I read this today and it made me think of what I watched on TV the other day.
Cell phones make the modern world go round
By: Elyssa Jechow
October 25, 2007
Section: Aggielife
How in the world did we ever exist without cell phones? What did we do when we weren’t incessantly connected to each other?
I remember well the days before the cell phone. We went about our business, did our jobs, went to class, did homework, went to the State Fair on the weekend, and we lived life.
Even if all of these things are true, I cannot imagine the world being a better place without cell phones. What if I didn’t have a phone and my car broke down on the side of the road? Would I have to walk until I found a place with a phone? I wouldn’t have all of my friends’ phone numbers accessible at the touch of a button. Heck, I wouldn’t even know what to wear on any given day because I always check the weather on my phone.
Cell phones, are useful in emergencies, or whenever communication is required when a land-line isn’t available. As for phone numbers, there’s this other handy invention called an address book or Rolodex that is a great place to store numbers. If the weather is delivered via phone what is the need for a news paper section dedicated to weather; ironic a newspaper columnist touting the virtues of cell phones – the technology that is killing her media, killing her job.
And now for something not completely different. The other day Commando was on the DISH and it made me think of cell phones again.
One of the premises of the movie is that the bad guys call their boss if something goes wrong. So when a bad guy, Sully (David Patrick Kelly), sees the good guy, Matrix (Schwarzenegger) in a mall – the quintessential location of 1985 – he runs to a pay phone to call the boss, Arius (Dan Hedaya). Of course Matrix cannot allow him to complete the call because if Arius receives a call he will kill Matrix’s daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano) – she was 12 during filming in 1985. So a chase ensues, Matrix successfully kills the phone booth so Sully can’t complete the call. Matrix eventually catches up to Sully on a lonely L.A. hills road and kills him. Sully wont be calling the boss.
During this chase scene and pretty much the whole movie I was thinking, “This movie couldn’t happen today. Sully would whip out his cell phone and Jenny would die – end of story.”