A Phone-Flavored Phone

Recently, news broke that Verizon would be carrying the iPhone as part of its arsenal of "smart phones". This was a much talked about rumor for quite awhile that has stepped over into reality. It is funny that the announcement came from Verizon and not Apple - I guess it would not do good for Apple to publicly announce that AT&T was not the BEST carrier for its product (it is just not the ONLY carrier for its product). Though there is a Verizon commercial that states it for them ("I can hear you NOW.")

Full disclosure: I own an iPod Touch. I use it to read, listen to podcasts and audio books, and play the occasional game (though my attention span, as limited as it is, makes them just extra baggage. Once I was asked to join a company softball league. I had to decline. I told them the problem was that softball was seven innings long; my attention span is only an inning and a half!). It is a replacement for my old Tungsten T3 Palm Pilot that hit the ground one-too-many times and lost the ability to hold an SD card (which is the storage for audio files). I also have, what I call, a "phone-flavored" phone.

If you ask my wife, she will tell you that I LOVE gadgets. Simply LOVE them. But I don't own many of them. I don't go out and buy the newest item out there. This means I'm also not paying companies' R & D costs by buying the stuff when it hits the market either. I'm also one who will really research something before buying. As my bio states, I'm a "fiscal conservative"; that's not (just) a political stance. I'm a chincy, frugal, penny-pinching, cheap b*st*rd! I do spend money, but try to think it through before making purchases.

That being said . . .

I have a "phone-flavored" phone. I've been using the same cell phone for about five years now. That's three years beyond the two-year contract. I've been eligible for a new phone for three years, but haven't taken the plunge. Not really interested. Why? The reason for this blog entry (finally):

6-999-0-44-88-6-22-555-33-0-22-88-8-0-2-222-222-88-777-2-8-33-0-666-7-444-66-444-666-66-0-666-66-0-222-666-6-6-88-66-444-222-2-8-444-666-66-0-2-66-3-0-3-33-888-444-222-33-7777

(Ooo - a secret message! Welcome to MY world!! But if you figure it out, please don't post it in the comments and give it away!)

I did a search for "touch" and look what came up!

"Reach out and touch someone" was an ad slogan that I really could relate to. Nothing better than being close enough to someone to touch them. I'm not talking an invasion of personal space, but with the tech onslaught of late, the personal space circles seem to be growing out of hand! Phones should be tools to keep us together, not replace us BEING together. Unless you are a large distance apart, a phone should be an avenue to set up a time to get together face-to-face. Before my wife and I got married, she lived in Westlake, Ohio and I lived in Akron, Ohio. A full 50-minute ride from each other using freeways and the turnpike. The phone was a "life-line" during the work week; until we could get together during the weekends, and allow me to gaze into her beautiful eyes.



Me and my beautiful wife! Yeah, I'm gonna reach out and "touch"!



So you can see, I see only a very few reasons to spend enormous amounts of time on the phone. I see even fewer reasons to use "text".

I'm a writer, and love the written word; although my background as an administrative assistant dampers that a bit. I can't even read a novel without catching the typos. That may be one of the main reasons why I HATE texting. It may be ruining the written language. I know what you are probably thinking: "Ur jk rite?" Text messages are supposed to be quick little statements. You type them fast and send them off. Most people (apparently) don't even read what they send. The grammar and spelling is usually horrendous! Listen, if you send me a text and I send back a "???", I'm talking to YOU!

Texting is okay for short notifications to individuals when you think a ringing phone may be an interruption (like, say, the person may be in a meeting; it's during working hours or church; or very late at night when you don't want to wake the household). But come on! I've been told stories by parents of being in a car with their two children in the back seat TEXTING EACH OTHER!! It's about as annoying as those commercials where the woman is breaking up with the guy and it's via text message, and Facebook and Twitter posts; but it's okay: she has (whatever company) so it doesn't cost much.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digimist/

Come on people. Talk to each other. Reach out and touch! Go grab a cup of coffee and sit across a table and GAB! Don't lose your analog self for the digital self.



Talk with your mouths, talk with your eyes, and even talk with your hands, but please, stop talking with your thumbs!

© Emittravel 2011