Cell Phone Dependency or Lack There Of

A few days ago I hit the six-month mark since I returned home from Iraq. I find this time to be significant but not for the reason you may think. The obvious reason is I have had six solid, uninterrupted months with the wife and kids; which has been great. As rewarding as being a family man once again has been there is another milestone that needs to be addressed. One that most of you will not believe considering the world we live in. What is the milestone? It has been six months now that I have not had a cell phone.

The obvious question is, "How do you not have a cell phone?" I’m glad you asked. The easy answer is to blame Jadon, who lost the cell phone I had two or three days after I returned home. But the truth is that since Celia and I moved to Germany the need for a cell phone is not there for me. By saying that I feel I should go back in time a little bit.

Back when I used to live in America (I don't know why I wanted to say that) my cell phone was part of my identity. It was my alarm clock, my watch, my calendar, my phone book, and my primary source of communication. When my dependence was that high my personal life and world shut down and severely suffered much the same way Wall Street did on 9/11. However strong my addiction to my cell phone was I knew that many other people used their cell phones much more than I. The addiction to a cell phone that I just described took place in the year 2007. With that, I continue to travel back in time.

I bought my first cell phone when I was 19 years old, in the year 2000. I was working full time at Pella Corporation and decided that I could afford the monthly payments. I believe I paid $50/month for 100 daytime minutes and 500 night and weekend minutes. I thought my plan was phenomenal. At that point there were only a handful of people I knew that had cell phones, and all of them were working full time. I never needed a cell phone in high school because I had a house phone. I never needed a cell phone in junior high, because again, I had a house phone. Also, who was I going to talk to on a cell phone that I couldn't talk to on a house phone? For the sake of argument, if I did have a cell phone in junior high what would I talk to my friends about that we didn't already talk about in school?

"Lunch sucked today," 12 year old Andrew complained.
"Yeah," friend on other line says.
"Do you think Mrs. Vande Wall's hot," I inquire.
"Yeah!"
"Me too!"

The point I'm making is junior high and high school students did not need cell phones when I was growing up but if you look hard enough you'll find kids in 2nd grade with cell phones. This is stupid. Shouldn't a line be drawn somewhere? Although I've heard the argument from parent, "Well this way I can get a hold of my kid." When I was in 4th grade and attended basketball game that my dad did not attend, do you know how we got in contact? Our house phone. I would use the school phone to call him and say, "Dad, the game's over." However, in the event of an emergency my dad would simply drive to the high school to get me. What happened to those days? Can you see how far we've come in such a short amount of time?

Back to when I first bought a cell phone in the year 2000; my phone was big, uncomfortable to carry, and had the game Snake on it. Does anybody remember that game? Cell phone technology has come so far in such a short amount of time but during that time the technology drifted away from one of the all time great games, Snake.

Within seven years (2007) I went from a condensed Zack Morris phone to a phone that had 4GB of memory, my phone could take pictures, access the internet, and be used as an MP3 player; and it wasn't even top of the line, i.e. the iPhone. My cell phone was my life and Celia was just as bad as I. We didn't have a house phone because we used our cell phones for everything. Every month more than $120 was paid to Sprint for our cell phone charges, and on many months Celia and I exceeded our minutes.

At the peak of our dependence we received orders which would move us to Baumholder, Germany. At the time I had no idea what type of lifestyle would be awaiting in Germany but would soon discover. Living in Germany can be a bit overwhelming at first. Many people we spoke with when we first arrived in Germany told us they used pre paid cell phones, for varying reasons. That was the route Celia and I took; we both bought some cheap, paperweight cell phones with absolutely no features. I figured it would only be a matter of time until I broke down and bought a cell phone that was more to what I had grown accustomed too. Before that could happen I received orders to deploy to Iraq, and suddenly, the need for a cell phone did not seem so necessary.

Some people had a cell phone in Iraq, I did not. I used Skype and talked to Celia for $.02/minute and that was fine by me. Although with about three months left in my deployment I did purchase a cell phone that I only used a handful of times. It was, again, a prepaid cell phone. For one reason or another having a cell phone in Iraq didn't appeal to me. I never carried it around, I never checked it, I often forgot to charge it, and before I knew it, I was back to talking to Celia via Skype. I have now reached the point where I redeployed back to Germany, six months ago.

I had grown so used to not relying on a cell phone that once I arrived back in Germany it never occurred to me to carry a cell phone with me. If I had to make a call, I used our house phone. If somebody asked for my phone number, I gave them my house number. At work, when somebody asked for a cell phone I would give them Celia's cell phone number. This would often raise discussions about the importance of cell phones and why I needed to get one. My typical argument sounded something like this.

"If you need to get a hold of me, call the house phone. If I'm not at work I'm most likely at home. If I'm not at home, I'm most likely with Celia, who has a cell phone. So why do I need a cell phone?"

That sound logical right? Honestly, I feel liberated now that I'm not always carrying a cell phone. In the morning when I have to wake up do you know what I do? I set an alarm clock. If I need to know what time it is, guess what I do? I wear a watch. As far as using my cell phone for a calendar, do you know what I use? A calendar, Google Calendar to be more specific. It's great not having a cell phone ring all the time or tearing the house apart looking for a cell phone.

I also think my age can be attributed to the fact I enjoy people not being able to reach me every second of the day. Think about this, when you don’t feel like talking to anybody what do you do? You look at the caller ID and ignore the call or simply put your ring tone on silent. Essentially I’m doing the same thing except I’m bypassing the monthly fee. It also makes matters easier that I’m not as cool as I used to be, so not as many people feel the need to talk to me.

Something happened to us, people I mean, in the last decade where we have grown so dependent upon our technology. Our patience have decreased and everything needs to be done immediately. It's only going to get worse too. Every day, new generations of children, continuing to get younger and younger are growing dependent on cell phones. Again, the question I ask, where do we draw the line?

In the midst of everybody constantly needing to make themselves available to the world I have done just the opposite. I have broken the chains and removed myself from the stronghold of technology, and I must admit, it feels great.