I carry the cell with me at all times after many years of resisting "the leash." I am in constant contact with everybody all the time now. I call, I text, I chat, I post on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, my blogs, the article-marketing company I write for (the platform that created this article), my website, and on a specialized online marketing community I've recently joined. I'm getting dizzy. I've become a Seinfeldian-style "over-communicator!"
It's impossible to keep a low profile any longer. And, if all of the above weren't enough, I've still got four trusty landline cordless phones and an ancient digital answering machine, plus the Qwest answering service if I'm on one of them which disables the digital machine. Good God, when is enough enough? Probably never.
Verizon Cell
I actually feel "old-school" because I still use a two-year-old flip phone from the bygone era. Oh the humanity! I don't even take pictures with it or surf the web from it. I am reduced to having to use a laptop that never leaves my desk. Why didn't I just get a desktop? I'll have to look into that.
And, when I'm not sending or receiving communications, I'm always checking "just to be sure I didn't miss anything important." It's almost never important. However, I fear what I'm really missing is everyday life, you know, the actual live encounters with real people in person. I even see people texting each other in the same room or hallway all the time. How nuts is that? Well, I've done that too.
Being connected to the max has its benefits. I've made contact with friends in faraway places and rekindled friendships that I otherwise wouldn't have. That's a really great byproduct of our over-connectedness. But, it's begun to take on an absurd dimension. Privacy no longer exists, if you ask me. And yes, I do take full responsibility for its continuing downfall. But, that's one of the many prices you pay.
I've honestly thought about "disconnecting." What would that feel like? Probably just like waterboarding. Once these habits become entrenched in your psyche, your brain begins to insist upon them to feel normal.
This "new normal" is a trip, to say the least. I never could have believed I'd become such a technology fanatic back in the nineties. But, these continuous unending technological advances could never have been imagined back in that day. Now, they seem to be flying at us from all directions all the time.
It's exciting, empowering, addictive and an overwhelming fact of life.
Cell Phoning, Texting, Emailing, Social Networking - "Communicate, Communicate, Dance to the Music!"
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