Big Brother

I carry a cell phone now, well actually it is not a cell phone it is a smart phone. At first long ago, or so it seems, I refused a cell phone. I carried a pager. If someone paged and I recognized their number I would call them back from a real phone - one that was grounded and had a cord! Only the people in my family and a few work related people had the number. It worked really well until there were no more pay phones. Someone would page me but there was nowhere to stop and call them! Did you ever think about how phone booths and public phones disappeared? Once there was a phone on just about every corner. When I was a girl my mother always made me carry an extra dime (Yes! A dime!) so I could call home from a phone booth if there was trouble. Then people started carrying cell phones. More and more people started carrying cell phones and the price of a phone call in a public phone began to rise very rapidly. 25 cents/ 50 Cents/ 75 cents/ $1.00. "What!" I shouted out! A dollar for a phone call? The phone companies were not able to support the public phones anymore. No use = no profit. Private companies took them over and the cost continued to climb. And then no one used them and everyone had to have a cell phone.
But it wasn't good enough. The phones were clunky and large and hard to carry around. People left them here and there, maybe had one for emergencies stowed in the car.
So the phones became lighter and smaller and easy to tote. Lots of colors, lots of style, the phone became a fashion statement... but you couldn't get anyone's phone number anymore. With all the new phone companies the central residential phone book became obsolete. Unless someone gave their number to you - or called you (which means someone gave them Your number) you were out of luck.
One day people stopped regularly having a land line. Land Line? Right. Your phone was now a cell phone and what used to be "the phone" was now a land line. Nearly obsolete when no one used it anymore except a few retro people without a cell phone. Without a cell phone? Some people just didn't want to be found at any moment of their day! (Smart people I think.)
It wasn't long before cell phones even with color were passe. I mean really yesterday's item because phones got really Smart. They could take pictures, get on the internet, pick up your email - if anyone was actually emailing anymore, and look stuff up for you faster than your brain could remember trivia.

But what I really want to talk about are Smart phone pictures. The kind the local mayor is gratified to have in order to cut down on graffiti and in order to be thousands of eyes in the city for the mayor. Everywhere people have quality cameras on their phones and with a flick of a finger or two they can take your picture and send that picture round the world, or to the city commissioner -- whether they ask you or not. Believe me. I found myself online. Kinda creepy - like being stalked.

I used to think that Big Brother was coming via cable TV. Then I thought it would be through the computer. Then I thought maybe he was watching through the lap top.
But really, Big Brother is very very Smart.
Smile! You can't do anything without being watched!

Perhaps some ways of connecting are more like an invasion than like community formation.
Maybe the cell phone towers will go down with the grid.
Maybe that won't be so bad.