That ain't a bad deal when you even begin to think about it. In fact when you think about it, it is pretty incredible. It wasn't all that long ago that a telephone was a device attached to a wire that generally sat on a table or hung from a wall.
The monthly bill was fairly expensive, too when you adjust it for inflation.
Now phone service is a bargain. I now get a whole lot more minutes than I can use for thirty bucks a month, which is for many takes about an hour or two to earn. It would be interesting to look at an old phone bill from back in the day and compare it to an old paycheck stub.
I'm quite certain you had to work a whole lot more hours to pay a phone bill for a whole lot less convenience back then.
There is an awful lot of throwaway technology going around these days and it really amazes me. I read somewhere about how the average guy changes cell phones in the neighborhood of almost annually.
One thing about the old telephones is that they lasted literally for decades. In my family home we got the upstairs telephone back about the time we moved in back in 1955 and it was still there working like a charm fifty years later when we moved her out. I would not be the least bit surprised to find out that the people living there today are still using it as I suppose stuff like that has some sort of retro style value these days. Considering the phone lasted through five kids being raised in the house, it is nothing short of amazing. It speaks highly for the Westeern Electric people that were the guys that made it.
Back when I was growing up a call from more than an ajoining town was considered 'long distance' and was an additional fee for the caller. When a call from my aunt or grandmother would come in, my mother would get excited and shout, "Quiet! this is LONG DISTANCE!" and we would flee the room and stay silent two rooms away or even go outside.
My present cell phone is in its third year which I understand is well above the national average of about sixteen months by a factor of about 2.5.
While there is a lot of technology out there that is simply amazing, all I ask of my phone is simply to take basic 'Hello, Pic?" phone calls although these days I sometimes get a text message which is somewhat annoying because I am of the school of if you want me, simply call me up and pass the necessary information on.
The other thing I did last summer was to figure out how to check my email on the phone and occasionally I do that but with a basic numerical touch pad I generally head to the nearest computer if an email needs attention. Even if I did have a small qwerty keyboard I would probably be loathe to email a message of any length from a phone. It is far easier to use a full sized keyboard.
Still, all I really want out of a phone is basic oral communication. The rest is gravy.
Last I heard the Tracfone people were getting about a dime a minute for one of their prepaid phones, but that was a while back. I suppose 1000 minutes would cost about a hundred bucks, but with the simple Wally World plan I have I'm getting my airtime for about three cents a minute.
Although when I started using a cell phone a while back (I was one of the last guys in the fleet and getting one was rammed down my throat) I could get by for peanuts, it didn't take a whole lot of time before the term 'emergency' got redefined.
I had one for emergency use only and we all know what an emergency is these days. These days an emergency is something very earth shattering like having to find out that Neighbor Bob bought a case of Pabst instead of his usual Coors.
If you want to know how fast the term 'emergency' can get redefined, simply give your kid a credit card when they go away to college and tell them it is 'for emergency use only'. You give it to the kid envisioning that the kid may get stuck out in the middle of nowhere because his pal got tanked and refused to let him drive so the kid bailed out and needs a ride back to the campus.
When the bills start coming in you discover that an emergency is now not having the right color sweater to wear out on a date or some such crap.
After wasting a lot of time explaining to the world what MY definition of an emergency is, I simply gave up and got the Wally World plan because it wound up being a whole lot cheaper.
Any why not? God gave me two ears. I simply let most of the crap that comes in on the phone go in one ear and out the other.
Most calls people make are really nothing more than a bunch of hot air which often makes me think that I ought to buy myself a balloon to float around in and figure out a way to propel it off of the hot air that is generated by most peoples cell phones. Piccolo the balloonist, powered by Sprint.
Eat your heart out, David Niven. Around the world in a whole lot less than 80 days, compliments of cell phone technology. Remind me that I need a manservant to come along with me.
On the other hand, with gas costing what it does these days, a cell phone can save money. Over the years I have been at, for example, a supermarket and have either called or been called over snapping up an item or two and saving a trip. That at least makes sense.
If course, it didn't take a whole lot of time before some evil genius figured out that this same amazing technology can be used for evil purposes and that they can be used to trigger IEDs. I heard a while back that some Taliban wannabe somewhere got picked up because he wanted to buy a bunch of throwaway cell phones.
I suppose like everything else they can easily be abused and the prepaid ones, if paid for in cash can provide a certain amount of anonimity unless you do something to the Navy. If you do something to the Navy with one you are screwed because Gibbs, Abby, Ziva, McGee, Denozo and Ducky of the NCIS team will figure it ot in about an hour, including commercials and you will wind up being shot or Kung Fu'd pretty good and be taken directly to jail and not be able to collect $200 if you pass 'Go' on the way. If you get shot, then Ducky gets to cut you up so he can explain the bullet damage to the court.
Still, I'd bet a whole lot of crime goes on via prepaid cell phones and I suppose the day will come that someone tries to stop it.
In fact, when I first got my number and for quite some time after I was getting calls looking for someone and the people calling didn't sound like they were running for sainthood. My guess is the former user of the phone number was a drug dealer/pimp, judging by the calls. Over time it stopped and it has been quite a while since I have had one of these calls.
Still, although this technology is a very nice convenience, it is nothing more than a convenience and not a need. Recently I found out about a program that gives everyone on any kind of public assistance a free cell phone and I got livid. It's just one more thing I am paying for to give to someone that pronbably really doesn't need it.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
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