Technology Marches on…
8 February 2007…Right past me.
Last night I dropped my cell phone. I was thrilled that it didn’t split into a million little pieces and let out a huge sigh of relief. Then I flipped it open. Sigh. My LCD screen was cracked and while the crack resulted in a beautiful psychedelic screen display, it rendered the phone basically useless. I couldn’t see anything on the lovely screen.
So this morning, off I went to my local cell store. I politely asked the VERY young man if I could get the same phone. Silly me. He rolled his eyes and informed me that my phone was over 3 FULL years old (he made it sound like 3 decades) and that it was obsolete. Then I asked if I could get something that would allow me to use all the paraphernalia that I had previously purchased. More eye rolling and another resounding “No!”
We moved on.
I asked for something with a flip as I hate making pocket calls (those accidental calls you make to people where they hear everything you’re saying and doing because you’ve bumped the call button while the phone was in your pocket). He brought me “THE newest, most “in” phone that EVERYone is using now”. Hmmm. It weighed less than a marshmallow, didn’t flip but it did slide, you’d have to have Barbie sized fingers to use the keypad and looked like it could endure about 10 slides before self-destructing. I asked to see something a little less cool and way more solid. At this point I wanted to pull out the time honoured classic mother line, “If you keep doing that your eyes are going to stay that way”. He then pulled out a nice little phone with enough heft to it that I could use it as a self-defense weapon and said “I’ve sold some of these to old people”. I gave him my best Vulcan eyebrow mother intimidation glare and checked out the phone. It was nice and it was free if I renewed my cell plan. I decided it was the one and the salesman looked like he was going to try, one more time, to move my social acceptance status up a notch but this time the glare worked and he said nothing.
I took my new toy home and played for over an hour to get it set up the way I wanted it. Of course, I can’t set it up like I use to have it; I guess my old settings are obsolete also. I then proceeded to my cell phone burial spot, a box on the top shelf of the hall cupboard. I took down the box and solemnly reminisced over its contents. My old DynaTAC Motorola, my first “sleek” phone, a Nokia with all it’s extra batteries and various chargers, my first flip, a Motorola TeleTAC and a host of others all with accessories and cases. All useless after a very brief time. I gently placed my newest old piece of technology, with its 110V charger, its car charger, its headset and its case into the box and took a moment to reflect on my loss.
Wait a second, this might not be so bad, this new phone has a built in camera. What seemed like a burdensome change can now be used as a weapon of annoyance. Alright!
Take care!
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