Me Troglodyte

Troglodyte

–noun
1. a prehistoric cave dweller
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1), © Random House, Inc. 2006

-jargon (Commodore)
1. A curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing environment.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe

I'm currently debating the value of the mobile phone. I'm waaaaay beyond the whole etiquette/ privacy thing. I'm not even questioning the validity of the mobile phone – Lord knows it's here to stay. What I'm debating is the value of the newer features.

Take the MP3 feature for instance. I love the idea of taking all the small, hand held bits of gadgetry and combining them into one gadget (that is easy to lose). I'm so down with the phone, the PDA and the MP3 player combo. What I *hate* about this fabulous MP3/phone combo is that people have figured out how to turn mobile phones into ghetto blasters. It's irritating to listen to Britney Spears – period. It's downright grating to listen to people shouting over Ms Spears while blasting it out of their phones. What on God's green earth is the point? There are so many dumb asses in the world and this new technology lets people advertise just how low their IQ really is. Charming.

On the flip side, the video camera offers one of the coolest things I've seen regarding mobile technology to date. Until recently, I wasn't jazzed about the built-in video camera. I saw the ads on TV and promptly forgot them because it had no relevance to my life. I basically use my mobile as a pager/answering machine and appointment reminder. (Hence the troglodyte bit.) The deaf, however, have had worlds opened up to them because of new technology. IMs and text messaging has been an invaluable interface between hearing and non-hearing folks. But did you know that deaf people can use the video cams on their mobiles to talk to each other? Isn't that the coolest damn thing EVER? I was witness to this phenomenon one day on the trolley. I sat behind a kid who took a phone call from a woman who was probably his mother. It looked like they were having the typical "where are you…" convo with their hands. I tried not to stare, well, since eavesdropping is impolite, but I couldn't help it. I think in the end, she told him that I was "listening" since she could see me peeking over his shoulder on his video cam. It was pretty embarrassing to get caught like that, but who'd'a thunk? (Again, I must be a troglodyte if I'm not creative enough to think of these things myself.)

So typical of technology, there are pros and cons to every new feature and development. I'm a convert to the usefulness of the video cam (if not for me) and I loathe the mobile phone as a ghetto blaster. I just ask the developers of mobile phone technology to find a way to prevent downloads of crappy pop music to the mobile before I start smashing the damn things.