I saw a guy walking around the mall the other day with a walkman on his hip. Not a CD man, or an ipod, but a freakin walkman. I couldn’t understand what the heck century we were in. I am by no means an electronic snob, nor a snob in general, although this entry may beg to differ, but I really had to stop and think that a walkman is just no longer practical. Every piece of music is available as an mp3 or on CD that was ever available on cassette tape, so why burden yourself with carrying around some huge artifact of history on your hip when you can do yourself and the world a favor by joining the rest of the twenty first century and coughing up the ten bucks for an off brand mp3 player. My uncle who is in his sixties and can hardly turn on a television has an mp3 player. He has always been my benchmark of where technology hits last so if he has some new toy then it must either be a must have, or it is because everything else that had been previously manufactured that did whatever that new things does is not being made anymore. It was not as if the walkman guy was poor either, he had a nice watch, new shoes and a cell phone on the other hip. Don’t even get me started on having a cell phone on your hip either because that is a whole different can of worms…

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Cell phones are becoming more and more advanced to the point that they are beginning to replace standard items that we have used for decades. The need for a home phone as pretty much been eradicated by wireless internet and cell phones. The wallet looks like it’s going to be the next thing to go. In test regions people were given the ability to scan their phones to make payments and access public transit. The phones were loaded with the users bank account information and equipped with magnetic strips that allowed the phone to essentially be scanned like a credit card. The user’s identification information was also loaded onto the phone. This made the need for a wallet more or less obsolete. Cash, credit cards and Id’s no longer had to be carried. In some regions this new technology was warmly welcomed, but in other people just don’t seem ready to leave the wallet at home yet. Engineers are also playing with the idea of using a cell phone to remote start a car and even allow you to adjust the thermostat in your house before you even get home. Sony is working on kitchen appliances that can be turned on to preheat an oven or microwave a dish via cell phone. If we don’t already rely on cell phones too much, we most definitely will when they act as the remote controllers of out lives one day. Imagine how many more driving accidents there will be when we are busy not only texting and talking while we drive, but also starting the oven and buying Christmas presents too.

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Cell phone addiction is a rough thing to break. It’s not so much the phone that’s hard to go without, it’s the constant stream of information that you receive from it. You can constantly find out what everyone is up to or what they are thinking about. You have all of your friend’s and family’s contact information in the palm of your hand. You can even check emails, IM, or look up movie times from your phone. Accidentally leaving your phone at home or forgetting to pack your charger for a trip is a horrible feeling. Not only does it make me feel secluded from everyone, but I loose my ability to find out everything I want to know. I left my Blackberry at home the other day and if not being able to send a receive texts wasn’t bad enough, I couldn’t look up all of the random bits of info that I google every day. I really wanted to know who was singing a song I was rocking out too, went to text google for the answer and realized I didn’t have my phone. It puts such a damper on the day when you can’t get to your phone for a long time. I’m addicted to information. I hate not being able to find out whatever I want instantaneously. My phone lets me check on cheap flights, get travel info, see a two week weather forecast, stay in contact with people around the world, and buy things online no matter where I am or what else I’m doing. I don’t really think it’s healthy that I’ve gotten so dependent on instantly, accessible information, but it’s the way it is.

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Other people’s ipods can give you insight into who they are. The music people listen to when no one else can hear says a lot about who they are. People who normally listen to upbeat pop may secretly be crying inside to a bunch of sappy emo on their ipods and you would never know. One time Sean and I had driven to Virginia and I had to fly out a few days before him. I had forgotten my ipod so he let me use his for the long, boring flight back. I gotta say, I had a little different perspective of him by the time I got home. I knew there would be a lot of horn music since he is a trumpet player, and the ska didn’t surprise me, but apparently the guy is way into underground rap as well. That was a bit of an eye opener. So were the Disney songs. The last thing he told me before I got on the plane with his ipod was “Don’t judge me!”. I get it now. In addition to his rap and Disney music, he had a lot of slow, almost forlorn classical tunes compiled. That was the biggest surprise to me. Sean is normally really upbeat, loud, and energetic, so I didn’t expect him to have that super-calm-sitting-and-thinking side. Ipods can be just as personal as someone’s cell phone or computer. They are full of words and melodies that their owners get motivation and serenity from. People are comfortable when they are listing to music that speaks to them. To really get to know a person, steal their ipod for a day. Then give it back or put it back where you found it so it’s not obvious that you snatched it.

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When I was under ten years old, I remember taking those long car rides, and getting upset that my parents wouldn’t let me turn on the lights in the back seat so I could keep reading. When ever we went on trips, reading always made the drive seem quicker, and I’d get to finish a lot of books that I had been wanting to. It was a good way to pass time, and I loved it and didn’t mind sitting in the car. Then, when I turned about 15, something awful happened. I started to get severely car sick. I wouldn’t be able to read a page in my book with out almost throwing up, so I’d have to take breaks when reading. It sucked, but I could still pull it off. A few years later, no more reading. Looking out the window was my best bet at not getting sick. No more reading at all, and just looking down at my cell phone would make me get dizzy. I had to take Dramamine to be able to be in the car anymore, which knocks you out. Now, without the medicine I can’t even be in the car for very long unless I’m driving. I don’t know how I went from reading books all the time in the car to not even being able to text someone from the passenger seat. It sucks. My mom gets car sick easily too, and I think I just got it from her. Car trips sucks now, I’m either the one driving or passed out in the back seat from the medicine.

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Just about any larger purchase these days includes some kind of contract along with it, or a payment plan. I always get really nervous when I have to sign a contract with a big purchase, and I like to have a few days to think about it and go over everything before I commit. I’ve signed several apartment leases since I’ve moved away from my home and out of the dorm, and even when it’s at the same apartment I get nervous and want to go over everything I’m agreeing to before I sing and get stuck with it. When I bought my first lap top, I had saved all the money up for it and just paid for it in one payment. With my newest lap top, I decided that I wanted to do it in payments on a credit card so I could help out my credit score. I had never had a credit card, so when I signed up for it all the contracts and agreements were scary to me, but it was time for me to get one and build on my credit score. Now, I’m in need of a new cell phone. Instead of how it’s always been, where we just get a new cell phone and add on to the contract we’ve had for years, we have to sign up for a whole new contract that’s completely different because our cell phone company, Alltel, was bought out by Verizon. We’ve been going over it, but just getting into that two year contract is still a bit unnerving. Contracts are a part of almost everything now, and it’s just something I’m going to have to get used to.

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I just watched a short segment on CNN about a young girl that texts all the time. Just like all people do these days. They showed her phone bill and it said that she sends around eight thousand texts a month. Now, I’ve never looked at my own text messages on my phone bill, but I don’t think I can send that many. It’s just a normal form of communication now that everyone does all the time, because it’s faster than making a phone call and you can do it at any time. So, they told the girl to give up texting for a week, and suddenly she was getting better grades in school, talking with her friends and family more, and even sleeping better. Blah blah blah. I don’t think text messaging is going to really interfere with your life that much. If you’re losing sleep because of your text messaging, that’s a pretty big problem and maybe you should quit for more than a week. I really don’t think texting would some how cause your grades to suffer, maybe she’s just stupid with or with out the phone. They are trying to make something out of nothing. I can agree that it’s taking over person to person interactions, but I don’t think it’s making this extent of a problem in people’s lives. If any thing is actually causing problem in your sleep, grades, or relationships, whether it’s a cell phone or anything, I think you should make yourself limit your use.

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Cell phones control our lives now. If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t have any friends I swear to God. I text with my friends way more than I see them, but I guess that’s just the way things are now. I don’t have a house phone, I don’t even know where I can buy stamps, and there’s too much junk email anymore to get someone to read what you need them too in any kind of decent time frame And, since this is my only life line to the outside world, it shouldn’t suck so much that I can barely get what I need to say out there. Last November I got a new sweet LG phone that I loved, and some ass hole decided that he wanted it to be his and stole it from my shopping cart in Wal-Mart. That’s a whole different story that I’d rather not get into because I’m mad enough, but the main point is that I had to go back to the shitty phone that I’ve had forever. I have an LG Rumor that I got a few years ago when I first switched over to Alltel. I am still stuck with this shitty phone. I’ll be in the middle if typing a text message and the whole thing will just go blank and have an x on the screen. Or, I’ll be on a call and the entire thing will just shut off. It’s strange that something so small can fucking ruin your entire mood. It has the shittiest battery life ever, I can’t even be on the phone for 5 minutes unless it’s plugged in with out it dying. I’m due for a new upgrade, but I have no idea which phone to go with now and I’m scared I’m going to pick out some phone and it be just as bad or worse and I’ll be stuck with it for two years. I’ve been putting this off for months, but I guess I’m just going to have to make the leap and get a new one before I throw this one into a lake and lose all my numbers.

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