The cell phone, the mobile phone, the wrist phone…
The phone.
Today, the phone is the generic term and means – in most circles – at least those under the age of 40 and even over the age of 65 – okay, pretty much in any age circle (no data was harmed in this lack of study)…a cell phone.
My parents (the in-law ones) no longer have a home phone. My parents won’t soon, either (and of note, they are younger than the aforementioned in-law-parents.) My sister doesn’t. My other, younger sister used to not have a home phone but then coverage in their remote, in the valley homestead kind of forced them back into the land-line realm. It is probably still digital, but it has a “home phone service” designation.
Today at the doctor, they asked me: “Has any of your contact information changed? Do you still have a home phone?”
“Yes. We do.” I answered. Laughing. To myself.
I have thought about this. Clearly, I am not the only one to have thought about it; I just haven’t acted on the thoughts.
Of course, the only ones who call us on it are medical practitioners, schools with announcements and the wide variety of marketing or political agencies trying to find out if we will somehow support them.
More and more the robot-voice is becoming common – as if the real people are adopting it so as not to be offended if we hang up on them after a milli-second delay in response to our cheerful, upbeat greeting.
Actually that part is most puzzling. Why would a human want to sound like a robot? We actually asked Kevin – “are you human?” He was shocked and dismayed to be asked… to which we responded, “well, then, why do you make yourself sound like one?” The sputtering made him sound more human and we were certain that he was.
So, when will the cell phone take over? Not too much longer, I should think. 5 years in the US, mainstream cities and suburbs. Maybe less. Just a guess, but I will put it out there anyway – if I am wrong, I will probably have decided to discard it when my last agreed-to-home-phone contract is up and that is in far less than 5 years’ time.
~ Dawn aka Hat Girl