What's In A Phone?

Hello world. (And I mean that)

How many of you are reading this article from your phone? How many of you got an email on your phone saying this article was posted? Yesterday was a very trying day for me. However, like most trying days, a lot of growth and experience came becuase of it; yesterday my phone died. Meow my phone has died a lot of times, but this time it was dead dead. Sometimes my phone would just shut of randomly, one or many of the buttons wouldnt work, long story short I am no stranger to phone troubles. This time however it was completely gone. Nothing a quick "take the battery out and restart" could fix. So from 5 pm on January 20th to 2pm on January 21st, I did not have a phone. This doesnt sound like a big deal... and it shouldnt be.

Again I ask, how many of you are reading this article from your phone? How many of you got an email on your phone saying this article was posted? I understand it is a little contradictive to complain about technology through a similar technological medium, but stick with me here.

Why was I completely paralyzed without my phone? I didnt miss any of my calls, I missed 2 arbitrary text messages and I missed 1 email from Borders. Big whoop. All day at work I was reaching in my empty pocket to check if I had any new messages, to check the time, to see if anyone posted anything funny on twitter, it felt so odd not having a phone. But friends.. isn't THAT odd.

I know I am not alone here, I know there are other phone junkies out there. I urge you to look into your cell phone habits. I'm not suggesting we all find our nearest river or tributary and launch our phones into the current. But isnt there something to say about people who have to be on their phones constantly.. checking facebook, texting, myspace, twitter... always trying to be somewhere else via one iphone app or another. Meow, I understand people need to get ahold of people, business needs to be conducted, movie times need to be convienently looked up. But how did our parents do it? How did we do it 10 years ago? All I am saying is everyone should take a look at how healthy their relationship with his or her phone is. How obsessed are you? Are your bosses mad that your always texting? Do you spend your work breaks texting instead of eating? Do you race to your phone when you forgot you left it in your coat pocket? Do you give your phone more attention than your family? Most importantly, what message are you sending to those around you when all you can do is focus on your phone?

I can definitely see the positives of having a phone linked to all these other social mediums, dont get me wrong. That's why when I said "hello world", I meant it. It does makes me think of the old "fake number" trick though. If you give people a fake number now a days.. they still have 6 million other ways of getting ahold of you. Will people start making fake facebooks to accomodate their fake numbers?