The Cells

I truly hope that I will never need to own a cell phone. I hate them. With a passion. I don't like hearing their ringing, I don't like hearing people talk on them as they walk down the street and I hate seeing someone answer a cell phone through an earpiece, it looks like they are having a conversation with themself. Many people can own a cell phone and not get carried away with it. I applaud those people. But for those who can't, I feel a twinge of pity for.

The cell phone explosion in the United States began shortly before I left for Japan. College students started to get them and I remember thinking how ridiculous it was. Why would he/she need to be in such constant communication with everyone? I would hear them on the phone at work having some inane conversation with a friend and I remember thinking there was just something wrong with that. I didn't discover what it was until I had been in Japan for a year.

The Japanese have something of a "hive" mentality. The Japanese people, culturally, cannot exist as individuals. They need constant contact with and reassurance from other people. At high school graduations, sometimes graduates are asked to tell their assembled graduates, underclassmen and parents what they would most like out of life in five, ten, or fifteen years. Far and away, the most popular response is "I would like to have a lot of friends". The student is then madly applauded.

They spend almost no time at all by themselves. They are only by themselves when they are in transit to somewhere. And whenever I was on the train, subway, or bus, if I saw a person who was not with someone or asleep, they were talking on or typing something into their cell phone. A connection to the social and business world. A lifeline to community. Objectively, a good thing. But, in the end, the cell phone is, for most people, an object to assist in an escape from individuality. People don't have to mull their own thoughts over if they are in constant contact with another. When I came back to America two years ago, I saw disturbing parallels.

I must admit that the cell phone is a fairly useful item. I have often wished for one while waiting for a friend at a restaurant and am wondering if I'm in the right place. Or if my sister's car broke down on the road, I would want her to have one. But these useful, iimportant conversations are not what I hear when I hear people on their cell phones.

Despite the usefulness of the cell phone, I feel secure in making the generalization that most people who buy cell phones sacrifice a part of their individuality. I hear many people say that if they are bored they just punch a number on their cell and they're suddenly engrossed in a conversation with a friend. When a person is not content with themselves or cannot be left to their own devices for any significant length of time, that person loses a bit of himself to the need for socialization. A cell phone owner is not alone, not independent, like they used to be... the possession of a cell phone changes that.

I do not believe that the United States will ever adopt a "hive mind" mentality. At least, not as the Japanese have. Human beings are social creatures. This, I accept. But one thing that makes humans unique is that we have an innate desire to be our own person, to be an individual. To be a healthy individual, a person needs a certain amount of time by themselves. I don't see that happening anymore. What I do see happening 15 years from now, though, is American high school graduates wanting, more than anything, to have a lot of friends in the future.

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