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The Price of Mobility

Where will you be when your cell phone rings?

by PC Smart (April, 2004)

A woman�s cell phone rings. She answers it, has a 10-minute conversation with her assistant about a new ad campaign when he hears a strange sound in the background. "Where are you?" he asks. Does she dare tell him she is in a public restroom? How about the executive who sings a lullaby to his sleepy child while sitting in a business meeting? Laugh if you will, but I am sure something similar has happened to nearly every one of us who feels we need a phone, pager, Blackberry, or IPAC to stay connected. My moment of realization occurred after I carried on an entire phone interview while trying on clothes in a department store fitting room.

What price do we pay for the convenience of being available to our family and co-workers at all hours of the day and night? As I sit here typing on my laptop in the car line, waiting for school to let out, I wonder � where do we draw the line between being reachable and being unreasonable?

Back in the dark ages of technology, doctors and undertakers carried pagers. In other words, only the people whose jobs were matters of life and death. Today we have grandmothers and preteens toting camera phones, soccer moms with email pagers, and farmers with IPACs.

I remember when it was forward thinking to have an answering machine. But then along came new technology such as call waiting, caller ID, and more. Suddenly, you knew who was calling before you even picked up the receiver.

My first cell phone weighed five pounds and had to be carried in a bag! Today�s consumer may not even have a home LAN line phone; many people use their wireless for all their calling needs. It is cheaper and you don�t have to hang up when you need to run to the hardware store.

During the summer, I usually escape to my parents� beach house. I tote along my laptop/printer/scanner/cell phone and email pager. I suppose I feel a sort of smug satisfaction when someone calls and hears the surf in the background. Or when replying to an email between dips in the ocean. But while it is awesome to be so mobile that many people have no idea where I am, do I pay a heavy price for this freedom?

How many of you have answered your cell during your child�s soccer game? A family dinner? Or (Gasp!) while driving? Are you really spending quality time with your son if you send emails to your boss during your father/son fishing trip? Are you so important that you can�t turn off your pager during the kindergarten spring pageant? What will happen if you suddenly become incommunicado? Will the world stop turning?

Last week I insisted on bringing not only my cell phone but my BlackBerry to the amusement park. Let me tell you, you don�t know excitement until you are being looped upside down, hanging by a harness, and your phone & pager go off at the same time, vibrating your entire midsection. I defend myself only by saying my husband brought his along also � we are a wired family. We are able to keep in touch no matter where we may be or what we are doing. So when I am tied up at the office and need backup for karate pickup � it is just a phone call away. I can no longer say "wait until your father comes home and ask him if you can play video games." My kids just page him.

There is another way of looking at all this gadgetry. I am able to take my children to visit family for eight weeks every year and not skip a day of work. We can take off on the spur of the moment and I will not miss the phone call I was expecting. And I can be there when they come home from school and need some help with their homework.

Overall, I probably work more hours this way than if I had to go into an office. I am "at work" from start of business EDT to close of day PDT. Many times I will stay up until the wee hours finishing up a deadline before the weekend. Yet somehow, if someone were to ask me if I work a full time job, I might just say no. The lines between career and personal life are somehow blurred when you are a wired worker who truly enjoys your job.

Before you jump on the bandwagon and go wireless, consider your motives. By being available all the time, you lose the ability to leave it all behind when you walk out the office doors. Most people work a normal day and business shuts down at 5 o�clock until the following morning. Sure, it would be convenient to not be out of pocket during lunch, but isn�t that why you leave the building to eat? Yes, you want your wife to be able to call when there is a major crises, but expect the "bring home milk and potato chips" phone calls, too.

I cannot hide. Not in my car, not in my home, not on the beach, not in a box with a fox, etc. Once you are known to be reachable at any time, you are taken for granted. People expect an answer right away because you have the technology.

If you have the kind of job where your physical location is of no importance, then going wireless may be a viable option. Unless you have to be in the office, meeting with coworkers and clients throughout the day, you may be one of the lucky few who are actually more productive working outside the corporate walls. I am easily distracted and so working in a cubicle with people talking and passing by just drove me nuts. I can function so much better in my home office, listening to soft music and wearing comfy sweats (the other advantage of telecommuting, no dress code).

Just don�t get so caught up in being available that guilt compels you to take phone calls during dinner, answer pages while shopping for a prom dress with your daughter, or worse � when sitting in the dentist�s chair.

You are still entitled to some down time � no phones, no emails, no worries.

Note: PC Smart writes for art/craft industry consumer and trade publications, in addition to being a marketing consultant and designer. In her previous, non-creative life, she was a database systems designer for a pharmaceutical company. Her main goal in writing about technology has been the marriage of computers and traditional art/crafts. Specializing in consumer level designs, Pamela focuses on the use of graphics software, scanners, and printers to help the average crafter use their computer for more than an expensive email machine. She believes that technology should be used as a tool in creativity and not necessarily the final output. PC Smart can be reached at pcsmart@bellsouth.net. To read previous Tech Talk articles, click on the titles in the right-hand column.

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