Cell Phones: A Problem or a Solution?

One day I was driving down the road, I had to make a call, but I didn’t have a cell phone. I immediately started looking for a payphone. The closest 50 cent phone I could find was at a Conoco gas station 5 or 6 miles ahead. Thank God for that because my gas was running low.

I’ve seen so many people driving around with cell phones in their ears. Laws have been passed. Laws have been ignored. People are blind and reckless when they’re talking to people on the phone. More and more car crashes are being caused by these people getting so caught up in the conversation with that person on the other end of that wireless phone, they weren’t paying any attention to their driving or the people they were driving into. At the very least, go to the store and buy, and use a headset.

It’s still not going to keep your conscious mind from drifting off when it should be on the road ahead. Remember, that vehicle can be a weapon in size and weight at the speeds they travel.

When will society figure out what matters most? It’s not the fancy car you drive, it’s not the big townhouse with no backyards you own, and it is certainly not that handy little communication device pressed to your ear. Your life, your worth, your family; these are just some of the things that you should put first.

When I had to make that call, it was an emergency, a real emergency. It wasn’t a friend in desperate need of some emotion support. It wasn’t to tell my boss that I was running late. It had nothing to do with fixing a relationship. I had to get a hold of my Mom, because I was concerned about her welfare. Such instances of using cellular phones are perfectly understandable.

It’s the way people embrace the cell phones that bother me most. It’s as if that cell phone is another extention of your body. That wireless is an electronic device – much like your computer, your washing machine or your refrigerator. It’s another leap forward in communications technology, putting the old technological advancements just another decade behind.

Hypothetically, what were to happen if all power on the Earth were to shut down? People who embrace their phones as those people crashing on the highways do, they would freak out. It’s convenient, yes. It can fit right in your pocket. But, that cellular phone is powered by a battery. If power were no more, those phones would be no more. The only instrument left to make any kind of call would be a payphone.

People shouldn’t have to travel miles to make a call. People shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for minutes on a cellular phone. Payphones should be accessible to everyone. We should not be so dependent on such a handy little communication device. Let’s not have such a “conscious impairment”. Before cell phones take over the payphone like our standard telephone did with the telegraph, the real question we should be asking ourselves is what will we be left with?