Cellular Security Blanket

I remember the days in high school when I had to yell up to my uncle's open classroom windows in order to let him know I was there to pick him up. Many of times I looked like a complete idiot screaming "Tim!" at the top of my lungs. (Students knew him as Mr. Grandy and looked utterly confused when I kept saying his first name, especially yelling it.) Eventually I settled for honking the car horn, but I still faced questioning looks when people thought I was honking at them.

If you hadn't figured it out by now, he doesn't own a cell phone. My 80 year old grandpa even has one, yet my uncle still fails to see the need for one. He relies on one phone call from a land line and a set time for meeting someone. He continues to hold the mindset which existed before cell phones emerged. He will never experience that deep sense of loss that one feels when their cell phone is lost, broken, or stolen. It will never seem like he is no longer a part of the world like one feels after forgetting his or her cell phone somewhere.

Our society today is undeniably attached to their cell phones at the hip. People literally bring them with them everywhere and seem to invest their lives in them. I have a friend who actually sleeps with his in his hand at night. But cell phones have even questioned safety at times as people constantly talk and text while driving. Multiple states had to go as far as pass laws against cell phone use while driving. Yet cell phones continue to evolve and become even more popular if you didn't think that was possible. Nowadays they are capable of nearly everything imaginable and desirable, from their original use of calling someone to watching live TV. The endless choice of color and style is the other aspect that draws people in further, for suddenly their phone is completely unique and personal to them. If a high school or college student didn't have one they would be looked at like they were from another planet. Especially since middle schoolers... yes middle schoolers... have started getting them.

Yet the most mind-blowing thing about cell phones is trying to imagine your life before you owned one. You wonder how you ever lived. You can't believe you never got lost at the mall when you split up with your mom or that you ever found all of your friends after leaving a concert or a dance. I especially think this when I try to imagine my uncle's life, but I guess you can't miss what you never had.