Harold Goldstein
Cell phones can be found anywhere and everywhere. No matter where you go, you’ll either find someone talking or playing with his or her cell phone. In recent times, cell phones have become popular multi-functioning tools for everyday use. Instead of just having a simple phone for you to talk on, you can now send text messages, take pictures, listen to music, play games, check your email and even watch TV. That is all fun and good. But what is the point of it all? Why do we need so many things in our phones? For three years, I had a regular, everyday phone. There were few additions, like mobile instant messaging and the use of a camera, on that phone that I barely used and I was happy with the way it was. But when I decided to get a new phone at a Verizon store, I felt overwhelmed with the choices. They had every type of phone imaginable; phones that only played music, phones that let you watch TV, phones that let you go on the Internet, even phones that had all three components. It was surprising to see so many phones jammed with useless stuff. I chose the one that felt more useful to me: The LG En-V. It was a very nice phone with a full QWERTY keyboard that would make text messaging easier but there was something wrong with it. There was too much stuff and most of it, I wouldn’t be able to use. There was email compatibility, mobile instant messaging, able to take pictures and make videos, play video games, listen to music, go on the internet, the list goes on. This phone wasn’t a regular phone but a multifunctional, multimedia system within a small, plastic case. This is what the telephone has become in recent years. It’s not bad to have everything in one phone, though. Apple Inc.’s iPhone puts everything a person would ask for in a phone and make it feel sleek. Also, being able to have Google Maps in your pocket when you’ve got yourself lost on the highway does have its advantages. However, having so many things on a phone can turn out to become an undesirable distraction. No to mention the fact that for every minute used on the applications on the phone, it adds up to more payments on the phone bill. Either way, I just like to remember the simple days when music was a radio, a map was a Thomas Guide and a telephone was a telephone.