Facebook group: Mobile number changed

I can’t even begin to fathom what 6.7 billion people looks like. Half the world.

Imagine that number of mobile phones going off at once. Unlikely, yes, but soon possible, as the UN's agency for information and communication technologies predict that half the world will own a mobile phone by the end of the year.

Goodness. Half the world. Half the world with the potential to hear Guns’n’Roses
Sweet Child of Mine emanate from a tiny gizmo every time someone else
is trying to speak to them. The possibilities are endless…

Ironically, this news comes on the day that after 12 years with the same mobile phone number (I was carefully presented with a brick of a Nokia at the tender age of 17 as I hurtled back and forth from London to Cornwall every weekend in my 10 year old Polo) I had to change my number due to a recent abundance of malicious texts. And that’s the problem with everything fantastic – there’s always a downside.

Which got me to thinking - do I really need to be available 24/7 to anyone who happens to have picked my number up along the way? Do I really need the constant finger-ache and ear-ache of night and day communication? I bet there is the odd person out there in the county who has still refused the technology which interrupts, costs, and keeps tabs on you. A bit like those who have managed to hold Facebook at bay - I am in awe of these people.

I’m even jealous of people who own one, but rarely use it. My mum was a great example of this when, a few years ago, she actually DID break down in her car and her trusty old pay-as-you-(don’t)-go failed to work. On closer inspection by the network provider, her SIM had actually malfunctioned because it had become dusty. Imagine.

Another friend’s parents were asked to text their daughter when they got home safely at the end of a dinner party. About an hour and a half later, she received a text simply with the word 'BACK' shouting out from the tiny screen. As we giggled through tears of amusement, we mused that it probably took them half an hour to compose.

For those of us more frequent users, it’s a double edged sword. Although we are at the cutting edge of technology, bluetooth’ing, wi-fi’ing, video calling and picture messaging all at our very finger tips, it’s also all too easy to fight on text. Too easy to say things you would never say to someone’s face. Too easy to accidentally slip a ‘xx’ on the end of a message to a new love interest and appear ‘too keen’; and too easy to accidentally blurt out inner emotions when you’ve had a few on a Friday night.

It’s a nice thought but I know I’m addicted, and I’m sure I’ll never be able to quit. The ability to stay in touch with my brother by text when he’s in Singapore is priceless, or to catch up with friends when I’m on 5 hour train journeys home blissful. Yes, I am a slave to my mobile, and soon every other person in the world will be.