The cellphone generation

Remember the days when you used to phone your parents and friends from your landline. Just a few years ago when I was still at school, there was no other way of reaching your friends than by picking up the telkom installed phone and dialling their 7 digit number. Now my preferred mode of communication is smsing.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing - it's much cheaper, and we can't stop the development of these technologies anyway, so why not just make use of those things that make your life considerably easier.

There are some things that do erk me (and my husband in particular) about cell phones though. Such as when we (usually my husband) are trying to type an English sms and the predictive text dictionary is on a different language (usually German). Suddenly "Hello" becomes "Helln" and "Hey" is "Gew".

Or when you've written a whole long message, by mistake pressed the wrong button, and erased the whole thing. Or when you've got a low battery and just as you send the message, the phone dies, thus erasing your message. Or the fact that we go into a panic when our phones die and we're not close to a charger (pretty sad isn't it). Or when you've sent an sms and you don't get a delivery report - even though the person got your message (that really grates my carrot). My husband in particular hates the sound of my cellphone alarm (but who needs an alarm clock or a radio alarm when you have a cell phone?).

Haven't we become a little too dependant on these things, though? I mean, forgetting your cellphone at home is a big deal! You feel isolated and out of touch - scared to miss something important. I also find it helps me to avoid interactions - how much easier is it to send an sms that says "I'm angry with you!" than to actually take the courage and say it to somebody's face?

Today our manager went out for a few minutes to get some food, leaving behind her phone to charge. During the few minutes she was gone, someone sent her a message, and phoned 3 times. As wonderful new technology goes, every minute or so, the phone would remind us that there was a message waiting to be read. After 10 minutes of this repetitive cheery tune, we were ready to chuck the thing down the loo. I remember the same thing happening during my studies - a housemate had left her phone at home while the battery was low. Every few minutes it would remind us of this, and to add salt to the wound, an sms arrived, thus sounding every 30 seconds for either low battery or unread sms. We ended up locking the thing in the bathroom (like a naughty pet) until the housemate came home - hours later!

At least I'm not one of those people who always need the newest, latest phones with the best features, those with the Internet, MP3 players and all that jazz. I'm quite happy when I can just sms and call, be reminded of important dates and woken up in the morning.

And most importantly I'm glad when I can switch it off. Without a guilty conscience.