Cellphone jammers prevent phones from working. They’re being used in cars, public places and exam halls.

Jammers aren’t new — they’ve been around for years — and they’re illegal in many countries, including in the U.S., but use of jammers is growing fast.

But are phones really the problem? And are jammers really the solution?

I think cellphone jammers are being used as a Band-Aid, as the wrong solution to solve three societal problems that should be solved by much better technology.

Here are the three biggest problems cellphone jammers are trying, and failing, to solve, and what I think are the better solutions.

1. The ‘phones-are-dangerous’ problem

A Florida man named Jason R. Humphreys wanted to save lives by preventing people along his daily commute from using their phones while driving. So Humphreys installed a cellphone jammer in the back of the passenger seat of his SUV. The scheme worked for two years, as far as Humphreys knew. But the police, whose own communications were occasionally disrupted by his jammer, were less than thrilled. So they tracked him down and caught him two years ago. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission fined him $48,000 for breaking U.S. laws against the use of jammers.

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