I was talking with a friend the other day, and the fact that he does not have a cell phone came up. I, of course, was amazed. Immediately I said what most mobile-toting folk would say: “I don’t know what I would do without my phone!”
His response was simple: “No, it’s easy. You know what you have to do? All you have to do is keep your commitments. You make a plan, and you stick to it.”
What an enlightened thought. It’s completely true, mobile phones allow us to be carefree and without a set plan. But maybe this isn’t always a good thing. Perhaps this is causing us to forget how to make and keep commitments. And a society that doesn’t know how to commit to something is almost certainly a bad thing. Sure, we can be unchained on a minute-by-minute basis, but don’t we lose something by acting this way?
3 responses to “On Mobile Phones and Commitment”
I didn’t have a cell phone until my company gave me one, somewhat recently, so I understand the issue. It really did seem that cell phone users didn’t like to make and keep commitments, but who can blame them? I think cell phones are a great tool when used in a ‘call me and let me know where to meet you’ sort of way.
What bothers me (although less so now that I’m in with the mobile crowd) is the impoliteness. I used to hate standing around while the friend I was with talked on the phone. I still hate seeing mobile screens light up during movies.
Maybe the worst thing about cell phones, though, is that people get too used to being always connected.
Not sure I agree Josh-o-tron. I mean, yes, if cell phones stop people from being reliable then that’s a bad thing. But what your friend has to remember is that he is not the one being frustrated by the fact that he doesn’t carry a cell – it’s the people who are trying to get in touch with him. Whereas he can call anyone else on their cell, he probably spends most of his time unreachable and that’s probably the way he wants it.
Incidentally Joshy Boy, not sure ‘making a plan and sticking to it’ is very agile…
Indeed, I see mobile phones as an agile enabler. they allow you to modify plans or defer decisions until you are in a better position to make them.
How this is could be construed as a bad thing is not immediately clear to me.
Sure, if your battery runs out or if you cant get reception, then you might be in trouble, but this doesn’t happen often enough for me to spend the effort coming up with a detailed plan for every social interaction.