Thursday, October 07, 2004
Electronic Love
I think I'm in love with my cell phone. Well, that's not really true. Before you get all "Dave, you're such a hypocrite" on me, let me clarify. Rather, I'm in love with the PDA part of the cell phone. It happens to also be a cell phone, which is convenient sometimes and incredibly annoying at other times. But it also functions as a MP3 player, web browser, email client, instant messenger, electronic toothbrush, and video game machine. And that makes it all well worth it.
I forget if I wrote about it, but I've always hated cell phones. The reasons are too numerous to mention. I had vowed not to ever get a cell phone, but I had to cave, mostly because my company stopped letting me check out cell phones for business travel. The benefits of cell phones for everyday use are still a bit nebulous to me, but when traveling, it's pretty obvious that they're useful to have. I've been traveling more and more for business, and it's pretty necessary to have one then. In fact, it's even more necessary when traveling for fun, and you need to meet up with a ton of people, none of whom have a central location, and whose travel plans may change. So, I pretty much had no other choice.
Most of what I assumed about cell phones has been correct. I really try not to talk on it when there are other options, and I don't really give out the number that much. I have tried to minimize its usage, because I do find that people attached to their phones are rather annoying. I will say that the biggest unanticipated benefit of it so far has been that it has gotten people to stop complaining about me having a cell phone. The benefits of this are huge. Honestly, it was like a broken record. The biggest unanticipated annoyance (on top of all of the expected annoyances) has been that once people get the number, they insist on using it, even when I'm at home. Usually, I don't even keep my cell phone in the same room as me - I don't want it to be like a ball and chain. But what happens is since people don't know where I am, they just call my cell, assuming that I've had it surgically attached to my body. So, I miss calls, and don't get the messages until later - this is definitely an unexpected problem. They need to invent a way of when you're home, you can plug your phone into the recharger, and it automatically knows to forward calls to your home phone. THAT would be grand.
But, aside from the phone functionality, it's really nice having a web browser and email client all at the same time. And, a feature that most phones have that I didn't realize it's usefulness until gaining it myself is text messaging. It's so convenient - it's not-intrusive, yet quick. If everyone had text messaging (and it was easy to use - my phone is a Treo, so it has a keyboard, unlike those phones that just have a number pad, and make typing excruciating), I don't even know if you'd need the phone capability. It's nice to be able to check baseball scores and other events, and check my email wherever I am. I've never really claimed to be a Luddite - in fact, I know that I'm addicting to being connected. That's a problem that's not going away - I believe I was part of the first generation of college students to have reliable broadband in college. And, I got hooked. Being disconnected is unbearable now. It's a dependency, but I'm not quite sure how unhealthy it is. Certainly, as time goes on, and as future generations are always connected, it's only going to get worse. At some point, there's going to be nowhere in the world that doesn't have internet access. This is frightening and comforting at the same time. But definitely more of the latter. If I'm disconnected, how can I check my fantasy baseball scores?
I forget if I wrote about it, but I've always hated cell phones. The reasons are too numerous to mention. I had vowed not to ever get a cell phone, but I had to cave, mostly because my company stopped letting me check out cell phones for business travel. The benefits of cell phones for everyday use are still a bit nebulous to me, but when traveling, it's pretty obvious that they're useful to have. I've been traveling more and more for business, and it's pretty necessary to have one then. In fact, it's even more necessary when traveling for fun, and you need to meet up with a ton of people, none of whom have a central location, and whose travel plans may change. So, I pretty much had no other choice.
Most of what I assumed about cell phones has been correct. I really try not to talk on it when there are other options, and I don't really give out the number that much. I have tried to minimize its usage, because I do find that people attached to their phones are rather annoying. I will say that the biggest unanticipated benefit of it so far has been that it has gotten people to stop complaining about me having a cell phone. The benefits of this are huge. Honestly, it was like a broken record. The biggest unanticipated annoyance (on top of all of the expected annoyances) has been that once people get the number, they insist on using it, even when I'm at home. Usually, I don't even keep my cell phone in the same room as me - I don't want it to be like a ball and chain. But what happens is since people don't know where I am, they just call my cell, assuming that I've had it surgically attached to my body. So, I miss calls, and don't get the messages until later - this is definitely an unexpected problem. They need to invent a way of when you're home, you can plug your phone into the recharger, and it automatically knows to forward calls to your home phone. THAT would be grand.
But, aside from the phone functionality, it's really nice having a web browser and email client all at the same time. And, a feature that most phones have that I didn't realize it's usefulness until gaining it myself is text messaging. It's so convenient - it's not-intrusive, yet quick. If everyone had text messaging (and it was easy to use - my phone is a Treo, so it has a keyboard, unlike those phones that just have a number pad, and make typing excruciating), I don't even know if you'd need the phone capability. It's nice to be able to check baseball scores and other events, and check my email wherever I am. I've never really claimed to be a Luddite - in fact, I know that I'm addicting to being connected. That's a problem that's not going away - I believe I was part of the first generation of college students to have reliable broadband in college. And, I got hooked. Being disconnected is unbearable now. It's a dependency, but I'm not quite sure how unhealthy it is. Certainly, as time goes on, and as future generations are always connected, it's only going to get worse. At some point, there's going to be nowhere in the world that doesn't have internet access. This is frightening and comforting at the same time. But definitely more of the latter. If I'm disconnected, how can I check my fantasy baseball scores?
Comments:
There's an obvious solution to the problem of missing calls while you're at home: turn up the volume on your cellphone ringer so you can hear it throughout your apartment - if you lived in a large house, I could see the problem. But you don't, so this is an easy solution.
Here's an even better question - why do you need the home phone at all? I suppose if you subscribed to a service with poor reception in your area, that would be a problem. But if you were smart enough not to do that, exactly what benefit do you get from your home phone? If you stop what you're doing to get up and answer the home phone, how is that any different than stopping what you're doing, at home, to go answer your cellphone?
BTW, for those of you reading who never heard his reasons for not liking cell phones, they were a bunch of baloney - he's just saying they are "too numerous to mention" so that he can avoid the question - he's obviously picked up on stuff like that now that he's been paying more attention to politicians... :)
Here's an even better question - why do you need the home phone at all? I suppose if you subscribed to a service with poor reception in your area, that would be a problem. But if you were smart enough not to do that, exactly what benefit do you get from your home phone? If you stop what you're doing to get up and answer the home phone, how is that any different than stopping what you're doing, at home, to go answer your cellphone?
BTW, for those of you reading who never heard his reasons for not liking cell phones, they were a bunch of baloney - he's just saying they are "too numerous to mention" so that he can avoid the question - he's obviously picked up on stuff like that now that he's been paying more attention to politicians... :)
# posted by 
: October 9, 2004 at 4:58 PM
: October 9, 2004 at 4:58 PM
You just have an answer for everything, don't you? Do you honestly think I'm retarded? My cell phone volume doesn't go up enough to be heard if I'm, say, watching TV, unlike the land line. Additionally, the phone costs minutes during the day (unlike the land line, which I get at a more reasonable flat fee), and isn't subject to poor reception, which seems to strike anywhere, at any time. Until cell phones get perfect reception, I'm not replacing my land line.
Do I think you're retarded? In general, no, I think you're quite a bright chap. But just like I have a brain weakness when it comes to following movie plots (I'm embarassed to admit that I got confused when I watched "Dumb and Dumber" a few months ago...), your brilliant mind seems to malfunction when it comes to evaluating the merits of cell phones...
-Dave Shear
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-Dave Shear
# posted by : October 20, 2004 at 10:58 PM
: October 20, 2004 at 10:58 PM
