CELL PHONES

It seems like nothing ever stays the same. I don’t drive around just to drive around, but when I go down the main street some store seems to have always replaced some other store or the old one was bought out and the name has changed.

Our area phone company is changing its name from Quest to Century Link. I don’t know if they were bought out or the ones doing the buying. I remember when AT&T was broke up because it was considered a monopoly. It broke into so many little companies that all I really remember is the price went up.

I had nothing against the old AT&T. You could get any phone you wanted, as long it was black and a rotary. It was tied to a specific spot. You could not put it in you pocket and carry it around with you unless you had an exceptionally long cord. Neither could you get in an accident because you were driving and talking on the phone. No one ever needed to text anyone. No one seemed to know they needed to do that. Phones used to be for talking — not typing. Come to think of it, no one seemed to know how important it was to have a phone implanted in his or her ear. In fact, it seemed nice to get away from the phone at times. Who knew we would stop talking on phones and use them to write (text). Weird, I think.

We may have thought it would be nice to have a phone we could carry around, but I doubt anyone considered that would mean everyone in the family would need their own phone or that the phone bill would be around $100 a month. It never occurred to us that one could get killed talking on the phone, and we certainly didn’t know we would need games on our phone to wile away our boredom while waiting for the one we were talking to talked on a another line to another person. I remember waiting for someone to return from a potty break, but now we just take the phone with us. Who knew we needed to talk on the phone while doing our business.

I’m not saying all these features are not fun or even nice. I kind of like knowing who is calling. It is hard to get me if you are not already in my phone. I rarely answer the phone when it is someone I don’t know by number. I love having the number of those I call often stored in my phone. I do wish it were easier to get those numbers in my phone (let’s not go into that).

There seem to be more and more features on my phone or whatever the name of the current electronic device will be that I will soon believe I cannot live without. All these things may be fun, but to we “need” them. They certainly make for one very expensive machine that will be outdated in six months and will absolutely have to be upgraded or replaced. I don’t know how I could live without the latest and greatest.

Thinking of phone companies changing names do we really carry phones any more? Are we not carrying Androids, Droids, or whatever else is the hottest thing since sliced bread? I suppose that expression is also passé, but I don’t know the expression that has replaced that. However there should be a new expression. There are only a few people left who remember that sliced bread was something you did to bread when it came out of the oven.

Its not just Quest that is changing names, I have noticed that A&T has been gradually buying back all these little companies that spewed from their bosom. I suspect it will not be long until they own everything they once lost and the government will have to break them all up. Pretty small little guys if you think about it. Break them up into many smaller companies, let them develop new technology and then buy them back. I won’t mind if they make the phone a phone again and go back to affordable prices.