Nanny Phone

Our smaller car is pretty bare bones, but the one thing it does have is a USB port so that I can play music that I have stored on my phone, through the radio speaker system on the car. When I plug in the USB cable, the phone sees the cable as headphones. It lowers the music volume automatically, and when I turn it back up, I always get a warning that Loud Music Over a Long Period of Time Can Damage Your Hearing, Young Lady. Okay, I'm touched that my phone cares about my hearing, but really, I'm a big girl; I can decide for myself if the volume on my phone is too high.

Now, not only does my new phone want to save my hearing, it wants to Save the World. When I plug my phone in overnight to recharge, like you do, when the phone reaches full charge, it beeps and leaves a note across the top to tell me to unplug the charger to save energy. Yeah, that's gonna happen. Listen, I plug in my phone, then I go to sleep. If my phone's battery charge is low enough, by the time it's fully charged again, I'm going to be asleep. And if I'm not, I'm trying to go to sleep, not be disturbed by my cell phone. Not only that, I want to make sure my phone is charged, because it's also my alarm clock. Lastly, how much energy does leaving my cell phone plugged in overnight really use? I'm tired of being preached at constantly about saving the planet; I don't need my phone to do it for me too. If it wasn't for the fact that many people do use their phones as alarm clocks, I think the self-righteous people who created this little gem would program the phone to turn itself off because oh noes, we have to save that half a watt of electricity used to make sure the phone is charged overnight.

What's next? Is your refrigerator going to scold you when you stand there with the door open for too long? Will your washer only wash clothes in cold water so you don't use electricity to heat the water? The idea that the government will eventually control the temperatures in our homes has already been tossed around. This is the ugly side of wanting the government to take care of everything for you. At least for those of us who don't need a nanny.