A Cellular Society

The cell phone has come a long way in its design and features. Back in the early 80's, the cell phone was the size of a brick and about as heavy as one, too. But the early years of the cell phone had a pretty good purpose. That purpose was to call any person or place at anytime, anywhere (or at least a place with a decent signal). Although this seem like a great feature at the time, the advances in technology allows the cell phone evolve into a device, originally used for calling people, which has become a necessity to peoples lives.

When my dad gave me a cell phone at the age of 15, I thought that having a phone that could call anybody just like the phone at home was good enough for me. Well the tech crazy society had a different opinion than me as they begin to add on new features to the cell phone. The first few, new features being added on the cell phones were the time of day and the calendar, which is pretty useful. Then the phone companies decided to think outside the box and add on games and program the phones that could send text messages to one person to another. Then the last few years, technology has made it possible to make cell phones record short movies, take pictures, have access to the internet, listen to music, and probably in the future will cell phones have the ability to project holograms of the person calling the cell phone. The cell phone has also change in the shape of the cell phone itself. Now cell phones can be a size of a thimble or it can be the size of a person’s palm, but has the ability to fold, flip, and rotate into a small, easy to carry phone. Recently, Bluetooth technology has begin to create cell phones that can be place on the ear, and when the wearer receives a call, they can just talk hands free without any hassle. So if cell phones now-a-days are basically a Swiss Army phones, then what is to complain about cell phones?

Maybe it is not the new and updated features on the cell phone that bothers me, but maybe it how people seem to have this incredible obsession over these little features. I remember when the iPhone came out that people would just be in line for days just to have a phone that they can brag to their friends, family, co-workers, or just random people on the street. I have a hard time understanding why people have this obsession over a cell phone with extra features. I have had conversations with people explaining to me how awesome their phone is and how it can do this and that. I usually ask how much the phone cost them and they usually respond, “Well it wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it.” Really? Why is it worth it? I have a good cell phone plan with a decent phone that can call people just as well as their overprice phone. Was it worth it because you really plan to use all the features of the phone for emergencies or to contact to people for important reasons? Or is it just worth it because you have this mindset that this phone will make you unique and different just like every other person who has this cell phone. To me, the tech society puts a great emphasis on the media to explain how having a phone like the iPhone will make one important and a step ahead of the rest of the out-dated society.

In conclusion, I think the cell phone is a great tool for connecting to people and using it for emergency purposes or calling people for fun, but I think that a lot of features being added on the phones are nothing but hype that the media influences to make the consumer thinks that they need the other features. I have had my same old cell phone for numerous years (well I drop and broken a couple, but mostly same model as the last one) and its original purpose works just as well as any iPhone or any cell phone that can take pictures, make home movies, or send texts to people. (Which text is the strangest fad to me because if you are willing to take the time to text a person on a phone. Why not just communicate to them on the phone?)