Having a couple of friends without their cells for the last week has made me really think about the changes in communications in just the last 15 years.
It used to be that if you weren't home, then you were out of touch. People would have to leave a message (if you had a machine or voicemail) and wait. And wait. And wait.
Then cell phone increased in popularity and decreased in price. People started to get them - but it was a slow intergration. Now, you could get ahold of someone at the store and tell them to buy milk.
Over a decade, the number of cell phones just kept increasing. It got to the point that people with them outnumbered those without. If you told someone that you didn't have a cell, they woukd be surprised. The number of people with landlines began to decrease for the first time.
Then SMS began to increase in useage. You could communicate with some from just about anywhere without actually using the phone function. Wonderful for short blurbs and questions. Also very nice way to stay in touch for times that you were too emotional to deal with actually speaking. It allowed you to think a bit more about what you were saying to a person.
And, of course, now phones allow you to do a lot more than stay in touch. You can go online, read a book, keep track of bank accounts and shoppong lists. In fact, I would be surprised if I actually used more than 3 percent of my time with my "phone" to talk to someone.
In 15 years, we have gone from not having cells (unless you were loaded) to using them daily for a wide range of tasks that have little to do with actually speaking to someone. If our phone is dead or missing, we feel like we are missing a limb.
I am still trying to decide whether this is a good thing or not - but I do know that I am not planning on being without my phone anytime soon.
(Oh, and yes, you can even make posts from it *grin*)