I WOULD LOVE TO TALK BUT I'M SURGICALLY ATTACHED TO MY CELL PHONE
How did we ever survive without cell phones? Those of us just on the outskirts of Geezer-ville have a simple answer- very very easily.
It probably seems impossible to believe that answer, but it is absolutely true. The old rule of thumb was typically one land phone per household. Somehow that concept worked pretty well for decades.
Some overindulgent households had a children’s phone in the olden days. That was a fairly extravagant measure in ancient times. It usually meant that the multi-phone family had a few bucks and were not afraid to spoil the child.
The advent of the cell phone in the mid-80s was a game-changer in many ways.
Sure a few people had portable radio phones already, but radio phones had a complicated and expensive limited range of use for most people.
Cell phones gave everybody an affordable opportunity to jump onboard the “anytime and eventually just about anywhere” portable phone game. At first it was companies and new gadget guys with phones. Boy has that changed over the years.
If you have vocal cords or opposable thumbs, you probably have a cell phone.
But it is not just a phone anymore. It is a complete disconnect from the immediate world around people as they get swallowed up into a new digital world of disembodied voices and bad spelling. It is no longer important who you are with, as it is who you are not with, in this bold new world.
A call is more important than a flesh and blood person who actually took the time and effort to connect with you in a full-fledged real world. The bad part is the hard cold fact that we are not hard-wired to handle more than one task well- despite myths that claim otherwise.
The truth is that cell phones are a form of electronic ADD. They intrude heavily on social situations where a text message or actual phone call takes a person completely out of the immediate game of actual real contact with actual real people in social situations.
So now we have to decide what level of importance the flesh and blood people have in our lives. Do we take the call or respond to the text message, or do we ignore the intrusion of a disembodied phone caller or text messenger on our actual gathering of flesh and blood people? Sadly, most people take the call.
That is terribly wrong. The people at the gathering have been placed in the social bottom feeder category by the cell phone owner because the call is more important than the people. But at least you know where you stand with the cell phone owner. And you may have a different place in your social order for the cell phone owner: Dial A for a****le.
The rules of social engagement are in the midst of a big change as we arm every man, woman and child with a cell phone. Soon the acceptable etiquette standard will be rudeness as people conclude that it is okay to ignore the world in your immediate view and take the call or message.
And that is not a message I really like.
COMMENTS
DENNIS:"I used to have a really great cell phone. It made phone calls. Unfortunately, the method it used to make those calls became obsolete and I had to replace it.
