by Rick H. Blase

Created on: October 11, 2007

How many people hate their cell phones, let's see a show of hands? Ok, now, how many husbands like arriving home from work and then getting sent back out the door to go pick up something? Now, how many wives like tracking down their husbands to inform them of an overflowing toilet? Yep, that's what I thought. We're so spoiled by the ability to directly communicate, that we hardly remember what the old days were like. You know, the days of TV dinners and Jiffy Pop.

We love technology but hate is a pretty strong word. Technology has allowed us to become more socially aware, communicate better, and raise our standard of living. Well at least that was the plan. What we've allowed technology to do is to shortcut our social skills, create chaos where once there was order, and pretty much ruin everything just like our parents said rock and roll would do.
So why do we hate' cell phones? I think it largely stems from what we have allowed cell phones to do to us by our own personal choice. The problem is that that choice is being constantly stereo typed in every piece of advertising you are exposed to. Am I really better off with the newest cell phone? Of course you are, you can amaze all your friends and be the envy of everyone. That's what we really want, don't' we? We want others to envy us and look at us like the success we are. That's a lot of karma riding on that cell phone.
I know someone who refused to upgrade their phone for years. This someone was very close to me and even I tried persuading them to upgrade. The constant answer was, "why"? I like this cell phone, it does everything I want it to do, I know how to use it and I am perfectly happy with it. The problem was that everyone around this person was not happy with it. Didn't they realize all the stuff they were missing? No, they didn't. Why, because they didn't have it in the first place and it wasn't important enough to them to even worry about. In fact, this person was subjected to the worst peer pressure I've ever seen since the high school smoking area. It was incredible now that I think about it. I personally was amazed that this old decrepit still worked. In fact, it wasn't until the screen on the phone developed a peculiar habit of displaying the information upside down and backwards that this person finally caved in and got a new phone.
Sometimes we forget that the purpose of us on this planet is to make it a better place for us having been here in the first place. To me that means when it comes to cell phones and technology, we should keep our perspective above all the hype and realize what it is we need and how best to serve those needs. That's hard to do in today's society, but it's almost necessary if we are to survive with any sense of personal happiness. Now you will excuse me while I call my wife and remind her how much I love her. That makes both of us happy and certainly outstanding criteria for both of us having cell phones.

Learn more about this author, Rick H. Blase.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.