Nathan Exposed » The Electronic Curse, Part 1: Phones

The Electronic Curse, Part 1: Phones

phone Isn’t technology amazing? If it weren’t for technology, I wouldn’t be sitting here, sharing my thoughts online with all you lovely people.

It’s a blessing and a curse. I constantly struggle to find balance.

Let’s start with phones. The problem with phones is that we are too accessible. Most people carry their cell phone on them at all times. Have you ever seen somebody scamper through the house to find their phone? Sure, we’ve all done it. But isn’t that odd?

We have caller i.d., voicemail, call waiting, and yet we are still terrified of missing a phone call. We’ll break our necks to get up the stairs, knocking over cats, dogs, spouses. But why? It isn’t as if we won’t know who called. And won’t we be able to call them right back?

Think back to anything before the 1990’s. Do you remember when we didn’t have caller i.d.? When the phone rang, it was a total mystery as to who would be on the other end. And remember when somebody was going to call us long distance? Gosh, what fun.

We’d sit by the phone anxiously. If someone else got on, we’d yell at them and tell them to hang up because we were expecting a long distance phone call. And once we were on the phone, we didn’t want to be disturbed. “Hey, go away, I’m talking to someone long distance.“

Mon, Mar 20, 2006 @ 5:15 pm | Filed in Technology | Permalink

2 Comments

it’s funny how things change, isn’t it? stranger still is that my younger siblings don’t even remember a world without caller i.d.! also, the way it has evolved so quickly makes me wonder where we’re headed.

Posted by ¡viva la graham! on Tue, Mar 21, 2006 @ 9:04 am

i used to get so excited for long distance phone calls. the whole family would gather to speak to whomever was on the other end, now its all the same no matter where you call.

I run to get the phone because I don’t want to have to deal with the “why didn’t you pick up your phone earlier” commentary when they call again in five minutes.

Posted by adam on Tue, Mar 21, 2006 @ 9:24 am