Prisoners of the Cell

The Source

I’d made a silent promise to myself that I’d stop writing about the annoyance of cell phones. That’s the great thing of making a promise to yourself . . . you can break it and no one knows. It’s just that I keep discovering thing, not about cell phones but about their users:

Cell phone users don’t want to be called. Back in the hoary days when people used mainly land lines, the phone would ring and the owner would pick up the receiver. Now that so many people must have phones with them 24-7, sort of like an oxygen tank for a COPD sufferer, they usually don’t want to answer. The bottom line is that the “new” phone is actually of less use in terms of conversation than the older model. It often does no good to leave a voice mail for these folks since they often respond only to text messages. Apparently their cell phone has robbed them of the ability to hear but their fingers and thumbs could now enter an Olympic competition. Therefore having a telephone that no one answers is a lot like a toilet that looks nice but won’t flush.
Cell phone users no longer bore you with pictures of their grandchildren. Instead they want to show you their newest phone app. Watching their little app whirl away and give them the weather in Milwaukee, the price of eggs in New Mexico, and their blood pressure is every bit as exciting as last year’s pictures of little Bubba taking his first step.
There used to be a family in our community who were constantly mad at the government and as a sign of protest they refused to change their clocks to Daylight Savings Time. This had little actual effect on Washington and as I remember the government didn’t shut down as a result. It simply required that the family arrive everywhere an hour early. It goes without saying that they took a good deal of ribbing in our little town for their refusal to get with the times. If you’re one of us dinosaurs who’ve yet to convert to a cell phone then you might have experienced similar ribbing from your friends.