Some thoughts about mobile phones. How do we manage without them?

 Yesterday Granddaughter Number Two’s mobile phone more or less died on her. She’s known for a while it was ailing and due for an upgrade but yesterday the decline accelerated: the battery kept running out, certain apps stopped working and all in all it really wasn’t a well phone. Fortunately we had planned to go to the phone shop to renegotiate her contract, trade in the old model and get a newer one. For various reasons the contract on her phone is in my name - something to do with her not having an accessible bank account when she got the now ailing phone - so I needed to accompany her.

We found a very helpful young man who offered a suitable deal and seemed to know what he had to do to transfer all her data from the old phone to the new one. As it was going to take a while, Granddaughter Number Two and I went off to look in shops and have a coffee. When we went back the young man discovered that the new phone was not cooperating. He consulted with a colleague. It transpired that that particular model had caused similar problems for other customers. Maybe it’s because this was the iPhone 13, a well-documented unlucky number. So we negotiated going up a number, paid out a bit more money and all seemed to go well. But that’s several hours of our life we won’t get back.  

I was mildly amused to see the near panic when Granddaughter Number Two was separated from her phone. Not really panic, just a sort of reaching for it to do something and being miffed to find it not there. 

I must confess to feeling slightly underdressed if I go out and forget to take my phone with me. We have all come to rely on being connected with the wider world on a permanent basis.  So how must it have felt to be in Gaza under bombardment, without electricity, without internet and without a method of quickly communicating with family to check they were still alive? Even more important, unable to call for an ambulance and direct the medical staff to the injured!

The world has gone mad, even madder than before.,

Here’s something from the estimable Michael Rosen:

“The King's tutor said

'You must keep telling the people that it's going to be good very soon.'

'I know,' said the King, 'I've been doing that for years. Won't they notice that all the time I've been saying it's going to be good, it hasn't been good?'

'Some people notice,' said the tutor, 'but we'll call them names and people will hate them. That way, everyone will be rowing about whether people are good or bad and not about whether things are good or not.'

'Is there a name for this?' said the King.

'Yes,' said the tutor, 'it comes from grammar. We call it the 'future present'. We arrange it so that everyone lives in the future present.'”

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!