Gimme A Call

I’m old school.

I am proud of the fact that, as a late-adopter, I fought off the urge to get a cell phone for years.  I finally succumbed, and don’t leave the house without it anymore, unless of course I’ve forgotten to charge it, and then I just take my charger with me.  I’m also proud of the fact that I’m still using my 1^st cell phone, a 4-year old LG flip.  I haven’t upgraded or traded up to the newest phone with cool qwerty keyboard, downloadable apps, GPS.  I believe in using things until they’re used up.  Until it has heaved a last electronic breath.

Are you laughing at me?

I say, “Don’t send me texts”.  It costs ME money every time I receive or send.  But I keep getting texts because they have unlimited texting plans.  And those qwerty keyboards make it even easier to flippantly send cryptic messages.

I say “I don’t need GPS on my phone. In my car? Maybe.”  There are not that many places locally I don’t already know how to get to.

I don’t need up-to-the-minute bus arrivals.  The bus is arriving when I see it coming down the street.

My Conclusion: You’ve been bamboozled.

Have you too bought into the need to (pay) to type a message, when millions of us have our very own personal phone on our hip?

With a marketing sleight of hand, suckers all over the world have been sold a bill that adds $20-30 per month to the basic phone charges to be able to type on a phone.  TYPE on a PHONE.  Where is the logic?

Those who make fun of me for not buying into this marketing excess are the suckers paying access fee, texting fee, data plan, and what else? Ringtones, games, more.

You want to tell me where to meet you?  Give me a quick call.

You want to tell me to pick up something at the store for dinner?  I’m available.  If I’m not, leave a voicemail.

I promise, if you call me with a quick, short request…it will be a quick, short phone call.

What texting really does (and let’s save that whole subject for another day) is take the relationship out of relationships.  If we don’t talk to each other to hear inflections and moods or even greetings, we are only having textual contact, which is no contact at all.

But, back to the point.

What reason can there be to use a phone to type a note to someone else that also has a phone?  It’s a wireless carrier’s marketing dream…selling you things you don’t need and convincing you it’s a necessity. Bravo, big business.