CELL HELL

You know, everyone nowadays has a cell phone.
     It's like our lives orbit around that rectangular piece of steel...and it's not even a sphere! I can’t disagree though…I’m one of those people that just can’t part with their phone. Every few minutes I’ll be checking my phone.

Oh look! I have…zero missed calls, zero new texts, the facebook frontier is quiet…

Then I remember I’ve had zero incoming calls, zero texts. For the last five minutes...

*ALERT ALERT. ALERT ALERT* 

    Nothing like a text message at full volume at 3am to get the blood flowing! But what I wonder is why are we so compelled to check our phones for messages or alerts or calls? Will the world stop orbiting around the sun? Will the apocalypse come within seconds of ignoring our phones?
    The single beep (of a text alert) has ultimately replaced the telephone ring; and in the process has made “I must have been away from the phone” an out-dated and unsatisfactory excuse. Rarely is there a situation where you cannot text; your friends know it, and you know it. Out to dinner? In church? Movie theater? Getting a root canal? Audrey Hepburn might have used these excuses not to pick up the line, but you – you no good textaholic – have no right to ignore the requests of your friends, co-workers, and relatives.
    The movie He's Just Not That Into You nailed it when Mary said: I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting.
    So what is this obsession we have with non-verbal communication? Is it so hard to call? We have become so accustumed to texting that if we send a message and don't hear back within 5 minutes we automatically assume that we did something wrong! I am guilty of this, and I hate to admit it! What is wrong with us? Why do we do this? Is it because we are afraid of other humans? Or has face to face, verbal communication become a thing of the past?