I am baffled at how the cellphone has changed our lives forever in a very very short time. Here I would like to start a debate of whether it has been all good or all bad. Well for me I have to confess that I am hooked too although I resisted for as long as I could. But then I am careful not to be rude like talking loudly around others or ignoring a conversation unless it is to get out of a a boring one.
We are all practically a slave to the cellphone to the extent of feeling naked without it. About a decade ago, Visa's tagline was never leave home without it but now I think it's a more appropriate tagline for the cellphone. Seems like the minute the little children know how to utter a few words they will be presented with a cellphone as their xmas gift from well-heeled uncles and aunts. What happened to the dolls and meccano sets for children as christmas gifts. Are these appropriate for kids ?
Back in the sixties, when "flower power" was in full swing, those of us with telephones (those black ones with the "old phone" ring tones) were considered priviledged to have telephones in our homes. I remember my mom used to padlock the zero (any of you remember the telephones had this dial where you literally have to dial the digits) so that we can't make any calls out to save cost. Back then, people were more cost conscious and though calls cost just 10 cents for a whole duration of the call, we were still not permitted to use the phone except for very important calls. I remember my brothers and I used to tap the phones coz we discovered that although we can hardly make any calls out without the zero, we could still tap it 10 times to free the zero and it works everytime. Of course mom never found out coz there were no such thing as itemised billing then (yes, the calls were charged even though we tapped through)
The good thing about the old days was that we communicated so much more through snail mail and looked forward to the postman everyday and we even sang songs to Mister Postman. Nowadays, the postman is nothing more than a bearer of bills ...........nothing nice like christmas, new year or birthday cards anymore as more of us are just forwarding messages that have been sent to us by another party. What a sad state of affairs.
Family hardly sit after dinner for a nice conversation to see how each other day's went and no more board games like Ludo, snake and ladder, scrabble or monopoly. Each member of the family is busy after dinner with homework, television or DVD, smsing or surfing the net. With all the new cellphones, blackberry and other gadgets of communication, we are hardly communicating. What has happened? How did it come to this? Anyone out there has the answer???
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The cell phone have definitely changed our lives. I , too was rather adamant when the cell phone came about just over a decade or more ago although that time only the rich can afford cell phones because they costs over RM6,000.
I was quite happy with the pager cos I get to feel important when I received a message to my pager and all I did was get to the nearest public phone and call. I remember when I was young, I used to watch 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' and how I admired Napoleon Solo when he gets a call to his pager and he would go find a phone. I get to be like my favorite hero then.
Times changed and if we don't follow the trend , then we would be left behind and will forever be branded as old fashioned. I still know of one guy who didn't own a cell phone until today and I still wonder why?
Is it because he doesn't want people to call him? Or he doesn't see a need for it.
The cell phone is in and looks like it's going to stay!
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