My Cell Phone Ate My Life

My Cell Phone Ate My Life

I remember fondly the daze before cell phones. No calls from clients on weekends; no midnight texts from friends and family; no people banging into you walking down the street with their noses buried in their phones. And I remember the moment where my cell phone took over my life…or at least became a much bigger part of it. It was 2002 or 2003, and I realized that over 50% of business communications were now coming in via email, not over the phone. If I’m out of the office for a extended period of time, I would need access to emails. It wasn’t like people were calling and leaving me messages or voice mails at the office.

So, I bit the bullet and put Snapper email software on my Palm Treo.  The Treo…my first PDA, those were good daze…but I digress. It was at that moment, that my cell phone and I become attached at the hip. Literally, attached at the hip because I had one of those clip-on things that hung from my belt.

Jump forward to present day and there it is, on my desk. My cell phone but I have learned to fight back, so that my cell phone does not eat my life. First, I don’t jump every time Apple introduces a new iPhone. I jokingly refer to mine as an iPhone 1….it’s actually a 4. Come April, my phone will be 5 years old, if it lives that long as the battery has good daze and bad daze. It’s got a mind of it’s own. Do I want the latest iPhone? Sure. Do I need it? Not really. My phone does the 2 things I need it to do most. It’s a phone and I can get my email. I’m tired of everyone telling me that a new phone with a 4G network has changed their lives. A new phone changed your life? How sad for you.

Second, my phone and I are not attached at the hip. During the day it sits on my desk. It does not go with me to the kitchen, another part of the office, and it most certainly does not go with me to the bathroom (like some folks who share office space with me are known to do that, and have conversations!). In all fairness it does go with me to the bathroom at home but that’s only for educational purposes. In other words, access to the internet and my dictionary app for help with the Sunday Times Crossword Puzzle! OK, so I use for my phone for more than just calls and emails.

And at home, I don’t carry it around with me. I do look at it from time-to-time but when I walk through that front door, the only thing I want to be carrying around with me is a glass, with ice and more than a couple of fingers of bourbon…or maybe vodka with lime…or a nice glass of wine…or a beer…but not my phone.

So in reality, my cell phone did not eat my life. At one time it tried but I fought back.

Editor’s Note: Here’s the irony. Today is Wednesday. I actually wrote 99% of this 5 daze ago. 3 daze ago I took my daughter to the Verizon store to get a new phone for her. Between her, my wife and Cash at the Verizon store, they convinced me it was time to ditch my soon to be 5 year old iPhone 4. So any day now I will be getting a new phone and the fight to make it doesn’t eat my life will begin all over again.