Charles Carpenter's Phone.

I started to write this ..as usual with nothing in mind but just a need to put pen to paper or in my case,finger to keyboard! I just got back from spending almost a week in Abuja and i was so sure i was going to rant about the difference in lifestyle when compared to Lagos and all that crap but as i lay here in front of my lappie trying to channel my thots into words.....while the notification light on my blackberry curve 8900 is blinking at the same rate as that of an ambulance,i remember what Ellen Degeneres said last night on her self titled show on the series channel. She was talking about the intrusive nature of these modern day gadgets especially the mobile phone.  So i changed my mind and decided to talk about the blessings and sometimes,curses of the BLACKBERRY and mobile phones in general.


Does anyone remember back then when we had those dial-at-a-time desk phones? those ones that were a replica of Charles Carpenter's phone in Another Life? When that phone rang,we ran to get it cos we didnt know who was calling! There was a level of mystery and intrigue with each phone call....u didnt know who was calling.....i remember my all female cousins team running for the phone in hopes of getting to it before the all male cousins/brothers team got to the phone so they scare the caller away!! Lol!! (oh my! suddenly i feel old!!its worse to think that there are some children alive now who might not know what the f**k i'm talking about!!) Now we have caller IDs....and we get to screen calls...mschew!wheres the fun?
Dont get me wrong and please dont be like my father and think i'm against development and growth...arrgghhh!! Nothing like that!! I love my blackberry no matter how beat up it looks!! Its my nerve center!! My scheduler!! My diary! My PA!......My marketing tool!! But sometimes it does get a bit much!!
I was with my Oga the other day and he'd been talking and for my mind,i dey hear wetin him dey talk but turns out i wasnt....i was just nodding and thumbing my phone away!! I have Blackberry messenger,twitter,facebook,yahoo messenger,msn messenger and googletalk applications installed on my phone.....you can imagine the madness trying to talk to to different people on different platforms at the same time and also trying to spend quality time with your partner!! Needless to say ,he snatched the phone from me and demanded 'his' time!! lol! Poor baby! I totally understand!! I'd be livid too!!


What can be done to balance maintaining our 'human-ness' and moving with the times? I for one,dont want to lose those things that made me,moulded me into what or who i am. I'd hate it if my children grew up this way with almost zero human contact!! Everything is Myspace,Facebook,Blackberry,Googletalk/Buzz,Skype......we've almost lost that which binds us as a people all in the name of building a global village!! What gargantuan good has that done us? How has that friend in America helped me find fuel during fuel scarcity in Nigeria? How has that friend i met on twitter who lives in South Africa being the shoulder  i needed to cry on when my heart was broken? How has my husband being able to get me preggers via Skype? SMH.....yeah thats from the new age web lingo too .....it means Shaking My Head!!! Its great to see how the world has developed...its also sad to see how much we have lost...allowed to slip away!! Technology/Development etc...are neccessary evils just like...MEN!!