this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
35 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37742 readers
496 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I kinda understand it has to do with frequencies and the speed they can send information but I don't know enough to have a productive conversation with those that think it's mind altering cancer rays. Thats also what i keep running into online when I'm trying to find a dummy version for how it all works. I know I'll probably never be able to have a truly productive conversation with those types but i would like to have a better understanding myself.

It would be helpful to explain and frame it with radio and public broadcasting as well. to me, these are all happy information rays that send me thing i like but i don't full understand the technology behind it.

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful! Might try and make an info graph for to hang in my post box since I've gotten some crazy anti 5g flyers recently

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No problem! Sadly, from my experience, if someone actually fears 5G, they are usually long gone. Any sane person would understand that (a) if mobile phone radiation would be actually harmful, we'd see massive amounts of damage already since over the last 30 years we went from no phones to everyone has a phone on them and (b) if it was harmful, it wouldn't be legal.

So people who still think that "This iteration of mobilie phone signal will surely kill us", are usually not part of the rational world anymore.

Another interesting fact: Phone signals need to make the trip both ways, from the tower to your phone and back. Signals lose their strength by the qube. So in 10m distance, the signal only has 1/101010 = 1/1000 of the strength as it does in 1m distance. In 100m distance we are talking about 1/1 000 000 of the strength as in 1m distance.

So if you are afraid of the radiation, it should be the radiation of your phone, not the radiation of the tower that you need to be afraid of.

So logically, in that case, don't own a phone and you are fine. But that is something even hardcore anti-5G folks aren't willing to sacrifice.

Also: Older phones and older standards (2G/3G) have a much higher radiation output than newer ones. Reason being that outputting radiation means consuming battery life, so the phone makers try to optimize the radios to output as little radiation as possible to conserve battery.

Another thing regarding the singal roundtrip: The farther away the tower is, the more radiation output from your phone is required to keep the signal. So shorter distances to the next tower means you are exposed to much less radiation coming from your phone.

Lastly: To believe that 5G, vaccinations or any of that stuff is harmful means that you have to believe that the government purpously harms the inhabitants and lies about it. This in turn means that every expert is part of the conspiracy and any evidence is a lie. If you are so far gone from reality, there is no argument that can bring you back.

[–] Wigglet@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is overlap with some of the community members believing in 2 suns so not all of them will be open to logic. I figure it will be nice to actually have an understanding of the thing I support so I can answer questions more confidently.

It always gets me how these people will get xrays, go through airport security, own smart phones, use induction stoves, microwaves etc but when you try and improve the infrastructure they complain about, suddenly you're Big Tech and trying to kill them with secret deep state Gs.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Totally agree, totally makes sense.

I also like the "radiation blocking stickers" that some of them put on their phone. The phone doesn't create radiation for fun. Radiation = reception. So if the stickers would actually work, the phone wouldn't have reception.

I once was forced by a friend to attend a Tupperware party, and the salesperson there showed off a microwave pressure cooker (an inherently dumb idea). One of the attendants asked about the radiation, and the salesperson was like "It totally blocks the radiation, so there is no radiation on the food", and I was like "And how is it going to heat the food then?"

[–] Wigglet@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh man... that's a new one. I should get into sticker making

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Also fun: People sell waste paper baskets as "anti-radiation faraday cages" for wifi routers. And the reviews are full of people complaining that the signal is now crap.