My Name's Eric Higginbotham...and I've Got an Addiction

The consequences of sliding through the gates of the 21^st century are the constant reliance of our ever important digital media. No longer do we open our once overused desk drawer to grab the mighty pen and pad to write letters and notes. We now have our Blackberries and PDAs holstered and ready for the next task at hand. The instantaneous value that E-mail has is something we may never relinquish. A gamer from Canada can strategize with a gamer in Japan on Xbox Live to stop the Nazi regime in Call of Duty. These communication methods were only a fantasy to many thirty years ago. Food, water and shelter, labeled as essentials, have now been replaced by email, text messaging and MySpace. Today, I, along with many others, I’m sure, cannot exist in this world without the invaluable machine like the all mighty cell phone.

Why wouldn’t one want to invest in such a helpful machine like the cell phone? The cell phone has been a huge asset to many people’s daily lives that almost everyone takes the machine for granted. The cell phone is simply an extension of our bodies. Many don’t sit and marvel over the mechanics of our hands or the wondrous functions of our brains. We just use them and don’t really appreciate the way they work.

Let’s face it; the cell phone has come a long ways from its conception in the early 70s. The functions have advanced from the single action of communicating with another person, much like Zach Morris did in the Saved by the Bell sitcom. Today, we can not only communicate with friends and family instantly, but we can perform many other tasks with our cell phones. We can now take pictures and videos and send them across the world for others to see. I can now contact my sister in Maryland with a touch of a button. I can now see my newborn niece grow up by the uses of the camera feature on our cell phones. I can understand her personality through videos that my sister sends me. I can get to know my family even though they’re thousands of miles away, which is something that I am so very grateful for.

Text messaging has become more and more of a routine for me in the last few years. With the ability to send and receive unlimited text messages for only a small fee, it’s difficult to avoid its addictive effect. Text messaging has worked well because of the fact that it allows me to type something very quickly and send it within seconds. The person receiving the text message can now view what I had sent a few seconds prior whenever he or she has time to view it and can respond whenever they feel is necessary.

The cell phone and text messaging has become my primary way of contacting all my friends and family because of the ability to quickly send and receive messages. I don’t have to wait for someone to pick up the phone like the traditional phone call. I also don’t have to compose a well thought out message to leave on the voice mail. If the recipient doesn’t have voicemail then I don’t have to worry about making several phone calls so that I can get his or hers attention. I don’t have to worry about if they received the message or not. I can see the status of my text message delivery as success or a failure.

Text messaging and all its glory do have some drawbacks though. Within the last few years we’ve seen laws being passed against the use of cell phones while driving. The purpose of this law is simple: keep distractions away from the driver so that they may safely operate a vehicle. People don’t see this law as keeping them safe; rather we tend to see it as a obstacle that we need to get around to function every day. To counter this many people have purchased Bluetooth headsets that allow the driver to carry on a conversation without holding his or her phone. Unfortunately, text messaging is hard to regulate. The fact that you can hide the cell phone while texting, to avoid being spotted by the police, is an obvious advantage of text messengers. Although it puts the driver and other drivers around at risk of being involved in an auto accident.

In conclusion, the cell phone is a very useful way for me to communicate with my family and friends. I don’t see myself without a cell phone for the rest of my life. Without it, unfortunately, I feel as if I may become like a lost puppy dog trying to find his way home. I can’t leave my house unless I’ve got that machine within my grasp. My name is Eric Higginbotham and I’m suffering from the addiction of the cell phone.