Give it Up: Cell Phones
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Is it my imagination or is everyone, everywhere, talking to someone on their cell phone? Although I have never been a math or science type, I decided to prove my assumption with a quantitative measure. Walking down the main street in my neighborhood, I counted fifteen people connected to their headpieces. I live in Hoboken, New Jersey, a mile square town, 15 blocks from top to bottom. My sample of one block projected over the 15 blocks in town would add up to 225 people on the main street alone. Add side streets and cross streets and you have quite a healthy sum of conversations, even to an English major like me!
Not feeling comfortable with this going trend, I removed myself from the sample group to return to quieter, simpler times, the prehistoric, “pre-cell era.” The time that people look back on lovingly and ask, “How did we live without them?” This was only the first of many questions I would ask myself in the month that followed where I gave up my electronic life line. This journey is chronicled in my book, Give it Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less. For one year, I gave up a “necessity” a month, important things like shopping, dining out, taxis, multitasking and coffee. The year of living with less helped me to gain an understanding of what I needed versus what I wanted. Living without the cell phone proved to be one of the more difficult months not only for me, but for those around me.
Questions immediately popped up like text messages in my mind. Without cell phones, “Were people always on time?” I had subscribed to the “as long as I call” school of tardiness which instantly absolved me from keeping people waiting. With a cell phone, all was forgiven. Late was okay… as long as I called. Now, I am more mindful of my time and others.
I also wondered, “Had I lost the ability remember phone numbers?” When trying to dial friends from my antiquated home phone, I realized that I did not know anyone’s phone number by memory. Speed dial had left me with no back up plan. Without my electronic contact list, I began an old school traditional address book, something I still use today.
The next epiphany occurred before I left the house when I would research directions ahead of time. Knowing where I was going (literally) eliminated my need to call for directions where a bodiless voice would provide a phone number and even the street address. Now, I am a better planner.
And finally the mother load of questions, the reason I started the experiment to begin with, “Had I become too reliant on the cell phone?” In short, yes. The cell phone had become my crutch. Without it, I learned to be more prepared, to say where I was going to be and be there. More importantly, I learned to communicate better and rarely ever keep my friends waiting.
On the first day of the following month, I switched my Nokia on and was startled by the message tone indicating that I had several unread messages; despite the fact that my outgoing message told the caller that the mailbox would not be checked until next month. Perhaps, I am not the only one who needed to get unplugged?