My husband and I were just talking the other night about how much cell phones have evolved just in the last 15 years or so. Before we were married, I had a couple of cell phones, but gave them up because my husband was really the only person I was trying to keep in touch with and once we were married, that became easier. However, we did have a land line phone. Back then, if you called someone at home and they didn’t answer the phone, it usually meant they were out having a life and they would call you back later. Simple enough. After our son was born, we eventually did away with our land line and got cell phones. I needed to be able to check in on my little guy while I was at work, and a cell phone made that so much easier.
The sheer thought of being without my cell phone, even for one day, kind of makes me panic a little inside. And? I think that’s a little sad. I feel safer with it (I commute to and from work alone AND we gave up our home phone, so this phone is IT in case of an emergency), but it’s also a way to constantly stay in touch with just about anyone via email, text, Facebook, and calling.
Case in point: A couple of weeks ago we had a scary storm with straight line winds in excess of 50 mph tear through our town. We lost our electricity, which meant we also lost our cable (no TV) and our internet connection (no computer). That little phone provided enough lighting for me to find our emergency flashlight and I was also able to still get on Facebook and get weather updates. Our utility company even sent text messages throughout the entire ordeal keeping us abreast on when we could expect power back. I was also able to check in with my parents and make sure they were ok. Were it not for that phone, I would have been very afraid and very cut off from what was happening around me. But, I suppose we would have been ok, because in the end, we were. Thank goodness for hand-held gaming systems to entertain my son for a few hours in the dark.
In 1994 we had a huge ice storm that left us without electricity for two weeks. It also took out our phone lines. However, pretty much everyone in town was in the same boat. Cell phones were not something everyone had back then, but we survived. Whatever did we do without our land line phones and electricity? We listened to the battery charged radio, read a whole lot of books, worked outside in the yard to remove debris from trees that came down, and we had conversations with our families and neighbors. Yes, there were many moments of boredom (this was before the internet). Yet, we survived.
When I first got a cell phone back in 1997, if someone would have told me that a few years from then, I would be able to surf the internet, listen to the radio, watch TV and videos, send text messages, check email, and play games on a cell phone (and so much more), I don’t think I would have believed them. I probably would have wondered why someone would even want to do all of that on a phone anyway. But now I know, and the thought of not having my cell phone makes me shudder. I suppose it’s because I like my news, internet, and weather updates and I’ve become a little spoiled to getting them whenever I want on my phone. I’d still prefer someone call me over texting me, and I would much rather talk one-on-one than over the phone.
How attached are you to your cell phone? Could you make do without it?
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