In an age where methods of communication other than face-to-face are becoming overwhelmingly more prevalent it is important to stop now and then and consider the grand effects. We email, IM, MySpace, teleconference, and we can do it all while mobile. My cell phone, a Samsung Blackjack, supports not only the fundamentals that require a cell phone to be deemed as such (i.e.: I am able to make and recieve calls while anywhere my heart so desires), but it syncronizes itself with the Microsoft Exchange server that handles my Outlook profile and so it is also capable of downloading my email, allowing me to reply on the go, managing all of my contacts both email and telephone, business and personal, and reminding me when I have meeting and when the Bears are playing. I can use it to browse eBay on my smoke breaks, and (with a $30 attachment or an upgrade to a Blackjack II) I can GPS my way to whatever it is that I find on eBay that prefers local pickup only. Some would say that life is good.
Now think back, back to a time when we had home telephones. A time when, if you were savvy, you had a dual cassette telephone answering system. A time when you never knew who was calling until after you picked up the phone. A time when, if I wanted to find a used car, I would pay $0.50 for the local newspaper and scour the classifieds. If I found something of interest, I would dial the number in the advertisement and speak to the seller in person about said vehicle. If I wanted to know what my friends were doing, I would stop by their house. Now, I wonder if they would even look to see who was there if there was a knock on the door. “Anyone whom I would want to see surely would have called on their way over. It must be someone trying to sell me something or get me to accept Jesus.” I can hear them say in their head.
Now, granted, we no longer live in an age where reading the newspaper and always carrying a few dimes in case we need to make a phone call is the norm. We live in a time of mobile communication. If I’m not at home and my mother needs to ask when I’ll next be able to visit, she will more often than not call my cell phone. If, for whatever reason, I do not answer, she will email me. While this is convenient, it also forces me to respond whether I want to or not. We’ve come to live in a time that it has become inconsiderate not to respond to any person’s every whim at a time that may not be convenient to us. I, too, am guilty of calling my mother and questioning why she didn’t answer her cell phone when I know it must be on her person. I, too, think “She must not have heard it and she will return my call as soon as she notices that she missed my attempt.” We’ve become more demanding as a society. If I am on a lunch break, my boss can still reach me as far as I can travel. If I am on vacation, no matter, still I am tied to my home as much as I am when I am there. And, most notably, everyone has come to expect this.
It had been a goal delimited in many a blog past: I wanted to make things that would improve the lives of others. I make technological advancements in the mobile communications sector. Sometimes now I wonder if I really ever fulfilled my goal. By making cell phones more reliable with greater ranges and more stable connections, we strengthen the ties that bind us to our ever expanding network of friends, family, coworkers, and telemarketers. For every person who delights in being able to browse eBay from a corn field in Kansas, someone else is frustrated by the inability to shut it all off. This is why, I think, I prefer to vacation in foreign countries. Even just across the border into Canada, good luck reaching me. I don’t get service there. At least, then, I have a good excuse to miss your call.
August 30th, 2008 | Category: Life, Technologies | 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
| Comments (1)
