My cellphone died last night – now what?

September 8th, 2009

Hunting for a job without a cellphone just doesn’t work

Old blue, my vintage cellphone died last night. I am bereft. The truth is that I never really learned to use all the facilities that she apparently offered, but I knew enough to get me around and she was my constant companion for about 10 years.

The cell phone service center

I took her into the service center this morning, kicked my heels in the long line of customers and was finally told by the smiling young lady that mine is an old phone. “it is so old that we cannot fix it,” she confided, “so we are going to sell you a new phone. The new one will have a camera and a diary and a GPS and a calculator and a this and a that. What color would you like, sir?” In the rush to sell she forgot to tell me if the new phone could make calls. I then explained that I have had this phone for a long time and that I love it and that I want it fixed and that I am not interested in buying a new gadget that I will never learn how to use. Take it to a private lab, she said and beckoned the next customer in the line. Furious, I stormed out.

Have you heard about the depression?

In the very short and one-sided conversation I had with the young woman in the service center I never got the opportunity to tell her that I am a pensioner and that my pension is linked to some index or other and goes down every month. At this time I am not entering into any long term contracts with anyone, let alone for the purchase of a cellphone. So I will throw this one away and you will lose a customer and both of us will be contributing towards the depression in our own little way.

Life before cellphones

I managed my life for a good 50 years before the advent of cellphones and I can manage again although it will not be easy, especially at job hunting time. Amazing as it may seem to the younger set, there is a life without cellphones. If by any chance I discover that I am wrong about the cellphone, I will simply buy one on the booming second hand cellphone market from a private source and not from the phone companies who are adding coals to the fires of the depression.

The cellphone industry

The entire development of the cellphone industry from its very humble beginnings to what it is today was mind-boggling. The poorest counties in earth boast booming cellphone systems. Barefoot kids in Africa walk around with cellphones pressed to their ears. It has brought them into the modern world. These phones have saved many lives of people stuck in impossible situations. It has also created some of the largest companies on stock exchanges around the world.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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