JPL 2.0 Post About Technology

This is a looonnnnggg post, but if you are diligent and read to the end, you will see that it IS library related. : P

In one of my undergraduate creative writing courses, one of my assignments was to write a poem about technology. At least, if I remember right, that's what the assignment was. My topic of choice was cell phones, and I can't post the poem here because it wasn't so nice.

I have had a love-hate relationship with cell phones since my dad made me tote around a "bag phone" (an early model that would only work when plugged into the car's cigarette lighter and was pretty much the size of a standard office phone...conveniently mounted into a zippered and padded nylon bag) while I was in high school, so he and my mom could keep tabs on me. I think the convenience of a cell phone, especially in emergencies, is awesome, and I don't mind being able to call home while I'm at the grocery store to make sure I'm not forgetting something or if I get separated from someone in a crowd. Plus, I love using them to call my family long distance. I don't even have a land-line anymore.

I do think, however, that cell phones have blurred the line between formal and informal situations, between respect for others and the need to hear some juicy gossip. Long, long ago (in the early 1990s), a person's purse or pocket would never ring during an important meeting or a job interview. (This happened to me! I forgot to turn my phone off before I went in!!! I was embarrassed, though a lot of folks wouldn't be.) You would never have to hear someone shout "I'm at the library" into a receiver in the middle of studying or be blinded by the backlight on the screen of the person next to you who is text messaging during a movie. You could go out to dinner in a restaurant and not have to hear strange, computerized versions of classical music, rap songs, and TV themes blasting out of people's purses and pockets every few seconds. People didn't cut you off in traffic because they were too busy talking about who-knows-what to pay attention. (Back then, they just did it for pure meanness). You could even go to the public bathroom in peace. (Why do people take calls while they are using the toilet??? Weird!) You get the picture....

It all just seems weird to me. We complain so much about wanting privacy, yet we always carry around this device that lets people reach us any time, anywhere. Now, if someone doesn't answer the phone, we don't simply say, "Oh, maybe he/she's not at home or near the phone. He'll/she'll call me back later." A cell-phone carrying person is usually never far from it, so we begin having these sneaking feelings of paranoia and insecurity when they don't answer. Are they screening our calls? Is something wrong with them? We call them several times to make sure. (You KNOW you have done this. Don't lie!)

Sooooo....having been on this end of the situation, we usually feel compelled, when on the other end, to constantly be vigilant of our phones. No longer can we just call someone back when we get home. We don't want to offend them by not answering, and if we can't answer, we must call them ASAP! Even if we are in the library or the movies....or PRESCHOOL STORYTIME! (Yes, horror of horrors! Now we have gotten to the core of my frustration.)

Sigh. Moms, can't you put off answering that call for thirty to forty-five minutes...or maybe, just maybe, can you step outside of the room??

Hrmmm.... I wonder what would happen if I started taking calls in the middle of reading a story?