Dependencies on Silicone Sally

“Hi, I’m not here right now, but please leave your name, number and a message at the tone . . .”

Voice-mail is an irksome necessity in today’s society. Everyone has a phone – most have more than one. Even teenagers have cell phones these days. When I was a kid growing up, only doctors, lawyers and the very wealthy had pagers – cell phones were the stuff of sci-fi.

Problem with our digital world, is although we all have a means to connect instantly with someone, no one is ever around to answer.

Sure, if I don’t recognize a number, I’ll most likely let the call go to voice-mail. But that’s become a necessary evil in today’s world.

With telemarketers, automated diallers and other advances in reaching out to harass, answering a call from an unknown number is like sticking your fingers into an electrical outlet. You don’t know if you’ll get a big shock, a little shock – or no shock at all.

Though, some people just never answer their phones at all. They live and die by their voice-mail. They are too busy – or want everyone else to think they are too busy – to actually pick up their phone. So, you play a never ending game of telephone tag.

Then there are emails and text messages. I never could get the hang of text messages. Keypads on cell phones are so small, it takes me forever to press-out even the shortest text message. And in many ways, it sort of defeats the whole purpose – why send someone a text message when you can just call them?

But then again, you may get their voice-mail, and be back where we started!