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During the moment that you feel the need to pick up the phone and dial it, there is, no matter how trivial the reason, a sense of urgency. You are wanting to make contact and you want to make it now.
As we all know that does not always happen. Despite the complaints of many, we live in a marvelous age, that of the answering machine, call waiting, voice mail, call forwarding, cell phones, e-mail and caller ID. When we cannot make immediate contact the options nowadays for making sure your information is passed along are astounding. It has gotten to the point where it is impossible for someone to say to you, “Sorry, I didn’t get that message.”
That is unless you are a complete technological incompetent who can’t operate even the simplest of these systems, which seem to just get simpler to use all the time. You can get your information in just about any form you choose. While I have mastered the majority of the systems out there I have to admit, I am still a fool when it comes to retrieving messages from a cell phone. We all have our achilles heal and this is mine, well mine and Doc Halladay’s. Don’t bother trying to leave us messages there, it could be weeks before we get them.
It also means that there are multiple ways to dodge talking one on one. In essence, having entire conversations without ever talking to one another, just a series of messages. This can be a good thing, especially if the person you are trying to communicate with is someone you would rather not talk to. In fact, there are times when I am calling someone and in the back of my mind I’m wishing for that answering machine to pick up. Come on, admit it, you’ve felt that way too. When the answering does pick up, you feel like you’ve won the lottery, or you feel relief at the very least. Once it picks up and you’ve left your message your responsibility is over, you’ve returned the call.
But on the other hand, it can be a little sad that the human eliminate is diminished by the technology, but it is the world that we live in. Unless you want to move to the wilderness and live in a teepee, forgoing frivolous things like electricity and indoor plumbing, the world is what it is. So, if you choose to reside in this portion of the world, you need to get with the program and take the good with the bad. As I’ve said before, the sooner you stop fighting technology, the sooner you begin to understand and appreciate it.
Just recently, something happened that I never thought I would live to see. My parents, who are two of the most anti-technology people I know, got a computer. After it was installed the complaint that was raised was not one of “who needs this stupid thing,” it was that my dad was spending too much time on it. You see, once you confront your fear of the unknown many times, it can be your friend. If my parents can do it, anyone can. Are you listening Kristen?
One of the cool little things out there that I have come to love is caller ID. I’m sure my feelings would be different if I were Bart Simpson or an adolescent who enjoyed making prank phone calls, but as a parent of a teenager I love it. We first looked into it when we started getting a lot of calls that were hang-ups and it was driving my wife crazy. One of the beauties of this feature is that as soon as your phone rings, even once, the phone number and name of the caller are recorded on your phone. With caller ID you always know who called you even if they don’t leave a message. Now that’s cool.
When I think back to my youth and how many prank phone calls we got, primarily because our last name was an easy target, with a system like this, the problem would have stopped immediately, as it has now.
As soon as the word spreads about a system like caller ID, the kids are the first to know. As the technology grows, so does the intelligence level of our kids. They are much more savvy about what's new than we old folks are. If anybody out there knows the phone system and how it works, it’s them.
And speaking of the kids, the thing that is all the rage with them is called IM, or instant messaging, on the computer. Why talk to just one person on a phone when you can talk to thirty at one time just by typing in cute little messages on your computer keyboard? Since school has been out, my kids have spent a ton of time on the computer. My belief is that they are probably communicating more with these people on line than they did during the school year. Again, the fact that they are communicating is good, that they are not doing it in person is not.
Maybe it’s just a stepping stone. Most young teenagers are notoriously shy and this is a way for them to break the ice, at least I hope that’s the case. Because so far it certainly isn’t teaching them how to type or spell. They use abbreviations for their words that they all seem to understand even though it bears no resemblance to English. Who knows? They may be doing for the printed word what Ebonics did for the English language.
So, for all of those people who I hear complaining about call waiting, answering machines, and emails, I guess I’m out of suggestions on how to get me a message conveniently because lord knows I rarely pick up the phone.
I know, mail me a letter and I will call you back as soon as I get it.
The Shrub Speaks: There's no doubt in my mind that when it's all said and done the facts will show the world the truth. There's going to be, you know, a lot of attempts to try to rewrite history, and I can understand that. But I'm absolutely confident in the decision I made. (July 9, 2003, Pretoria, South Africa)
BD’s response: Thanks for mentioning my column, but it’s spelled Dunn!
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