7 March 2025

Because I have a mobile phone it doesn’t mean I want to talk to you

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Mobile phone courtesy Maxim Ilyahov, Unsplash
Gotta take this – courtesy Maxim Ilyahov, Unsplash

Since when did it become compulsory to have a mobile phone?

Why is it almost universally assumed that I am the owner of such an annoying and unwanted device?

Without warning or reason it has become almost mandatory that I not only possess this accursed accessory but that I carry it with me at all times.

It doesn’t matter that I rarely hear it ring, or even notice the irritating throbbing it uses as an alternative alert.

Or that on those very rare occasions when I am aware (or more usually made aware) of such activity I seem incapable of achieving the desired connection. I have yet to discover how to receive and answer calls before the caller rings off.

Technical ineptitude and/or diminished hearing are my excuses; explanations for which the outside world makes no allowances.

The world at large not only assumes that ownership is ubiquitous but as good as forces possession (and the cost) upon us.

To be (a mobile owner) or not to be is no longer a choice. The question is never put; the courtesy is never extended.

All aspects of our lives are now controlled by a device which, in my younger days, was beyond imagination as a personal possession.

Not all that long ago, a telephone was predominantly the tool of commerce, business, bureaucracies, trade and transportation; its presence mostly confined within the premises where such activities took place.

We of the common herd were directed to public booths scattered along the streets or coralled in clusters wherever we gathered en masse – railway stations, shopping malls, hotel lobbies and convention halls.

Feeding this hungry beast’s black box with coins was the only way to make a connection. And only for a strictly limited time – until your cash ran out out and an operator cut in and demanded more coins, or else..

No time for idle chatter, for making complex arrangements, or for conveying detailed updates on family happenings and health. Brevity was the soul of communication.

But that was then. And we managed – admirably.

Now we are badgered, hassled, demanded even, into personal ownership of a device that must be carried – or at least pocketed somewhere on our person – for every waking moment of every single day; no excuses are accepted. no refusals allowed.

And it is getting worse. Today I tried to complete a fairly basic form requiring details such as name, address (residential and email), date of birth (why?) and phone number in order to receive product information and possibly spend money to acquire said product.

But when I  typed in my landline number – my preferred point of contact with its attached answering machine – the space remained blank. A message popped up claiming an error had been made; the phone number was “incorrect” it alleged.

Such arrogance! Such dogmatic treatment of a potential customer!

Do you want my money or not?

Yesterday, when I went through the process required to actually buy something, a similar problem arose, compounded by the US supplier not only refusing to accept my UK postcode but also my phone number. Neither existed as far as they were conceerned.

And an email to their sales department remains unanswered.

If  you don’t want our business why pester us with incessant pop-ups seeking our custom?

No amount of pleading or explaining (hearing issues being top of the list) gets them to relent.

Mobile or nothing is the intractable response.  And yet they refuse to provide any sort of contact number themselves.

The upside of all this is that money remains unspent, the bank balance stays healthier than if businesses accepted a landline number.  And bothersome cold calling goes unheard and unanswered.

Added to which there is no mobile glued to my hand and my eyes are not permantly cast downward ready to read the next text.

No wonder police are forever pleading for witnesses. They are hamoered by a citizenry that  sees the world only through the screen of a mobil phone. 

At least I am alert to potential collisions with the masses who selfishly (and recklessly) believe nothing and no one should bar their way.  

Ahoy there! Fore! Watch out! Mobile user ahead. 









 

 

 

 

 

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