Cell Yourself Short...

Long time, no speak.

With the sports world in the pre-NFL season lull, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about my cell phone (not pictured).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I'm getting ready to leave my cruise ship, and I walk away to the bathroom for a moment.

When I return, my girlfriend is chatting up a couple from Arkansas.

They were on a cruise to celebrate their 10-year anniversary.

The husband said wistfully, "You know? I really wish I had brought my kids on this cruise. We wanted to get away, but now I miss them. And now, seeing other kids running around and having fun, I think they would've really enjoyed it."

I thought, what a good guy.

I want to relate.

So I replied, "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I haven't had my cell phone in three days. I decided not to bring it because we'd get no reception. But when I saw other people enjoying roaming, I thought, darn... shoulda brought it."

My girlfriend politely laughed at my Larry David-like obnoxiousness.

The sad part is, I kind of meant it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's why I resent technology much of the time: It creates dependency.

You learn to NEED something, that you really don't.

Fifteen years ago, no one had a cell phone.

Now, you feel naked if you don't have one for about 5 minutes.

It's unimaginable not to be reachable at all times, in fact, it's unprofessional.

You have to hand it to the cell phone companies.

They have us all hook, line, and sinker.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given this slight neo-luddite leaning (ironic for a person who works in broadcasting), it should be no surprise that I riled against iphones and the like.

I thought, if I wanted my laptop, I'd get my laptop.

Why do I need a phone to do SO many functions?

People drown in a sea of apps, and yet, their calls are dropping off left and right.

Isn't the point of a telephone to, you know, talk to people?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That belief held until the minute I had the chance to upgrade my latest piece of junk.

Verizon allowed me to get their answer to the iphone.

It has apps.

It can talk.

You can teach it to do the bad-luck and the Roger Rabbit if you really wanted to.

It's touch-screen.

The thing is sick.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
But of course, by creating such a great phone, my standards have gone up again.

I now believe there are certain functions a phone should just perform.

Once again, the man has me addicted to something that I really don't need.

And so, I think back to my cruise.

I remember what it was like to be out of touch with the outside world, unreachable to anyone.

Without apps, facebook, twitter, yelp, aol, blogs, espn, and on and on and on.

In a word, it was wonderful.

So when the answer to the question "can you hear me now?" is affirmative, that's not always good.