Katie’s cell phone has been acting up recently, and we’re not sure whether it’s the battery or the phone itself. We may end up getting her a new phone (or “upgrade” or whatever AT&T wants to call it), or may try getting a new battery. Either way, it won’t cost much.
The real price is in this gray zone, when she has a phone that only functions some of the time. Even though I’m not the one who has the broken phone, it’s sobering to be thrown back a decade into a time when cell phones weren’t the everyday device they are now.
It’s a little scary, not knowing whether I can actually call her during the work day if something comes up, or knowing that she probably couldn’t call me (or AAA) if she were driving and the car broke down.
We’re spoiled nowadays. With my iPhone, I get instantaneous access, nearly anywhere in the country, to all the information I would ever need. I can pinpoint my exact location, find a nearby fill-in-the-blank, and read reviews on it from the palm of my hand. I can check my bank accounts, buy stocks, look up an old friend’s contact information on Facebook. It’s really a bit unbelievable if I think back on my cell phone-less childhood.
Maybe we haven’t been spoiled. More, technologically bettered. It’s not that our parents didn’t have this technology because they were poor or choose not to adapt it; this convenience simply didn’t exist back then.
Still, it’s a bit much, especially considering I’ve only been alive 26 years. And to see how one malfunctioning cell phone can throw us off.