“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!”
What is that sound? Where am I? What’s going on?
“BEEP BEEP BEEP!”
There it is again! What in God’s name is that sound?
“BEEP BEEP BEEP!” It is relentless. It is piercing. It is brash. The sound punctures through my unconscious sleep haze like a sharp knife slicing through butter over and over again until finally, I jolt into reality.
My alarm, perhaps the most dreaded sound in the world, is ringing near my head on my phone. Nails screeching against a chalkboard would be more welcomed at this point and I sleepily reach over to turn off the wretched thing, realizing I need to start my day. However, as I reach over to dismiss the alarm I see a blinking light in the corner of my BlackBerry. This blinking, wonderful light full of promises is telling me I have a message on my phone. A message of what kind, I do not know but before I even wipe the sleep out of my eyes I hurriedly check to see whom it could be from as my eyes slowly adjust to the small text and bright screen. I haven’t even been awake for 60 seconds and I am already plugged in. My name is Alison Stewart and I, like many others, am addicted to my cellular phone. I use it everyday for matters concerning much more than just phone calls and even though I know nothing about it is crucial to my existence, I still cannot be a minute without it. The cell phone has effected and altered the everyday lives of people living in the 21st century more than any other invention in the last 300 years by changing the way people communicate, and as a result, the way people live through texts, e-mails, voice messages, and the internet.
It’s Monday morning, 7:30 am and upon sitting up I already have my cell phone in hand. Wherever I go, it goes and there is hardly a moment I am without it. Even in my sleep, my phone is no more than a couple of inches away from my head, plugged into the electrical strip near my bed. Each beautiful noise, each ding, ring, and dong that my phone jingles makes my heart swell with anticipation for the promises of what that noise might bring. Perhaps it is a message from my best friend, a picture from my sister, a call from my mother, a voicemail from my father. Who knows? The endless possibilities that my phone holds only add to my cravings for its unique technology. One thing is for certain though, I love my phone and my phone loves me. I use my phone more than any other piece of technology in my life, including my iPod, television and laptop.
What does it mean when I say I have an addiction to technology? Well for one everywhere I go, at all times, 24/7 I am plugged in. Whether it’s the headphone connected to my ears, the cell phone that’s always at my side, or the computer that rests in my lap, I am never without it. These forms of technology have become my best friends, my constant source of communication, and my means to everything. Nothing is more important in my daily communication than my cell phone; in fact it is my only sole means of communication—I have no house phone. My cellular phone works as my clock, my alarm, my calendar, my agenda, my notepad, and my camera. Without it, I am lost—literally (it is my GPS as well). Upon realizing that I may have left my phone at home or left it sitting on a subway seat somewhere in Manhattan, my heart begins to palpitate and my whole body tenses up with anxiety. My phone is my everything. And that statement alone is a little off-putting. How did I become so attached to this inanimate, blinking rectangle? How does a piece of plastic make me feel more things than most alive human beings can? I know it just a material item but it means so much more to me than that.
My phone is constant reminder of just how connected I truly am. I have a BlackBerry Curve and through it I receive e-mails, facebook messages, voicemails, pictures, texts, and of course calls. It’s actually ironic that the amount of times I get real phone calls is minimal to the amount of texts or BBM’s I receive in a day, considering that is what a cell phones main purpose is—making phone calls. But since the development of smart phones and “apps,” calls seem somewhat elementary. Cell phones have changed the way people communicate in great ways. Where before most people would speak to their friends or family by calling, now most communicating is done through texts. Rather than sending a birthday card or party invitation though the mail, all that is needed is a quick text to reach your friends immediately. Long gone are the times of properly ringing the door bell and meeting families before picking up a date from his/her house, instead all that is needed is an “I’m outside,” text for the date to begin. Grammar no longer matters when concerning texts either, in fact it has practically been thrown out the window completely. Our elementary school teachers would look in horror at the way we abbreviate every word and completely ignore the use of punctuation and capitalization all together. Cell phones have transcended beyond communication. It really has revolutionized the way a whole generation thinks, talks, and functions.
Even when no one has called or messaged, I find myself constantly toying with my phone. Having it in my hand or near my body has become somewhat of a comfort blanket for me and I am almost never without it. Everyday my cell phone takes up copious amounts of my time and I don’t even realize it. When did this happen? When did most of my day become looking at a small cell phone screen and getting bewitched by the magic of its luminous being? As a young female in the 21st century, I’m told I live in the “technology generation,” but what does that even mean? I find myself asking these questions, but do I really care about the answer? Perec states it best when he writes in his essay Approaches to What?, “To question the habitual. But that’s just it, were habituated to it. We don’t question it, it doesn’t question us” (210). The truth is, I don’t actually care about the answers to the questions or even care if I am addicted to technology. The point is, this is how it is and this is how it needs to stay. It’s all I know.
This technology has become so much apart of our everyday lives in the 21st century, that it is hard to even fathom a time without it, but still it is important to do so. ,”[Q]uestion… the way we spend our time, our rythms,” writes Perec (210). We must realize that there was indeed a time when cell phones and smart phones didn’t exist and people still lived a functional life. We must all remember that if need be, our lives will still go on if our phones were to disappear tomorrow. We need to ask ourselves, “is my phone really a matter of life or death? Can I in no way function without it?” If the answers to these questions are no, than it might be a good idea to step back a minute and really think about the importance we place on phones. Well at least think about it until the next person texts you…
I know it’s obsessive, but from the minute I wake up, all throughout my day, and to the time I close my eyes at night, I am constantly connected through my cell phone. It is near me at all times and when it is gone I feel completely lost. Our generation has become so accustomed to having instant access to almost everything through the technology of a smart phones that I wonder, if it were all to go away tomorrow would be able to function normally? As Perec states, it is difficult to question something so much a matter of course that we forget its origins (210). The world would indeed be very different if the cell phone was to disappear. Appointments would be missed, alarms wouldn’t go off, and pictures wouldn’t be taken. The cell phone simply has revolutionized our world and there is no other way to put it. And although I realize that life could still go on if the cell phone were to disappear tomorrow, my life couldn’t go on and I have a feeling many of my peers would agree. It as becomes one of the most valued treasures I own, let alone the whole century.
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