Mobile Phones and My Relevance

My Samsung Blackjack. Almost dead except for the Monthly fee I pay AT&T

I have been a mobile subscriber since I was 19, it was the age where cellular phone is a status symbol well beyond cars. You can’t argue because the per minute charging during that time was around  18  pesos  Text wasn’t there yet so you really have to call.

Then there came GSM, finally! digital mobile communication and the birth of the text message aside from ring tones, backlights, reverse backlights and eventually the ring back tone. And yes, the hyped functionality of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and MMS. Well, with all the apps that was there, there will always be many peoples favorite without a doubt…The humble “snake”. Thank you for saving me from the boredom of my daily commute and waits for meetings and interviews.

So after the brouhaha it dawned on to many that it is a form of communication and not a toy. After every cellsite has been erected and thousands of antennas assembled on malls, schools and just about any nook and cranny we are now connected…ANYTIME and ANYWHERE! Bummer!

Clients call, boss calls us anytime of the day as if we are slaves thru the digital labyrinth of the mobile super highway. It stitches and stretches time and space. You are there but not entirely. But clients and bosses never minded that as long as they said their complaints and endorsement it is considered documented. Hell! they even made mobile texting the same as email, like:

Hey Tito, Please send me the report for my Mancom tomorrow. Really need it very bad. Thanks. cc: God!

Sigh! just when you thought that that wasn’t enough we get countless spam texts, advertisement, and clients request and escalations. Not to shock anyone but I get about 100 text messages a day at least! The weird thing is I could have turned my phone off  because its a personal phone but the problem is I would get more stressed knowing I am missing a lot of calls and texts and eventually I have to receive it one way or the other and if not that time then soon…very soon, giving me less time to do the task. What can I do? It really comes with having a job. It comes with being important, or needed the least.

So after quitting my job last last week and migrating to the US. I got myself a new number. After a week of having my new number, it rang only thrice, twice from my wife and the other from my father-in-law. Pathetic right? And to make it more pathetic I even look at my phone every now and then just to see if I’ve missed a call or somebody texted and as always there was none.

I should be happy, I should be jubilating that at least I dont get a hundred text messages and numerous calls per day asking me tons of questions that doesnt matter to me. I should be rejoicing that after being enslaved by the mobile addiction and being connected almost all my life I am finally FREE! No ringing, no message tones, no nothing. And that brings me to my question. Am I still important? Somehow I do know that those calls are made because I know better, I am the person to talk to and that single call to me would make a difference to the person calling. But the ring of my phone is gone and I feel unimportant. Truly there is something in a mobile phone than calling, texting and browsing the internet. Somehow it took a life of its own attaching itself to the human psyche, sometimes as important as a breath of air, a trusted friend and a door to another space and time. Who would have thought that a couple of grams of plastic and silicon can question relevance to a person’s environment. Amazing and yet mind bloggling. So mind blogging that I am turning my PC and phone after this. I would savor being unimportant, of not being connected, I would go to the garden and smell the sweet fragrance of fresh cut grass and the heat of the late afternooon sun ……………. so tweet me later! ;)

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