Wednesday, September 26, 2001
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Wednesday, September 26, 2001 |
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I'm free, at least for a little while By MICHAEL
BOYLAN I do not own a cell phone. I am free. There are times when no one can reach me and I like that. My time is my time and I don't have to share it with anybody if I don't want to. I don't need people calling me while I'm browsing in a book store and I don't want to call anybody when I'm dining out, no matter how fantastic the meal is. Some of you are probably wondering how I have held out this long. You're probably asking yourself, "What does he do if he gets a flat tire in the middle of the night on a deserted road," or "What if he can't remember the name of the video that his cousins wanted for Christmas?" The answer is I don't know, but I'm sure if those occasions arise, I'll figure it out. The possibility of those situations happening are not enough for me to subscribe to this national desire to be constantly connected. I had to use my wife's cell phone the day before we got married. There were a number of friends coming in from out of town that would need to reach me and I needed to be accessible for at least a few hours that evening. I hated wearing that thing. There were several times that somebody's phone went off and I thought it was mine. There were also the times that my friend played the stereo too loud and I couldn't tell if the phone had rung or not. I was getting repetitive stress disorder from constantly looking at that aberration on my hip. I was quite happy to turn the phone back in to my wife that evening. I haven't picked it up since. I don't want to be associated with the constant cell phone users. They are creepy. They will use it whenever and wherever they please. You see people use them at the grocery store, yelling, because the reception is never quite good enough, "Which antacid medicine do you like better, Harry, 'Bye-Bye Burny' or 'Fire B-Gon'? What? What?" Or even worse at the movies. "Yeah, I'm watching that movie 'Rat Race.' Huh? Yeah, It's kind of funny. I don't know. Hold on. (laughs) That was a good part. A cow just hit the windshield of a bus." However, we all know the worst place that people use the phone is their cars. Listen up, folks, it does affect your driving skills and chances are you weren't that great of a driver to begin with. Last week, I saw a girl driving with the phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand. She was using the two-finger method of driving. Needless to say, I pulled ahead of her and never looked back. Many people have realized the danger that they have put themselves and others in and have started to use the hands free system for their cell phones. Users put a headphone in their ear and then talk into a tiny microphone. If you saw someone wearing a headphone and talking to the air about two years ago you would have thought that person was a crazy street person. Now, it's the rage. Everybody can walk around having constant conversations, never bothering to pay attention to their surroundings or maybe have a conversation with somebody in person. I realize that no one is going to stop using cell phones. They can be very useful and some people, like doctors, need them for their jobs. I'm sure there will be occasions where even I will put aside my contempt for the machine and use it to order Chinese food on my way home from a Braves game or something. I'm not saying that you should throw your cell phones away, but have some decency and use them in the privacy of your own home.
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