iphone, uphone, we all phone
English: New Mobile Cell Phone Technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Feeling like a dinosaur with a jet pack, I have succumbed to family proddings and have joined the iphoniacs. If you can imagine a dinosaur zooming about, then it’s possible to see me, a relic of telecommunications, thumb flipping through countless apps and haphazardly navigating the gateways of iphonese.
I grew up with the ubiquitous black desk phone that only went as far as the cord was long. I also remember party lines, when heavy breathing only meant your neighbor was listening in on your conversation. Phone prefixes started out as JU or some other distinctive alpha combo. Ma Bell ruled the telephone lines.
Then telecommunications became liberated with decommissioning and phones came in colors, styles, and eventually didn’t even possess cords. Zipping past cordless phones to cell phones, lands me to about ten years ago with kids learning to drive and living far away on their own. Staying connected took on relative importance. Caving into signing up with a cell phone carrier took place in a mall kiosk. How did we ever survive without being available 24/7?
A self-proclaimed gregarious hermit, I am striving to the adjustment of being only a moment away from anyone who desires to reach out and talk to me. I grimace when faced with “I tried calling you–didn’t you have your phone with you?” Well, actually no. I didn’t use to haul the phone around while mowing the lawn, or washing the car, or even going shopping. Now it’s a requirement.
Marlene had it right–I vant to be alone. Alone sometimes involves being alone with my thoughts. The problem is the i in iphone also includes u.
As much of a convenience cellulars have become, I have a real problem with how society has gone disgracefully downhill in public decorum when it comes to phones. A recent speaker at our school put it this way, “We have evolved so quickly with technology we haven’t developed proper etiquette.” Pig’s eye. My momma taught me good public manners and I don’t think they have gone out of style. I don’t comb my hair in public, nor do I floss in public, and I certainly don’t talk about my latest gynecological report in public. Yet, I have had to listen to people share all kinds of interesting aspects of their life, simply because the ease of phone technology allows them to talk anywhere and at anytime. Apparently their phones are smarter than they are.
All this instant, instantaneous communication compunction is the reason why my choice of reading contain little cellular referencing. I like books from the days of letters and tea-table conversations versus text bubbles and “can-you-hear-me-now” connections.
Would Jane Austen or Jane Eyre be bemused by the i before u when it comes to talking? But then again, if everybody is doing it we simply evolve, right? Then why aren’t there more dinosaurs with jet packs…
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Pam Webb 