Are our mobile phones all thier cracked up to be?

It's a necessity in our lives; an essential part of our being. It seems like during this day in age everyone has one and can't live without one; our cellphones. For most people a cellphone is a vital piece of their everyday life. It's the connection to their friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else you need to talk to. However, the connection is much bigger now. With the new advancements and wide variety of smart phones available, the connection doesn't just stop with talking. The list continues to grow; the Internet, texting, tweeting, facebooking, gaming, emailing, and thousands of other apps that keep us connected.

One of the newest smart phones on the market is the Motorola Atrix. Now according to the media, this isn't just your everyday, regular smart phone; this is the smart phone to have. Sources are calling it powerful. Motorola just released a promo for the phone and describes it as not only powerful but the most powerful smart phone in the world. 

The media has been highlighting its most incredible features. The New York Times highlighted several of the phones capabilities including a fingerprinting scanner on the power button for protecting your privacy, Motorblur to bring you social media, and a screen and keyboard that the phone can hook into to become it's own mini laptop with extraordinary capabilities.

The phone’s dual-processor runs the laptop and you can still make a call while using the computer. The Atrix has 1 gigabyte of RAM, again twice that of most current phones, so it should multitask smoothly. And downloads will be speedy if you are on the 4G network.

PCMAG.com also described the phone with words like crazy, radical, interesting, and even sexy. PCWorld called the smart phone a huge step and stated that phones like this will replace the PC.

Even though the media went on and on to tell us all the great features it contains and encourage us about several reasons why we should have it, I think they left out a few things. How about the other issues that phones like this are creating for it's consumers. What about distracted driving?

It's a pretty well known fact that distracted driving has continued to increase since the evolution of the mobile phone. But why wouldn't we be distracted, our phone goes off every time we get a new text, tweet, email, facebook message, and phone call.

Last fall on NDSU's campus a study was done to find out about the habits of students who text and drive. The results displayed that 91.4% of the students surveyed admitted to texting and driving. Texting is a huge distraction while driving. Other studies have shown that when you write or read a text you take your eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds. This is enough time to cover the length of a football field.

So even though it seems our phones are one of the most essential parts of our lives, and we need to continue spending all our money upgrading, we may just need to analyze a few things; is this something we need or do we just think we need it, and what other issues can it cause in our lives.

Facebook: The Good vs. the Bad

I was first introduced to Facebook my freshman year of college by some older students I knew. I had heard about the Facebook phenomenon and vowed I would never be part of it. Now, a few odd years and 929 friends later Facebook has become a part of my life just like it has for many others.

Facebok has given us the ability to conveniently keep up with friends, family, and acquaintances living all over much of the state, nation and world. With just one click we can find out what's going on in the lives of our friends. We can see pictures of vacations, our nieces and nephews, or memorable events. We can even let others know what's going on with us, exactly the moment something important happens.

Not only has Facebook made it easy to connect with our friends and family, but it's a useful tool. It's become a hub for businesses, restaurants, communities, professionals and even college classes to gain recognition.

Law enforcement has even benefited.  An article on BBC News  describes how Mexican police were able to gain a lead from a Facebook post and arrest a suspect in a shooting case. 

Most recently, Facebook even partnered with the Amber Alert Program. By "liking" the page, you will be notified of any alerts in your state.

It's true, Facebook has done its share of good, but is it all good?

In addition to linking us to our friends and family, Facebook can basically link us to anyone who has an account. Even though privacy settings can be set, not everything may be private. Facebook recently had plans of extending profile info to a third party. However, the Personal Liberty Digest reports that the Facebook developers changed their plans after advice from privacy and web security experts. 

 Users have the ability to make posts, and not all posts are pleasant. A high school student from Oak Park, Illinois was suspended for creating a list on Facebook ranking 50 girls from the high school on their looks and promiscuity. The girls were labeled with inappropriate titles like "The Hangover", and "Blonde Bombshell". After the list had been posted, the student even made copies and brought them to school.

Along with the privacy and personal threats, students are beginning to recognize the social network as something quite powerful. Students are describing Facebook as a distraction, obsession and even an addition. Some students have been able to break away by deleting their profiles, or limiting their time online but others just can't seem to let go.

 Kimberly Young, a psychologist and director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery understands these problems.

"It's like any other addition", Dr. Young said. "It's hard to wean yourself."