This little column by Lenore Skenazy, entitled "Cell Phone Holdouts are Right: Buy a Phone, Become a Baby" made me revisit the reasons we don't have cell phones and made me laugh.
Still, I found a surprising number of cell phone holdouts who somehow manage to get by without the dropped calls, post-work work and daily conversation that goes: "Hang on just a sec. Can you make that coffee light, no sugar? I AM listening to you. You say you're getting a div — No sugar! Wait. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, so she walked out and — Can you break a 10?"
Holdouts will have none of this. In contemplating their righteous purity, we see the truth about our cell-addicted selves:
"If I were to get one, pretty soon I wouldn't be able to live without one," said holdout Henry Stimpson, neatly nailing the biggest problem with cell phones: the way they turn previously independent individuals into the great unweaned.
And I love this example...vodka smoothie?!:
Cell phones turn adults into babies, constantly needing contact with their
spouses, friends and children. In fact, it's possible that children in a
cell-connected world make out worst of all. This morning, not five minutes after
I'd left for work, my 11-year-old called from the kitchen to ask if he could
have banana bread for breakfast.
Kid — I'm not there . Eat ice cream and
marshmallows. Make a vodka smoothie! Go wild or be a good boy, just pretend it's
1990 and I'm unreachable.
With all of us connected all the time — "Mom, I'm on the
bus," "Mom, I'm two blocks from home" — independence never gets a
foothold.
We'll continue to wander freely outside of our home, free from the ubiquitous electronic leash, thank you very much.
2 comments:
Three cheers for all cell-phone holdouts! Don't own one, don't plan on owning one, and loving every minute of it!
That reminds me of a story when a good friend congratulated me, even came over and shook my hand, when he learned I was a cell-phone holdout like himself.
Less than 10 minutes later, he asked his wife if he could borrow her cell phone.
Solidarity, I tell you. Solidarity.
I will get a cell phone when my job requires it and pays for it or when it gets cheaper than a regular phone.
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