2 posts from April 2008

The Customer is Always Right

I remember the first time I used a cell phone. It was eighth grade Halloween. A group of friends and I were out walking the streets and I was due home sooner than we were going to get there. I knew my mom was going to “have a cow” if I didn’t get myself, in my big fat cow costume home quickly. I turned to a friend and told them I was going to leave the group and rush on ahead to get home in time, instead, she pulled out a clunky black phone and told me to call my mom instead, so we could all stay in the group together. I called, my mom stopped worrying and was glad to know I wasn’t running home by myself in the dark, and I was able to enjoy the walk home with friends not worried about the mess of chores and nights home alone I would have to deal with as punishment.

My youngest sister never had to deal with any such issues. She’s had a phone since she started “hanging out” and long ago learned she could squeeze an extra half hour out of any night curfew if she simply texted home where she was and when she would be home.

I also remember the year I felt the tipping point from common cell phone use to saturation. Fall 2001 I returned to my collage campus to find that everyone had a phone and often used it between classes. The shift was one of the most dramatic I have ever felt. I think almost every freshman showed up that year with a phone, seriously. And now I have numerous friends who don’t even have land lines to their homes.

None of this is all together surprising, or startling. Technology changes and even now we look back and marvel at what life was like before we all had a phone. I wonder if the mobile phone will be one of the most impactful changes in the world. It certainly has changed the public and private space blurring boundaries as I sit on the train each day and hear my neighbor chatting about sex, divorce, health concerns, and more. It also has changed our ability to be “on”. So that the office, family, friends, etc can reach someone at anytime so long as their battery is charged and the individual answers the phone.

Texting is another component of the phone, which due to cost issues, hit bigger around the world than it initially did in the states, but has even picked up here. And I know when that same little sister who has always had a phone, has her head down no matter where we are, she’s texting friends. In fact, come to think about it, I think that’s her main avenue to be asked out on a date.

The iphone in America has changed the way I travel, I no longer print out maps of Los Angeles to figure out where to drive, and I’m totally comfortable getting in my car and starting off, with out knowing exactly where my end destination is- I’ll get that on my phone along the way. And again, this is just the beginning. As the Aspen Report on Mobile Technologies indicated, cell phones are changing the world and how members of the world community communicate on political, commercial, regional and family levels. I believe it will be one of the most far changing inventions of my lifetime.