The dark side of this technology onslaught is we are losing or have lost our conversational capabilities. It would seem to me that conversation these days has been relegated to monosyllabic answers to a question, or with conversational attempts of two or more variations of grunts and tactile gestures, like gestures of a single finger, thumbs up, thumbs down or half of the peace symbol clearly indicating displeasure with whatever I might’ve asked! As an example, I recently ran into a friend while they were texting and said “Hey, how are you?” The response I got was “Ugg!” My assumption is that meant “not good,” and that ended the conversation. If we do lose the ability to verbally communicate, there is an upside that I really would be in favor of – it would shut up most of our politicians and certainly simplify the matter and manner of law by not allowing lawyers to talk.
I do know how to make a call, answer a call and turn the damn thing on and off, which is mostly off! Not too long ago I inadvertently switched the ring tone to vibration and scared the living hell out of myself. At first I thought it was some sexual experience, and then came to the conclusion that I was having an out of body experience involving an isolated earthquake. Blue-eyes fixed it for me with the unnecessary comment “Not only are you weird, but you’re getting old. Sex indeed!”
My kids and their kids are no exception to the current cultural phenomena that basically mandates everybody has to have a cell phone, or whatever the current technology is offering. I have a cell phone, but even now there are functions that I don’t understand, and quite frankly don’t care about and refuse to use. I guess that makes me a real dinosaur.
I still have the understanding that a “cell” is something that you can get slammed into if got caught perpetrating something illegal – unless you have a real good lawyer. If you go back to the Cold War, it was something that according to a lot of politicians the Communists had a whole bunch of in the US, but that’s history and you probably don’t have a hell of a lot of interest in that. Or maybe “cell” is something like issuing stock for a company on the public market that within the first 30 days loses 50% of its value. But what do I know?
I have a tough time getting and reading missed messages and frankly don’t really care because my attitude is that if it’s important whoever it was will call back. I can’t text, nor tweet. As hard as I try, I cannot take any pictures because this phone doesn’t have a camera capability. That’s how old this phone is. I got it while I was still working, but frankly felt that it was something of an invasion of privacy.
Case in point, I’m in the men’s room or whatever, to take a whiz and the damn phone goes off. I’m tempted to answer, telling the caller exactly what I’m doing and if it’s really necessary that we talk at this particular moment. The only reason I kept the cell phone was principally for emergencies or to call Blue-eyes while I was shopping for groceries or whatever to make certain that we didn’t forget something. She is very good at making thorough lists of what needed to be bought, but would consistently leave this exacting document on the kitchen counter. That, of course, always led to buying a bunch of stuff we didn’t need, but that was okay with me because otherwise I would have to run to the store, which I really hated.
When she got home, I would mention that she forgot her notes once again and this was usually a huge mistake. Blue-eyes had sliced a tendon in her middle finger some years before and didn’t realize that she’d done some permanent damage, which caused this finger to do a left oblique. This deformity gave her a very personalized signature gesture when she decided to flip me off. She thought this was hysterical, and I threatened to take a picture and show the curtain climbers some of the unique aspects of her personality. Her come back with something to the effect that I should keep in mind that she got half of everything and my half will be the remaining debt. This usually got my attention. But I digress…
I only use this ancient cell phone about 10 minutes a month and have accumulated 534 million rollover minutes or at least that’s what my carrier says. When I die, I intend to take it with me so that I can call the smart ass grand kids or whomever and continue to harass them, like I was still there. This is not just another hollow threat.
Moral of the story: Don’t denigrate a woman with a deformed middle finger. Also, use your cell phone minutes because there is not a heavenly repeater.
J.J. Addingnuttin 