Once upon a time, in a land not so far away at all, there was a such thing as the land line. It wasn't the only form of communication, of course. You had the postal mail. And telegrams - which is about the same as postal mail. But the land line was the lick! You couldn't wait to be 10 years old and start getting your first phone calls at home. Now if your house was anything like mine, you had a strict time limit for using the phone, but boy, was it FUN to be able to talk to your friends for 10 minutes apiece. Of course, back in that time, it was more fun to be outside, running around until your face was flushed and not even a cold glass of water - from the tap, mind you - could quench your thirst. And if you weren't home when a call came in for you...well, you just weren't home. And whoever wanted to speak to you just had to wait until you got back. But that was a rarity because, nine times out of 10, the person or persons who would be calling you were outside running around, too. Of course, time moved forward and technology progressed as is to be expected. And everybody had pagers. Nintendo became SUPER Nintendo and Mario became SUPER Mario. Sega Genesis was the hottest new video game console around. But computers were still big and clunky and a great deal of people still relied on the typewriter to do their "professional" typing. If you were fortunate enough to have access to an old, beige, abnormally shaped computer, the letter's on the screen were all ONE FONT. And they were green.And time continued to move forward and the cassette tape, though still popular, was quickly on its way out because the compact disc, or CD, had become so hugely popular. And pagers became two-ways and then...the cell phone was invented. IT WAS HUGE!!! It was like carrying a cordless phone around in your pocket or purse all day, the ring was some computerized blurb that was annoying, and THERE WAS NO TEXTING.
And then, the end came.
Fast forward to now. You can't FIND a person without a cell phone. There's a homeless man who roams Indianapolis, asking for change when you come out of the CVS or if you could buy him a sandwich from Subway. He might ask you for a ride if you're driving and you tell him you can't give him bus fare. And even HE has a cell phone. SERIOUSLY. I'm not exaggerating here. If I had heard someone tell this story, I, too, would be shaking my head like, "Nuh-uh. Ain't no way." I'd tell you that I'd have to see that with my own two eyes.
AND I HAVE.
I was disturbed. It got me to thinking how we change and evolve and become dependent on things that, not very long ago, didn't mean much to us, if at all. Like always needing to be able to reach everybody. God forbid you don't pay your cell phone bill - or put some money on your Boost Mobile phone of your AT&T GoPhone - and you can't be reached. ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. People start to get all worried and lose their minds like you disappeared or were abducted by aliens. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't have a flip-phone in the age of all things touchscreen and a million+ apps. Seriously. A FLIP PHONE? Where they do that at? Seeing that homeless man whip out his phone and actually making a call - he wasn't faking because I could HEAR the caller on the other end - got me thinking about just how much we have all lost our minds over cell phones. I mean, don't get me wrong; they're probably the most convenient and efficient means of communications. And if you don't mind paying beaucoup money for a device that allows you to surf the web and do everything you would do on a laptop at home, then they're a lot of fun, too. But it causes me to wonder ~ has the cell phone completely taken over?
I mean, let me not answer a text or take a call. When I reach the person back, I get reamed like I committed the cardinal sin against my friend. And people are so RUDE with their phones. You know your big 7 inch screen lights up any dark room, and yet you wanna pull it out and check it every 30 seconds while the rest of us are trying to enjoy a stage play...or a movie. They tell you to silence your cell phones. That pretty much implies "DON'T USE IT FOR THE NEXT TWO HOURS." I mean seriously. Have we all lost our minds? Like what's really so important that you can't wait to get HOME and check Facebook or Twitter or Bebo or whatever you look at? And how many of ya'll text so much that you don't even TAKE calls anymore? Cell phones have single-handedly DESTROYED the art of the conversation. People don't know how to talk anymore. My kids at Tech actually SPEAK shorthand. SERIOUSLY? I need complete sentences, okay? And please don't be rude and text and websurf while I'm trying to tell you something important. PLEASE.
Do I have a cell phone? Yes, I do. A refurbished Pantech Link that I paid 32.64 cents for, including tax. And it's a GoPhone. I had a contract phone ~ I've had SEVERAL contract phones. And I was going to get another. But I decided to save my money. I don't use my phone much. Seriously. I don't surf the web on my phone ~ that's what I have a laptop for. I don't check email on my phone. NOTHING is that serious that it can't wait. And I actually PREFER to speak than to text, but I adapt to my friends/family who prefer to text. I used to be all into the cell phone hype and even recently decided that I was going back to a contract.But I'd rather not sign my life away - or at least, two years of it - for a bunch of features and extras that I don't use.
But of course that's me. For all you cell phone crrazies out there that have GOT TO HAVE YOUR APPS, happy texting. Here's to having your communication skills fried and shot to the depths of hell because your vocab is full of shorthand. Hey, I'm just saying...
