And Another Thing…

Hurray. Now could you call me please, I’ve been trying to get hold of you…

If it starts getting difficult, play the rules to their limit – count that hour as being between 3 and 4 in the morning, for example, or count the time cumulatively, so that the half hour without a signal whilst you were on the train counts too.

Everything smelled of school dinners. And the paint was either, brown or green. A flight from England to France cost about £400 in today’s terms, and everything electrical heated up and melted if you left it switched on.

We are in the future now, and not only can you buy miniature vegetables that have been flown in from Gambia, at your cornnershop, you have your own personal communicator, just like the one your doppelganger used to have in the original series of Star Trek.

The secret is hegemony. Who owns who? In order to live in this future of ours, sans hover cars, is to own it, not let it be your tyrant.

However, people who turn their phones off are beyond the pale; there is a certain arrogance lurking behind the luddism and parsimony. Perhaps, when speaking with someone you do not know that well, you may precede your call with, “Is is convenient to talk?”.

There is also the moment when you really need that phone, just as I did when, in the centre of Edinburgh, late at night one Sunday, my car broke down, just after waving goodbye to friends (with a car).

If you do leave your phone, one day, and soon, you will get a message that you wish you had taken at the time. Sod’s law.

What we need is a code someone can use if it is a genuine emergency (kids taken to hospital etc.) such that it will override even your own personal quiet mode. Then we could leave our phone like that for most of the day, checking back whenever we had a free moment rather than being constantly bombarded by stupid requests to approve stupid messages like this one.

“I will turn off my phone for at least an hour every day and try to enjoy the real world more.”

You might miss another text from Geoff and Patricia though.

“What if comments are left “unapproved” for too long?”

I cant speak for others, but I usually fly into an uncontrollable rage, only satiated by smoking and drinking Scottish quantities of alcohol.

Sometimes at work I divert the phone to voicemail between the hours of 10-12 and 2-4 just so I can get work done without the darn phone ringing every five minutes as someone tries to sell me an office water cooler or an invite to a timeshare meeting or other such wasteful trash. The email software gets closed down as well for the same period.

It’s amazing how my productivity goes up without the interruptions.

This is sososo going to end in disaster. “Oh, sorry, Tom, we were going to offer you Secretary of State for Transport, but when we couldn’t reach you for an hour we had to move on.”

Or something less dramatic. You’ll turn up at cancelled meetings. You’ll turn up late to rearranged ones. You’ll miss the call from your office telling you of some vital new development just before you talk to the press or give a speech.

Good move Tom. I switched off my voice mail permantly. i was sick and tired of people just taking the monkey off their shoulder and leaving it with me.Then I only switched my phone on between 1100 and 1200 and 1400 and 1600.So I planed when I would be available so I could get on with other things. Now i am retired I have it switched on all the time an no one ever rings.

What’s “Airplane mode”?

I don’t think my phone has that.

Is it an “App” that let’s you swoop it back and forth in front of yourself whilst you say “Kneeeeooowww . . .kneeowwwwwww….tacka, tacka, tacka”

Sorry, watched the Battle of Britain again at the weekend.

Paul.

What about having 2 phones. 1 for work and 1 for private. Switch one off one and leave the other on. Carolyn could speak to Tom whenever she wanted. Oh on second thoughts…………….

Last time I did that I missed a last minute offer of a pretty exclusive trip with friends which I regretted. Not a mistake I intend to make twice.

What I find most strange is the genuine anger I feel when I cannot get hold of somebody instantly.

How did we live 20 years ago?

“How did we live 20 years ago?”

Roger Dodger – we planned things and did what we’d agreed to. People didnt call you and rearrange the location of meetings at 15 minutes notice, or tell you they were “running late” just as the meeting was about to begin, or change which pub you were going to when half the folk were already there, or offer you an exclusive trip at zero notice etc etc.

Instead we’d turn up as agreed with our mates/collegues/customers. I think we used to call it “good manners”.

Well there is something addictive about mobile phones. I only got one 4 years ago because the company said I had to have one, they even paid for it but not for the calls.

Now I worry when I leave it behind.

Strange how we get attached to these gadgets.

Watson does it all the while Tom… or at least, he never answers when I ring.

On the other hand, perhaps he’s trying to tell me something (or should that be, not tell me something).

Dear Tom. Are you certain you’re not suffering from Attention Confirmation Deficit, ie, the uncontrollable need to feel at the centre of things? One of the most valuable assets to an executive, (which you are) is “thinking time”, making yourself room in your day to consider the implications of events around you. When I was a stripling, I made this time by running 3-5 miles a day instead of lunch, As I got older and fatter I took the dog for a 30 min walk once more sans Nokia. The Sky will not fall when you’re out of contact, and in my experience you often end up with solutions that work. to those who advocate 24/7 attention to the whip which enslaves modern man I say “Tish, Tosh and get a life.”

Why didn’t you just turn it off? Save some battery power…

Why don’t you just turn the damn thing off?

JohnRS

Interesting comment. I had assumed the decline in manners and the rise of mobiles were unrelated, if I had thought about it at all.
Thinking upon what you wrote however, I guess the mobile has become an excuse to many for an erosion of some established norms of conduct. I don’t think it inherent within use of the phone though. Just people aren’t called on it.

Sod it though. I don’t want to change back. When out I like to change venue if something else is better, I like being able to sit on a delayed train without knowing that the person at the other end hasn’t think they’ve been stood up, I like being able to think of someone I haven’t heard from for a while and be speaking to them 20 seconds later rather than forgetting.
My friends weren’t without manners, I was just the tool that decided turn the phone off and got left at home with my voicemail messages.

Great stuff by Grumpy Old Man.

“I don’t think it inherent within use of the phone though. Just people aren’t called on it.”

Not my worst ever writing but quite close I think. I meant ‘called’ as in poker. Not phones. Obviously.

Sorry Tom, I should really have the courtesy to read this rubbish through before pressing submit.
It’s just the pace of the “information age.” No room for courtesy.

In Germany, mobiles are called ‘Handies’. Maybe handy is how we should view mobiles, rather than like vital organs. Too late now of course, they are the norm like Tellies and Tea bags.