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I never thought I’d be the person obsessed with technology.
When I first got a cell phone, I really wasn’t into it. I mean, it was “cool.” Everyone was getting cell phones at school, so I would need one eventually. I often forgot it and didn’t really care about it all that much. At the time, there was no mass use of the Internet on phones, texting either did not exist or no one used it, and camera phones did not exist. The year was 2003.
Now, cell phones are mini-computers. I freak out if I can’t access the Internet for a second. I need to spend my boring classes and bus rides tweeting and Facebooking. I have to have the ability to call or text whomever I want, whenever I want. And I take at least one picture a day.
This summer I was in Israel. I had a simple cell phone; it had no Internet and no camera. Yet, I misplaced it for a few days and found myself in a panic; I couldn’t bear the fact that I couldn’t call my mom or anyone in Israel. I felt lost, nervous and crazy. I checked almost everywhere—on the campus, on the streets—all over Jerusalem. Everywhere except, of course, the place the phone managed to be.
Why was I letting myself get crazy over a phone?
A couple of weeks ago, I lost my phone again. Actually, I left it in one of my classrooms and went back to get it and the students in the Spanish class in the room afterward said it wasn’t there. I spent the next few hours looking virtually any possible place on campus—in the Rec Center, in Claire Small’s lost and found and even in the campus police station.
Of course my phone was still in the classroom; I knew a guy in the class. Fortunately, he added me on Facebook and I got the phone back. Once again, I was able to breathe easy.
Last night, I found myself in an uncomfortable situation. I clutched my Verizon LG Dare as if I was a child holding her pink, stringy baby blanket. I played with the keys to gain comfort.
I’m pretty sure it’s not just me. I’m not completely crazy—at least I hope.
I long for a time without cell phones, a time when my editors could not reach me 24/7, a time to just relax. But until I can go back, I’ll be holding my cell phone tight.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sara Fruman at Sara.fruman@colorado.edu.
