"I think the article misses the point. It isn't technology causing the situations - it is people misusing the technology."

Exactly. The availability of the technology certainly does sometimes empower folks to do dumb things, but I don't think it makes sense to blame the device(s). Mind you, my trail name is "Gadget" ...

But consider this text from the article:

"A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures."

Note that the box camera came into general availability to the public late in the *nineteenth* century --- we've had tourists out there with cameras who could (and I suppose occasionally have) done quite the same thing for well over a century.

I do agree, however, that specific devices such as the SPOT have the potential for special problems.