Connectivity
I got in on the "cell phone craze" rather early. No, I wasn't one of the people who carried a huge, suitcase-sized cellphone around on a shoulder strap like The Dude, nor was I a guy with one of the "bricks" (the big grey cellphones the size of a brick), but I mean I was right on the crest of the wave that was the cell phone revolution which crashed upon society back in the late 90s or so. Really my journey with that type of connectivity began at some point in the mid-90s when I got a beeper along with my friends one summer and marveled at how great it was that my friends and I could locate each other with them when we were sitting around bored and trying to organize an afternoon of Frisbee golf.
However, I quickly abandoned the beeper once I started working at an electronics store in 1998 where I discovered not only could I get a Nokia 5100 series cellphone for dirt-cheap, but I could also get an employee plan so it would only cost me $20/month or so to use it (provided I didn't go wild with it). I quickly became enamored with it, it was the most fantastic thing I'd ever seen. I'd never even stopped to think how useful it would be to have a phone on me at all times, how easy it would be to get in touch with my friends, or to let them know I was downstairs in the car and was waiting for them, or if, god forbid, there was an accident I'd have the ability to reach out for help with little to no trouble. My friends could call me if they needed me, and all was well with the world. Anyone reading this knows exactly the feeling I'm talking about, because cellphones are so ubiquitous now that I don't know anyone who doesn't have one.
Things were different back then though, back when the people who had them were truly rare indeed. I found I frequently had to have conversations with people where I had to justify exactly why I felt I needed a cellphone. I found if I got a call in public, people would look at me with a puzzled and annoyed look on their face, just from hearing it ring. And lord help me if I answered it without rushing outside first to be away from everyone before doing so. Talking on a cellphone indoors around other people was absolutely inexcusable. While I'm sure what I just wrote probably sounds tinged with a sarcastic scoff by me about how people back then were too sensitive or something, the truth was I completely agreed with them. I was embarrassed if my phone rang just because I knew it was rude, and I never talked on it indoors in a store or restaurant or something because that was extremely rude. Now, of course, social norms pertaining to cellphones have changed so drastically that the person who throws the occasional annoyed glance at someone on a cellphone (even in a movie theater) is the rude one, and not the person who is actually using the phone.
None of these things bothered me about having a cellphone back then, and I didn't see enough cellphone usage from other people at the time for them to bother me that way either. One thing I did begin to realize over time, however, was I didn't like how the cellphone suddenly became viewed by others who knew I had one as a way to get a hold of me at any time. This in and of itself wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that it was accompanied by them all knowing if they called and I didn't answer then it was almost surely because I saw they were calling and sent it to voicemail, as I would inevitably get the "why didn't you answer my call" question later. I began to really hate that suddenly I was expected to be available at all hours of every day, and realized I couldn't use the "I was out of range for a while today" excuse too often and expect people to believe it, so I eventually had to move to the more dramatic step of actually, really just leaving my cellphone turned off in my car at all times. Then I would tell people I didn't carry my cellphone with me anymore, so if they wanted to reach me that was a bad place to call. Eventually I got tired of spending $20-$30/month just to have it sit in my car, virtually unused, so I canceled my service and gave the phone to a friend.
Naturally, as the cellphone revolution really took off, it became more and more incredulous to people that I didn't own a cellphone, telling me I didn't know what I missing out on, and how they don't know how they ever survived without one. This eventually segued into people just assuming the phone number I gave them was a cellphone number because it got to where nobody even had landlines anymore. Then people would inevitably tell me at some point "I tried to text message you but it didn't work for some reason" at which point I'd have to tell them I didn't own a cellphone.
Almost a year ago I finally got another cellphone, but this time it really was on my terms. I got a prepaid phone from TMobile with $100 worth of minutes which would last me for a year (and they will in fact, I'll even have some left over I'm sure). The reason the cellphone is on my terms is because a couple years ago I ditched my landline for a VOIP phone through Vonage, and one of the great things about Vonage is that I can have any incoming calls simultaneously ring up to six different numbers if I want it to. This means that I have it set so if someone calls me it rings my home, but it also rings my work and my cell phone all at the same time, and whichever phone I answer from is the one that gets the call. This also allows me to turn off my cellphone when I'm either at work or at home because I'm already near a phone which will ring at those locations, so I have no need to have my phone on. I only turn my cellphone on when I need to call someone else or when I know I'm going to be away from a phone and will be expecting a call of some importance. Finally my cellphone works for me and not for everyone else I know.