Sorry, Weird Al was stuck in mind for a second. Actually, the thing I shunned for the longest time was having a modern, more expensive than $20 type of cell phone. Previous phones, which usually expired on me in about a year's time, were all of the flip variety. One out of the 5 or 6 previous ones had a camera phone (none of the pictures which I ever transferred, by the way), and only had one phone where I used Internet on a trial basis (cancelled it right before the free trial ended).
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| Left to right: The functionality of my picture phone pre-2010 ----> its functionality now. Some might argue the extra technology did a disservice. That argument is still pending. |
Meanwhile, others around me (i.e. 98% of society) were advancing their phone selection to that of the highest standards of the time- the BlackBerrys, I-phones, etc. While my friends would be looking up the latest stats to the games I'd bet on, I'd be thanking them for checking those scores for me. In the land of phones, mine would always feel like how my dad would feel like at a computer convention- completely lost. By the way, this article is not about great analogies, so I'm leaving the previous statement in just because I can.
Anywho, fast-forward to 2010, and my new job come July is working from home as a Sales Support Specialist for a consulting company. The company agrees to pay for my phone bill on a monthly basis. Suddenly, the cheap-phoned mindset that has plagued me for years on end slowly escapes through my pores. A few months later, when my rebate for a new phone kicks in, I get a Blackberry Curve, the newest model of BC that they have. It's so new, in fact, that I conveniently get screwed out of a case for it because apparently they design the phone for it and then release the case design months later- which removes it from the accessory bundle package that I bought.
Five months after the purchase, I couldn't tell you how much I use the phone for purposes outside of work calls. I find myself as addicted to the phone as the very people that I privately (and sometimes publicly) mocked for having a techie disease I'll call modern cellulitis (patent pending).
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| Can't even keep my phone away from me on the company trip to Puerto Rico. |
I send BBMs (a messaging system for Blackberry-to-Blackberry texting), texts and pictures, place bets and statuses on Facebook, and do various other things with my 21st century phone that I could only have dreamed of doing before this year. I must say, it can be technology-overload and there may be sometime in the future where I need a break from all of this.
For now, unfortunately, I have become something (yes, something, not someone- because I've lost part of my humanity here) that I never thought I'd ever be- a droid hooked on his Crackberry.
