3. Last Call
“I force people to have coffee with me, just because I don’t trust that a friendship can be maintained without any other senses besides a computer or cell phone screen.” – John Cusack
The majority of people find it difficult if not impossible to live without their cell phones. That gadget has many uses including sending emails, searching the Internet and capturing photos. I’m disappointed that it has no attachments for trimming hedges or blending juices, not to mention the torches, which I’ll talk about later. You can’t have everything. You can watch TV programs, hear music and do so many other things that our not so distant ancestors would have marveled at and not believed possible.
The normal way of telephoning others has been improved by enabling people to see each other while conversing. Prison visits use this technology from a Virginia company, Global Tel*Link (GTL) so that those jailed can talk to family and friends in a slightly different way than the usual having to sit behind transparent walls. The hookup means some who can’t make the long trip to the joint can have contact with those in captivity. Another provider is Securus. The Prison Policy Initiative offers that 75% of counties and municipalities have used the technology to replace what had been used.
This appears to be a great use of tech, except for a few considerations. For one, it’s not free except for the first few times when there is no fee. The users have to pay for the privilege to line the pockets of GTL, Securus, jail administrators and others. The never-ending building of prisons wastes precious dollars that could be used on education, building more schools – an infinitely better option for the money. So many times innocent men and women have been released from the slammer, having been held captive for years. Others died in prison who were innocent of the charges. If there are so many jails, why aren’t the cells filled with more criminals, like politicians and CEOs? Another concern is the infringement on the rights of the jailed and their visitors.
Technology has a different way of leaving us in chains. Some years ago I set up joint investment venues for my nephew and two nieces at Opportunity for Progressive Action in the United States (OPA-US). At the end of 2014 I decided to close out the accounts and move the funds to another company. This was done without signature guarantees, using scanners and printers. Maybe it could simply have been done with a cell phone capturing a driver’s license in a photo and emailing it to the person requesting it. Sadly, the entire process wasn’t accomplished very easily, requiring a great deal of waiting and frustration.
One person can truly make a big difference as shown by Simon Jackson, whom I’ll talk about later. The adventures with OPA-US finally finished just before the first day of spring 2015. Earlier I wrote the president of the company a letter. To make a long story short, someone from the company called and apologized for the screw-ups and offered some remuneration, which I didn’t want. What I requested were changes so that no one else would have to put up with the same situation. This included saving the forest by eliminating unnecessary mailings to investors, since all this data is available on the Internet. On Monday, March 16, I received a correspondence with three checks for my nephew and nieces. I gave them the checks and they were cashed. The company also mentioned that modifications I asked for would be made.
Until a few months ago, I didn’t own a cell phone. Eons ago when I moved away from home to start a teaching job in the Garden State, I lived in three places and don’t recall having any phone. I used the public one, which seems to be a dinosaur now. At one time you could pick up a phone, dial the number of the party – seven digits or maybe ten – and it would ring. Four things could happen: someone answered; you heard a busy signal; you could hear a message on a no-answer machine; it kept ringing until you hung up. A fifth occurrence was you heard something about the call not going through. A few other possibilities came later including an outcome to which you’d reply, If my call is so important to you, why am I on hold?
Phone advances continued making the scene: answering machines, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, call conferencing, speakerphone and caller ID block. A few of these aren’t annoying. One that many hate is the cell phone itself. They have no place in church, theater or at a restaurant – two people at the same table talking to each other on cell phones should result in the arrival of the cell police and jail time in a cell. These gadgets should not be at the dinner table anywhere, especially when visiting. Let’s face it: no one is that important. Perhaps, there are a few exceptions, but not many. Obviously many people never heard of vibrate mode.
Len told me about being in a waiting room with a sign prohibiting cell phone use. While there, he didn’t hear any annoying ringing, but one person made one call followed by another. Len mentioned the sign as did the woman behind the desk, but I’m not sure of the order of the warnings. The individual left but asked Len to hold the chair where she sat. I believe that request was nixed and perhaps someone should have said a cold seat was just as good a warm one. This whole incident should never have happened, as the call should have been made outside. I applaud those who spoke up.
In February 2015, I saw a message on my no-answer machine from a guy named Mike of some company, somewhere. He mentioned hearing about my book – a few weeks before, my book on smart animals was published – and wanted me to call him. He left a 7-digit number as well as an extension number. In the message he mentioned my first publisher, but I hadn’t had a book published by them since the summer of 2003. Searching on the Internet, I couldn’t find the company he represented, so I figured I wasn’t or couldn’t return his call. I didn’t get his last name – it almost sounded like Garcia – so I tried calling a few days later. I discovered the number he left was an information service for New York, dealing with the Buffalo / Niagara Region. The phone option menu presented no opportunity to key in an extension number. What a waste of time it was for me to deal with this call.
I’m not a big fan of cell phones for numerous reasons, and I didn’t mention how to make a call. It’s in the manual, so I’ll skip that. Actually, It’s complicated but I think I figured this new phone technology out. I used one five years ago when I stayed at my cousin’s townhouse in Florida for a month. On arrival, I was supposed to call him using the cell he left on the counter since there wasn’t any other phone there. I didn’t know how to do that – so many buttons and so many possibilities. You turn on the devise by holding down a button. I know that now. Instead I used a pay phone for instructions and then could call him with the cell phone. I have made calls with my new cell phone, but all the sequences didn’t register in my mind at first. My gadget is only for emergencies, like ordering pizza.
I have a serious concern about the safety of cell phones. In 2010, Dr. Devra Davis wrote a book, Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What The Industry Has Done To Hide It, And How To Protect Your Family. Believe it or not, I think I read one book with a longer title. Davis also mentions that the base of cordless phones emit a great deal of radiation. I dumped that device of mine. Read the book or at least visit the Green America site. My web site has the link as well.
greenamerica.org/pubs/greenamerican/articles/JanFeb2011/.
Returning to my phone that isn’t a cell, I have one in the kitchen and one in my bedroom. One should be buried and the other has a feature that is annoying to most people: the speakerphone. There’s a menu on the device but nothing about turning it on or off, so I don’t know how to do that. One day I answered a call, and the speakerphone was somehow turned on, which I didn’t want. I couldn’t find the manual. Luckily the echo thing was a rare occurrence and I eventually found the speakerphone button on the machine. Now I thought I could get control, but my efforts failed and matters were worse than before: besides the chamber feeling, there was an annoying screeching. I knew the source of the call, so I returned the call. The workaround didn’t work. What would happen if both caller and receiver had the speakerphone on? Would it be the reverb effect of the 1950s? Maybe I’m onto something about time machines.
I had another experience with the corporation that provides me with a few services. Earlier I mentioned the help desk and the call waiting problem. I thought forwarding might be OK, though. I was under the impression that if I was talking on the phone and someone called, it could be forwarded to my answering machine. That can’t be done, though it could be forwarded to another phone, such as the cell phone I don’t answer. Of course I could forward the call to a random phone number. I’d just have to make sure that it’s a valid one. You can have a great deal of fun with technology if you put your mind to it.
This is one benefit of caller ID, which I use since I receive so many nuisance calls. They could be scams, from telemarketers, people asking for money or someone selling insurance. It’s nice to screen them. However, not all calls display the phone number or I just don’t recognize them. The answering machine usually handles that all right. Besides this feature there’s also caller ID block. I’m not sure about caller ID unblock or caller ID block of the unblock, but it’s probably on the way. For certain calls you might see the words, unknown caller or caller unknown.
How do we solve this huge phone problem? Devra Davis’s concern about health is not to be ignored. It has a simple solution, but it’s not easy. Either cell phone use is dangerous or it’s not – there are only two choices. If the former is true and we do nothing, health offices and hospitals will be overflowing. Making changes in this instance might help, somewhat. If the phones pose no serious issue, less reliance on them is still a good idea. We don’t know what the effects are of small usage of cell phones over an extended period of time. Another health problem has always been the disposal of tech hardware: batteries, phones, televisions and computers. That’s only a small list of concerns. Even Luddites become victims of technology in landfills filled with toxic components. This is grossly unjust.
“Last call” is the name of a song by the jazz-fusion band, Spyro Gyra. The 2011 release, A foreign affair features Keb’ Mo’ on vocals. The title applies to a suggestion that can be done for peace and to quench your thirst for a phone. Let’s hope that that title isn’t applied to cell phone addicts relative to calling friends.