16:06:58:17

           I traveled to Prague and Vienna for 16 days last summer. Today I volunteered for 6 hours at the non-profit Stop Child Abuse Now. I completed my economics homework tonight in 58 minutes. I spent 17 seconds staring at 16:06:58:17 on my Blackberry this morning while my jaw slowly dropped. Was I doing my morning facial exercises? No, it was my face registering my shock when I realized that I have talked on the phone for 16 days, 6 hours, 58 minutes, and 17 seconds since I bought my phone in August 2009. So, obviously I am a gabber and maybe dependent on my cell phone. I must confess that today I spoke to my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my boyfriend, and my best friend on the phone with each call lasting between ten to twenty minutes. However, let it be understood that I'm not homesick. Rather, I'm very close with my family so I’ll call frequently to check-in and catch up. I’ll also talk to my boyfriend on the phone almost daily because he goes to college in Maine and it was unusual for my best friend to call, she usually texts me.

             Why do I love to talk on the phone? It is the closest form of communication to real human contact besides video chatting. Why not Skype? It is so much easier to just dial a phone number than plan a Skype date. Many of my conversations take place as I'm walking to class or coming home from the library, which would be impossible if I was Skyping. Unfortunately, I can't “jack in” to William Gibson’s “consensual hallucination” and visit my grandparents in Florida or visit my best friend in California. So, in order to maintain my closest relationships, I call my family and friends and apparently I have spent 16:06:58:17 on the phone over the past eighteen months! After my dad told me countless times to wear a headset so that cell phone radiation doesn’t give me brain cancer, I’m glad I finally listened.

            Although Gibson’s idea of cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination” is fascinating, there is a reason we haven’t progressed technology in his predicted direction. I think that reason is because people appreciate human contact and cultural immersion. I don’t want to put on electrodes and enter a virtual world of Greece when I can actually travel there and interact with the native people and learn about their culture. After reading Neuromancer and analyzing my cell phone communication, my appreciation of face-to-face human contact has grown. Even though Gibson’s ideas of “microsofts” and electrodes may come to fruition in the near future, I hope that people remember that nothing compares to real live human contact.