In an era where pagers are remnants of the past, I believe that Danielle's reaction to her broken cell is an insightful and accurate description of what would happen to many cell phones users who lose their precious "connection to the 'outside' world." We have gone from needing to look for a phone to make a phone call to putting our social lives into a phone that is about the size of one's palm - or smaller.
When I was in elementary school, my dad told my sister and I that if we ever needed to contact him when he was not in his cubicle at work, we could call his pager. His pager was about the size of a SLVR, except only thicker and a little smaller. The pager would usually be clipped onto the waistline of his pants. If I remember correctly, the only functions that his pager had were vibrating, ringing, and flashing. Unlike cell phones today, the pager ran on AA batteries, not lithium batteries. When the pager broke after about a year of running, it certainly did not cause a sense of urgency. Perhaps the most simple way I could describe my dad's reaction is, "Oh well."
Shortly after, my dad subscribed to a "cellular" phone plan and acquired this Nokia handphone (except it was black). The only purpose of the phone to me was playing snake and beating my previous high score. It was in high school when I finally owned my first cell phone. I thought it was cool because it was the first sliding phone I had ever seen; furthermore, when it was closed, it would fit in the center of the palm of my hand. But even then, my social life did not revolve around my cell phone; I was more concerned about the physical condition of my egg phone instead of the possibility of losing everyone's phone numbers.
Nowadays, we have Blackberries and iPhones that connect to the internet, store music, and even play videos. Currently, I own a SLVR that can only text message, store phone numbers, and use bluetooth. However, if it were to break like Danielle's phone, my body would probably undergo the same increase in heart rate, neuron firing, and cortisol release, despite the technological drawbacks my phone may have compared to more advanced phones. Why? Cell phones are now the new medium for communication. I do not know anyone who still use phone books and none of my friends have home phones in their apartments. To some people, a broken cell phone is like losing a best friend. How has the world gone from utilizing technology has a supplement to treating it like it is a vital detached organ?
Danielle also mentions that "the fact that the breaking of a cell phone disrupts not only one's contact with everyone they know but also disrupts their body's [homeostasis; it] shows that we have become dependent on technology." Indeed, our lives have become so reliant on technology that if Y2K were to occur, we...well, we would not know what to do anymore. We have gone from utilizing technology as a supplement to our lives to infusing a part of our souls into a little piece of machinery. Yet, it is interesting to try to live without solely relying on technology.
Two summers ago, there was a major blackout in my neighborhood - we were without electricity for three days. Without my PS2, TV, laptop, refrigerated food and drink, and even ice (local 7-11's and supermarkets were sold out of ice), there was little left to do. Thus, I drove to my local community center to work out, play basketball in the gym, and write daily journals on my laptop (there was no public internet access). At night, my parents would light candles and my family would spend hours playing card games. When the power finally came back on, I realized that living with no electricity opened my eyes a little on what else was out there in the world. Additionally, I actually survived with no Internet, which was my main form of communication at that time.
Technological dependence, like Danielle states, is truly depressing. If we all try to treat technology more as a supplement rather than a lifeline, we would be able to appreciate the things around us a little more. We do not have to be glued to our cell phones every day or wired to the Internet to survive. We should revert back to more traditional forms once in a while, such as writing letters and using phone books (so that we would actually start knowing numbers again). Who knows - maybe life would be more fruitful and consist of better relationships by diverting away from technology and revitalizing the most simple forms of communication.
Kid
15 years ago
4 comments:
Bernie,
I totally agree with what you said. I am by no mean technophobic. On the contrary, I am completely a dependent on technology in my academic and even leisure life (I am a huge video game fan). However, I have always been skeptical about our reliance on technical convenience. In today’s world, we have grown to be a generation strapped to technology. We lose our friends if our cell phones die. Our work has to stop if computers cease functioning. People will panic over disconnection if the Internet crashes. I don’t remember when we started to be so insecure about ourselves that we need more and more pieces of technology to keep the peace of mind. Like you said, this is a depressing reality.
At the end of your post, you made a very constructive suggestion that people should divert from technology and return to the most basic form of communication. This is actually what I have been practicing this whole year. I now refuse to talk to my friends or coworkers over 15 minutes on the phone or online. I would usually suggest we meet up over coffee or lunch if we have a discussion over that duration of time. After implementing this rule for a while, I found my relationships with people more trusting and tangible, which is not something phone or online conversation can achieve. In my opinion, face-to-face interaction is what builds our communities and makes us humans. Sometimes it’s not such a bad idea to drop technology and go back to the most basic forms of communication.
Rick
Bernie,
Your personal take on what I addressed as problems behind a broken phone are interesting and open my eyes even further. You present your arguments and examples with intelligences and diligence. As a side note the picture of the broken cell phone was the first image on google to pop up when you type "broken cell phone" in the search engine, my phone internally started "freaking" out on me. Although if my phone had broken like seen in the image, I'm not sure what I would do and I think I would go into further panic mode. With our dependence on technology growing so do problems like these, and your bring up a great example of what happens when all technology fails when your neighborhood lost power. Thank you for expanding my viewpoint on technological dependence.
This has been a fascinating (and even uplifting) discussion to read, from Danielle and Bernie's posts to the comments here by Rick and Danielle. I agree with everything you've each said, and I especially find intriguing the ideas of self-consciously 'reverting' to older forms of communication. This is really interesting, and I hope that others read this ongoing conversation over the next couple weeks. Your intelligent responses to one another reflect the sort of dialogical possibilities of blog writing, and I am really glad to see this playing out here. All of your smart ideas and careful sentences have really made this conversation real and significant.
Bernie, your image links to these past communications devices are really helpful too: it is weird to look at a framed image of an old cell phone—it's like a kind of archeology of the present. Isn't it interesting that instead of providing an image of the pager, you provide an image of your current cell phone as a size-comparison point? I hope that others get involved in this conversation; it's really compelling to me, and encouraging reading your critical reflections on personal technologies. Sometime I would like to teach an entire class in which we would read cell phone manuals and look at advertisements and commercials for cell phones. I think this could be strange and insightful.
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