations brought up on texting and watching videos on their phones get older, "more nontalk functionality will inevitably grow in popularity."

But, for now, most people just want to talk on their phones.

There's more. More people polled said they'd rather have a smaller phone with less features than a larger phone with more capabilities.

Can it be that we're actually ready to simplify?

Is multi-tasking on its way out?

Is the world going to stop and let us pause, albeit briefly?

Wait. I just remembered that the last song in "Stop the World" is "What Kind of Fool Am I?"

Thanks, Advertising Age, for a few minutes of hope. Maybe I just need to put down the magazine and go back to squinting at my phone screen.

Comments

[jeff01]

I'm with her. How about some bans of cellphones in public places?
It's too hard to separate those on bluebooth headsets from those people who are talking to themselves, and I like to know the difference.

[kaseybandit]

Glad to hear it is not just me who likes the smaller phones with less features. Thanks for letting me know there are many others just like me.

[therealredstateblues]

One can only hope.

When we re-upped our work phones there was a big push by the "technos" to get crackberries. Most of us in the trenches just wanted regular old cell phones that worked when we needed them to.

The execc tried them for a while and hated them, saying it was too much connectivity and information overload

I remeber a few years back when everyone HAD to have a Palm. They used them for a few months and they gradually started being less and less seen - now no one seems to be using them

[TerroristManGonnaGetYa]

I just don't gave a damn about learning to use the options on my phone. if it rings i answer it. If you leave a message, i won't retrieve it. Everyone who knows me knows not to bother. i'd rather spend the time re-reading Moby Dick or recording music.

[JScott]

This seems to happen with a lotta tech stuff-when it first comes to market it has EVERYTHING on it but people find they hardly use any of it. Perfect example the 'premium sound system' on a 1985 Camry it had all the switches (graphic equalizer?) so you could optimize the sound depending on the music but too many switches, the next time they updated the car, they didn't offer it, the option was a much simpler system that people actually used. Same with microwave ovens when makers discovered most folks used it to just heat leftovers, pop popcorn and boil water.

[ThreeCentsWorth]

Yes! Yes! I just want to talk on my phone, although I wouldn't mind a bigger one for my failing Boomer eyes. "Nontalk functionality" is not on my to-do list.