Cell Phones and Earpieces: Talking to Me?

In today's world, cell phones are getting so small that they can be difficult to see. For some of the cell phones, all you need to do is wear an earpiece and you can use the cell phone without even touching it.

The earpiece is typically connected to the cell phone through a wire and has a little built-in microphone making it a mini headset. You can use an earpiece that is connected to your cell phone so you don't even have to hold the phone in your hand anymore. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Below are a couple reasons why I feel it is good, and a couple why it is not so good.

Good: Hand-free
You have both hands free to use while you are talking on the phone! This can be real convenient. It is almost like the person with whom your are talking to on the cell phone through the earpiece is following you around wherever you go while you do your daily tasks of whatever it is you do.

Good: Less external noise
Not only do you not have to find the tiny hole where your ear needs to be placed on the phone in order for you to hear properly, but the level of external noise going into the ear that the earpiece is in will be much less. Since the earpiece from the cell phone goes directly into your ear, any kind of noise that is not coming from the earpiece will be minimal.

That is about it in terms of the main good things when it comes to cell phones with small earpieces, so here are a couple of things I think are not so good.

Bad: Will confuse some people
This has happened too many times. Someone is talking with someone on their cell phone using the earpiece and you think they are talking to you since no one else is around. This is not too big of an issue but is something to keep in mind when you are using an earpiece for a cell phone that can't be seen very easily.

Bad: Multi-tasking issues
Often it is seen as a problem for people that drive a vehicle and use a cell phone at the same time because not only do you have one hand to operate the vehicle, but you have to multi-task with the phone conversation and with your driving. Although having a hand-free cell phone using an earpiece for the cell phone does allows you to use both hands for driving, it is doubtful the people will use the second hand for driving. They will likely find something else to do with this hand, and will end up having another thing that they have to multi-task while driving. This will make those drivers even more dangerous because now, an even smaller fraction of their attention is devoted to driving. You could argue that this is no different than if they were talking with a passenger in a car. It is very similar to that indeed. However, usually a phone conversation is more active and non-stop than a conversation with a passenger in the car.