Saturday, December 11, 2004
While mobile phones have been around since the mid-80s, they only truly became a mainstay of American (global?) civil society in the mid-90s and now, here we are, just off the cusp of the turn of the century and children carry them around as yet another tool for safety (as all cellular phones are able to call 911, with or without a service contract).
And there are a few things that clung to the underbelly of the great cell phone beast and have also managed to stay. Additional etiquette guidelines. Endless fodder for (late night) sketch comedy. Blackberry.
But there is one thing that came and, effectively, should have left. And I pose to you the question now -- why is it still here? And that is: "Is that me?" This question could hardly have been a commonly employed inquiry prior to the advent of the phone (with the exception of looking back at photographs from times past and hair-do's divers), and it's perfectly clear how it is that it came to be so popular. So many phones, anywhere and everywhere, and all sounding precisely the same. Yes, even phones at the beginning of the cellular phenomenon's secularization had ring options, but of fourteen possible MIDI rings from which to choose, maybe only two were actually acceptable.
But it's 2004 and ringtones are the shizzle. Downloadable ringtones are a required component of any service package, even pre-paid plans. Moreover, ringtones can be set to specific persons or groups of persons within one's phonebook. So how is it that in a review session for one of my final exams, of the five people there (including the TA and myself), cell phones rang five times (the TA's twice), and with the exception of the TA, whose phone was in his pocket and thus he was able to feel the vibrations, all of the other students at first were shocked and puzzled to realize the phones ringing were their own and all asked, with sincere surprise, "Is that me?" Every ring was unique, yet apparently no one was able to recognize his or her ring by the first or second round.
Is that me? Yes, it is you. Now pick it up, decline the call, put it on "Silent" like you should have done before entering the room, and apologize to the class for the damned distraction.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 19:11.
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