It has come to my attention that there is someone I know, someone who is a Gen-Xer like myself, who… and I’m not sure there’s any easy way to say this,does not have a mobile phone.
There. I’ve blurted it out. Now I’m not going to reveal who this person is, because they have made a conscious decision not to have one, and naming them publicly might lead not only to ridicule, but to every phone company in the known universe bombarding them with sales pitches.
At the other end of the mobile telephony adoption scale, I’m working with a bunch of guys who live, breathe and sell mobile phones for a living. They haven’t even got land lines on their desks. They wander around the office, super-charged latest model mobiles at the ready, with polyphonic ring tones that have taken another step towards sounding like real music, in-built cameras (now up to a resolution which is actually usable) – and wow, they even make phone calls!
My own phone is an aging Nokia 6210, almost three years old. Egad! Three years! Ancient! Yet it’s quite light and slim and SOMEHOW, despite its age, still works well. Well okay, the battery used to slip around a bit, but that was fixed by shoving a piece of folded paper into the back of it. The main problem is the leather case I have studiously kept it in over these years is starting to fall apart.
I suspect leather phone cases are becoming pass� now anyway. Compared to the pleasing aesthetic qualities of the phone itself, the leather case is uhh, utilitarian – practical, but not pretty. So I’ve ditched the case. My phone is now naked, my only problem now being that I have to remember to put it in my pocket (preferably a pocket without coins or keys in it to scratch it up) when I go walkabout, rather than being able to leave it hanging on my belt. After all, I have ranted a lot in the past about people who leave their mobiles on their desks, resulting in annoying rings disturbing others (particularly me). So leaving it on my desk is a habit I hope to avoid.
But the question is, should I stick with my faithful old workhorse, or ruthlessly send it off to the glue factory (or whatever the equivalent is for mobile phones), and upgrade? Especially if I can wangle a free upgrade on my current phone contract? Well, perhaps I’ll take a close look at the Christmas phone catalogues, and see if anything takes my fancy.
