The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Out Of Touch …

So as some of you know, I had my phone nicked last week and while I knew it would annoy me – even I am shocked at how debilitated it made me feel.

I’ve realised a phone gives [at least to me] a real sense of security because I know I can reach – or be reached – by all the important people in my life plus there’s the added element of having a collection of emotionally important photos/videos/songs/contacts so close to hand.

In essence my phone had become my DNA in physical form and when it went, I was left with a feeling of emptiness.

Yes … yes … I know it’s pathetic, but maybe it’s because we live in such a spread-out, disparate World that having a one-point-of-contact-location was so good for me – and I mean that emotionally as well as physically.

Despite having more fucking hard drives than NASA, somehow I had forgotten to back up all my info so I sit here slowly tapping in names, numbers and emails – knowing I’ll end up forgetting a ton of contacts and pining for the photos, SMS’s and videos that represented a moment in time that was truly special to me for a myriad of reasons.

When we were developing the strat for SONY, we discovered many people were feeling more and more disconnected to life and the things that matter to them – ironically because the technology they use/buy under the impression of helping them stay in contact actually acts in reverse.

We have become slaves to the technology – letting us change the way we communicate, make friends, keep in contact – and maybe it’s things like having your phone disappear that help you get back some sense of perspective.

Don’t get me wrong – I absofuckinglutely love technology [as my new iPOD Touch demonstrates – thank you Mr Jobs, haha] and it is fantastic in what it can do and make better – however we’re slowly losing our ability to ask ourselves WHY we use certain products and all this could result in is a culture becoming overly obsessed with the now and tomorrow without any regard or value for sentimentality of the past or lessons from history.

I have a bunch of things to write about from the MTV Conference of last week – things this post is touching on – however you’ll have to bear with me as it’s going to take about 9 months to type in all your bloody contact information again.

No, that’s not because I am soooooooooooooo popular, it’s because the phone I had to quickly buy at the airport after mine was nicked [circa 1894] is so basic, crap and unintuitive, it takes me about 2 hours to change from CAPS to lowercase.

[NB: No Andy, I haven’t totally turned over a new leaf, I’m only sticking with this SAMSUNG piece-of-shit till the new SONY Ericsson comes out then that’ll be in my hands quicker than a donut is down your gullet!]

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