More than anything, the two month-long process of ‘ponderation’, as I like to call it, combined with my impulsive banoffee pie-induced decision-making that lead me to click on that all so innocent looking Upgrade button on my screen actually filled me with more dread and instant regret than anything else. Far from attempting to somehow cancel the order straight away and beg and plead with some poor unsuspecting telecom trainee to not send it out, I then even more regrettably attempted to publicly fake my enthusiasm to my Facebook friends and Twitter followers in the hope that some sense of excitement would ensue.
And did it?
No.
Instead, minutes later, I realised that by informing my online iPhone-adoring communities of my unforgivable foolishness, I had provoked virtual fruit salad warfare, primarily between my postgrad creative cohort (the Apples) and my undergrad banker buddies (the Blackberries).
Now not only do I fear that I may have made a grave error in upgrading to a phone which is like a dagger to my inner creative and superior-graphics-and-media-access-loving self (and which, in my heart of hearts, also makes me die a little inside whenever I glance over the stern, calculator-resembling ugliness that is the BlackBerry), I also fear that I have somehow lost the respect of my fellow techy-loving comrades, as proven by the huge backlog of accusations of telecomm treachery and the odd controversial ‘like’, which spammed my profile this morning.
Ridiculous isn’t it?
(Yes. It is.)
Don’t you remember the days of having your favourite rock band or pop star on the front cover of your folder at school? Don’t you remember how cool it was and how great it made you feel? Don’t you remember walking just that little bit taller down those narrow bleach-smelling corridors with your bright pink folder under arm or how your homework diary plastered with Eminem stickers sat proudly on your desk in class?
Yes..?
No, me neither.
Maybe because I was one of those self-confessed geeks who pretended they didn’t care about what was cool when in reality they just didn’t really understand what ‘cool’ was, or maybe because my frequent family visits to Italy meant that I’d always come back with some odd, clashing and no doubt cheaper than WHSmith’s Japanese Manga-style stationary kit that all the cool kids were strangely offended by.
Nevertheless, I stood tall, defended my bizarre choice of Sailor Moon adorned pencil-cases and comforted myself with the thought that being different wasn’t a bad thing. It was what I used to refer to as ‘stationary peer-pressure’: “the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging an individual to change his or her attitudes, values, or behaviour with regard to something utterly ridiculous and wholly unlife-changing.” (Annipedia)
My BlackBerry purchase is perhaps the modern-day equivalent of this strange phenomenon; there are some that believe I have made a very wise decision in upgrading to supposedly one of the most sophisticated pieces of mobile phone technology on the market today, some that think I have made the biggest mistake of my life and that my BlackBerry will BBM a fake suicide message to all my friends and eat me alive in my sleep, some that are convinced that I have sold my soul to the digital devil and will never again be able to interact with another living human being offline, and others who just couldn’t give a flying FK100.
Whatever your opinion, let’s just remind ourselves that our phones don’t define, enhance or rule our lives today any more than our choice of stationary did back in the days of Pogs, Tamagotchis and S Club 7. It’s ultimately what we do with our phone that counts. And as long as that doesn’t include becoming the mobile phone equivalent of a bacon-eating vegetarian or a closet Buddhist Jehovah’s Witness, then that’s cool.
Or, at least I think it is..
I enjoyed reading this Anni!
Anni, you’re a ledge! lol
xZx
nice post Anni.
Thank you for all your kind comments!