Ladies and gentlemen, meet my new cell phone:
all together now: oooooooh.Normally a new cell phone wouldn't exactly be fodder for a blog post but
a. I don't have a whole lot going on at the moment : *(
b. It's a crazy-ass phone!
Seriously, I've had it for about six hours now and I still giggle with glee every time I look at it. The fact that I feel this way about a cell phone is kind of scary. I'm either extremely desperate to love something that loves me back (or at least trusts me and does what I ask it to) or I've turned into one of THOSE people.
I was at dinner tonight with a friend, and while waiting for the bill, I realized we were each on our own fancy touch phones, oblivious to the goings-on around us, lost in a search for answers to some question I can't even remember. I think it might have been what movies am I getting from Netflix tomorrow. Yes, it's a question that can be answered in seconds with my fancy little new toy because I all I have to do is press a little tab on the screen and *boom* my e-mail pops up and, oh, look at that, it's "The Dark Knight" arriving tomorrow from the Land of Nexflix Movies.
Pretty cool right? Yes and no actually. As I sit here still enamored by the phone that hasn't left my side, I'm already starting to regret buying it. I'm sure it'll come in handy a zillion times when I need to know the answer to a question, but what's so wrong with wondering? What did I do before I had a fancy smartphone to immediately answer every single last one of my questions? Oh right, I waited. And I'm still alive, even after all that...waiting 30 minutes until I got home to turn on the computer and log into my YahooMail account to check the status of my next arriving movie.
So while I'm excited about all the cool new gadgets my phone has to offer (I can type word documents!! For someone who carries around a notebook and paper wherever she goes in case the mood strikes to write, this is infinitely exciting), I'm worried that I'll grow too dependent on this little monster. What will happen one day if I lose it or, worse, it breaks and it's no longer around to answer all my questions and do everything I know I'll grow accustom to it doing without ever even realizing it? I'll be lost. I suppose equating it to the end of a relationship would be ironically fitting, but I'll resist the urge.
It doesn't really matter because I think you get the point. Technology is constantly improving and becoming better, faster, more capable than ever. And while we adapt to these rapid changes because we want to or because we have to makes little difference. What we have to keep in mind is the time when these things weren't around. The time when talking to a person face-to-face (or carrier pigeon letter, whichever you prefer) was the only option. Sure you can rely on a a phone, a computer, a GPS, whatever to make your life easier, but don't forget that people got along just fine without all of that.
I'm not too young (ugh) to remember a time before cell phones really existed. News travelled a little slower, but we got by. Now you pick up the phone and call someone, or start a text message conversation and think that's enough. You think that qualifies as contact, as a connection. But it doesn't. I think it's better than nothing, but it's certainly not enough.
I guess what I'm trying to say somewhere in the midst of all this random droning, is please don't forget to connect. And I don't mean at night when you plug your cell phone into the wall to charge the battery. Connect with people: your friends, your family, your love. When you pick up the phone to call or text them, make it to set plans to go for dinner, coffee, a movie, a drive...whatever. It's so easy to get lost in the ease and familiarity of technology, don't forget about life's best comfort: people.
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