Cell Phones - Love/Hate

I remember long ago when I got my first cell phone. I was so excited. We were quick to jump on the new technology bandwagon. It wasn't as if we were the first to get a cell phone. My grandparents had one before me. But their cell was the kind you attached to your car and only... and I do mean only... use for emergencies. You didn't talk long and it nearly cost an arm and a leg.

When I got mine, it was at the beginning of the trend. It was when it started to become the new toy. People had them so they could be reachable at all times. And we thought - isn't that wonderful.

Do you remember these? Oh how much have cell phones
changed since they first came out!

Now that I have been a part of the population of cell phone owners, I realize how irritating cell phones really has become. Now everybody has a cell phone. Which isn't the reason I hate cell phones. I could care less if I hear people talking on them in public. In fact, sometimes I find it interesting what they even say. I don't even mind that the owners of cell phones keep getting younger and younger. Pretty soon they will hand you a cell before they cut the umbilical cord. Can you imagine?

Waaaahhh
Awe... what's up baby?
Boob please...

Ok, so babies can't talk so it wouldn't really work like that! But if it did it would be funny! Now your laughing because you know you painted a picture in your mind of the baby and the cell phone!

The thing is, cell phones have made it so you are constantly available. Obviously you are busy if you call the house and get the answering machine. Now we carry our phones on us. So with that responsibility comes the necessity to be available. Yet - is that really the case?

Now for me personally, I hate talking on the phone. (My teenage self would be beating me up right now for even thinking this!) I also know that any kind of "work" I do revolves around home. So that means I am pretty much always available. So when I hear my phone ring, I am usually quick to run to it and quick to respond. And if I am busy, you can expect an answer in a timely matter.

Whatever you do - please wait to answer your phone
until after you are done!

I guess that is what makes me annoyed with this whole cell phone era - others don't feel the same exact way or do the same exact thing. Now I am not suggesting you should be available 24/7 if you have a cell phone, but there are timelines when it comes to responding. Sure, you might not be available if you are at work. You might even miss a phone call if you have company (and I applaud you for not taking it in their presence - that would be rude!) And it is also appropriate to sleep - us humans need to do that. So anybody that expects you to take a phone call during normal sleeping hours is being unrealistic. We also should touch on bathrooms... no need to answer there either. I can wait it out!

But seriously, we know you check your phone regularly. For most of us, the phone is just like another appendage. So why is it that phone calls never get returned in a timely matter, if they get returned at all? How can you receive a text and not respond back to a question. While an immediate response might not always be necessary, it is just common courtesy to respond back. If you don't, the other person might assume that their message was either never received, or that you are avoiding them! Or maybe that getting back to them just isn't a priority.

It is just funny how cell phones really have changed the world these days. We can't seem to leave the house without them for fear that an emergency will come up when we are out. Yet, even though we all have cell phones and they are usually on us 95 percent of the time, there are so many out there who are unavailable every single time you try to get a hold of them. Don't you find this annoying too?

I just don't get it. If you aren't going to use your cell phone for what it is meant for - communication - then why do you even bother to have one in the first place?