by Dolores Moore

Created on: May 16, 2009

For years, I swore I would never own one of these ubiquitous intruders, then I crumbled and joined the yakking, texting masses. Cell phones, or mobile phones, as we call them in the UK, have become both a sinister curse and a bit of a mixed blessing. Before launching into the down-side, honesty demands that the blessing is explained. Here is a little story that tells of my conversion, or capitulation.

One night, I was meeting a friend for drinks in a busy, city bar. I got there at the time agreed, waited and drank my beer, read my paper and sneaked surreptitious glances at my watch. After forty minutes, I decided she had forgotten our date, or I had got it wrong. So I fought my way through happy throngs of suited office workers, shrieking and guffawing because they were free, it was Friday, and got myself to the front entrance. I was rushing down the road towards the bus stop when I heard her distinctive Scottish voice calling my name. It transpired that all the time, she was sitting waiting for me, drinking her beer, reading...you get the picture? at the front door, while I had been waiting near the back entrance. That event pushed me over the edge of cell phone ownership, because had I been equipped with one, then we could have connected earlier.

The other positive aspect of owning a cellphone is the access it provides to emergency services in dangerous or life-threatening situations. It allows people to keep in touch with sick or vulnerable relatives and friends and it can even be a safety mechanism where children are concerned, but does it really need to be? Oh lord, if only the majority of phone owners used their cell phones with common sense and discretion, but they just do not. So here we go with the down-side.

Once you own one of these magical little masters of communication, they go out of date. So you feel you have to upgrade to a better, more complicated phone. You take a little time to master the all-singing-all-dancing, exciting new features. Then a month later, your cell phone is old hat - so....you have to upgrade. You are in the loop now, besotted and driven and it costs you money you really do not need to spend. You keep trying to work out the best contracts, you are drowning in a sea of "offers" and you never get to speak to a real person when you call the cell phone company. Somehow, the simple communication device is not so simple any more and it is taking over your life. You feel lost, naked and vulnerable if you leave

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