17 31707 1

The other day I was at lunch with some fellow co-workers and completely 'dated' myself in a conversation about cell phones. I didn't receive one until I went away to college and it was purely to call home without a calling card. (This was also the time when cell phones were just becoming a big deal to have.) The three years prior to this I was using a pager. Some of the girls looked at me like I had a unicorn popping out of my forehead when I was talking about it... how my friends and I had certain 'codes' so you knew who was paging you... how my boyfriend and I would page "17 31707 1" because upside down that said "I love you".

22378008. That was "boobless".

But having a pager with 3 different alerts was a BIG deal. If your pager had more than two buttons and a colorful case, that was a big deal. I remember my first cell phone looking very similar to a remote control. It was large, flat, and grey with illuminated green keys. It was super cool. I didn't even carry it around with me and I'm pretty sure it was off most of the time. Anytime I needed to call a friend or DP Dough to order my late night calzone I used the landline. Our quad had two of them and one had a cord.

But now the minute you realize you left your phone at home you feel your stomach drop into your butt. The feeling is utterly uncomfortable and extremely anxiety provoking. You don't feel "whole" like a small part of you, say your pants, are still sitting at home in your bedroom instead of being where they belong on your body.

The gals at lunch thought it was "soooo weird" that I used a pager as means of communication in high school and rarely used my phone during my first two years in college. It made me feel old. I see kids with cell phones and it boggles my mind. I honestly don't see the point of a kid having a phone until they start driving. If anytime before, it will be one of those limited "for emergency use only" ones. I'm not going to inadvertently promote my child to 'sext' or even give them the chance to send a nudie picture to that super cute quarter back.

I say all this now, but who knows. By the time I have kids we could be teleporting ourselves across town or driving auto-pilot bubbles. We could have robot hands, that come out of our hologram cell phones that are implanted into our heads, that help move our jaws up and down so we don't have to chew our meal pellets on our own. We are so lazy.