Wired News: How Mobile Phones Conquered Japan

This article sings the praises of Japan's ubiquitous mobile phones. How a phone is “capable of transforming any space -- a subway train seat, a grocery store aisle, a street corner -- into ‘(one's) own room and personal paradise.’” Yes it does allow people to take their friends and loved ones with them but it does not come without a price. For each bit of intimacy that you give to someone you take it from someone else. I think this is why people get so pissed off when people use a phone in a small space. Even more so then the loudness of the person it is the violation of the intimacy of the environment. Think about a guy on a subway that is talking a little louder than normal to the person next to him. He would not be so nearly as annoying as someone speaking the same volume on a phone. Here is cell phone guy who is sharing a space with us and he doesn’t even have the decency to be here cognitively, he is still at home with his wife or already at the office with his coworkers.