Cell phones make the modern world go round

By: Elyssa Jechow

Posted: 10/25/07

How in the world did we ever exist without cell phones? What did we do when we weren't incessantly connected to each other?

I did not get a cell phone until the summer after my sophomore year of high school, but since then my phone has become my pocket-sized lifeline. I don't leave my room without it, and I feel as if part of me is missing if my phone is not near me at all hours of the day - and night.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels that way, either. Cell phone users between the ages of 18 to 24 spend an average of 1,300 minutes a month on the phone. And that's only voice minutes.

Our dependency on the mobile devices has developed recently, yet it is impossible to imagine a time without them.

Humans existed for thousands of years without cell phones, and here I am flopping like a fish out of water if I don't have mine. What was different about the generations before?

In a Mad TV episode, Stephanie Wier said, "In my days we had cell phones, too. We called them nickels." Such a statement seems comical, but I wonder what it was like to live in a world that was not continually connected.

My thinking is that people were - in some ways - more dependent on each other and more independent. Of course, they were more independent because their purses or pockets were not ceaselessly bursting into song. People did not walk the grocery store aisles trying to work out that night's plans and find the baking soda. I am sure that before people kept their drama on the land line behind a closed door, and I wouldn't have been subjected to hearing it on my way to class. I also would not think that every person using a Bluetooth is crazily conversing with themselves.

Even if all of these things are true, I cannot imagine the world being a better place without cell phones. What if I didn't have a phone and my car broke down on the side of the road? Would I have to walk until I found a place with a phone? I wouldn't have all of my friends' phone numbers accessible at the touch of a button. Heck, I wouldn't even know what to wear on any given day because I always check the weather on my phone.

I remember the fateful day that my family became connected. My dad brought home the ultra-modern bag phone, and from then on - as long as we were in the car - we could call and be called.

If I was out at the ranch with my dad and I got bored, I would call my mom at the house for a good chat. She could call us so that we knew what time to be home for dinner, and it became standard to take the car phone on road trips so that if anyone got in a dire situation, all they had to do was ring up.

Thinking about how desperate I become without my phone makes me gloomy. Knowing that a day without a phone would mean a day in hell is a terrible feeling. However enlightened I pretend to be, I am not above the world of the cellular phone.

I commend anyone who has so far eluded the lure of being able to reach people at any time and any place. You avoid the pleasure of being able to text message in class, get the latest gossip at the push of a button and have complete convenience in so many ways.

I will go on wondering how, not so long ago, people were able to function without that miniature device my life unfortunately seems to depend on.