Blog #5

I put off getting a cell phone way longer than most people I know. It seems more like a tether than freedom. Now it’s become part of the pat down routine I do many times a day, often when moving from one place to another. Keys, phone, wallet, in that order. If one of those is missing, I go into a panic.

When out with friends, we coordinate at all times through texts. Constant texting. I was late in that development also, but now it’s another part of the routine. I still have to type every letter out individually. No T9, or whatever it’s called, for me. There’s always that one word it can’t recognize, and I have to switch back and forth anyway, so I’m slow in comparison with a lot of people I know. They send me a text, I monotonously type it out for a few minutes, and they respond within seconds. I still find that amazing.

Often times I’ll be on my way somewhere to meet some people, bar hopping or something else that requires coordination, and I’ll wonder how anyone did anything before cell phones. I know it’s a dumb question, but it’s made things much more casual. Without constant updates on location and status, I’d imagine there’d have to have been more meticulous planning. And breaking plans would have been harder to do without seeming like a dick. You couldn’t send a last minute text saying you’re not going to make it. Maybe I’m over thinking this.

I get made fun of a bit for the cheap phone I have. It seems like everyone has an Iphone, or some equivalent that allows them to browse the internet while we’re out for dinner or drinks. Eight people ignoring each other, staring at their phones, texting others to come join us or writing about what they’re doing on Facebook. I guess there’s no point in face to face conversation anymore, when I can find out all I need to know through a status update.

Anyway, my phone is lame, but I like it. It was free with my contract renewal. I told the lady at the Verizon store I’d take whatever was free, and she looked at me like crazy person. She said something like “You want that phone?” She was probably just trying to goad me into something more expensive for the commission, but I don’t find humiliation to be a good sales incentive. Then she tried to sell me the car charger and Bluetooth ear piece, which I declined. I don’t even have a car.

I liked my old phone better. The battery was messed up after I spilled beer on it, and it couldn’t hold a charge for very long, so when people tried to call or text me and I didn’t feel like responding, I could say my battery was dead. But even then, the smart ones knew that a dead phone goes straight to voicemail instead of ringing a few times first and that really I was ignoring them.

Sometimes I’ll see an old rotary phone on television, hear the violence of the ringing, and it reminds me of when I was younger, in junior high and high school, and a phone call felt new and exciting, like an event (not that we had those kind of phones when I was that age, I’m not that old, although I do remember them as a little kid). Now it happens all the time and at all places. It’s not like I would ever get rid of my cell phone and go back to the ways of yore. Life is a lot easier with them. With that ease and freedom though, something is lost.

I just reread everything I wrote, and realize I sound like an old crank. If Andy Rooney ever dies (he’s got to be what, 109 years old?), maybe I could take his job.