Dropping the Phone, but Learning From the Experience

THE FIRST TIME I dropped my cell phone in my coffee, not only did I waste a perfectly good cup of delicious hot coffee, I actually had the naivete to cling to the possibility that the phone was undamaged by the soaking; perhaps, in our world of high tech wonders, these things are coffee proof. Wrong. I walked into the Verizon office, looking like a shool child who has lost his homework, and is afraid to inform the teacher, thinking he won't be believed. The young lady said to me, reassuringly "do you have any idea how many people come in here after doing the same thing?" I had to admit that, no, I really didn't. She assured me it happend all the time, and the liquid into which phones are dropped, said she, is most often toilet water, not coffee. I didn't allow myself to inquire whether, in most cases, the toilet water is clean, even though I assumed she would probably know. I can hope that it is. I felt a small sense of reprieve, but still confused, ashamed, and frightened. Frightened of being cut off from teh entire world. Not to worry, said teh young lady, we can fix you up with another phone. For a few moments I harbored the illusion that I might get a replacement, an identical phone to the one I had drowned, for free. (how can anyone possibly be so naive?). No, that aint the way it works, said my new lady friend, who suddenly started to seem like someone who holds power, big time corporate power, over me. So I had to buy a replacement phone, and no, the model I had been using was no longer available, having been rendered obsolete by the passage of time. New phone, new instruction booklet longer than "War and Peace", new confusions, fears, and frustrations. The thought of someone dropping a phone in the toilet frankly amused me. What idiot would be on the phone while going to the bathroom? Maybe the same fool who holds his phone over a steaming cup of coffee, then drops it. But at least mine didn't go in the toilet. Now I have a huge phone, one which will neither fit in a cup of coffee nor a toilet. Its far less expensive too, with unlimited time and distance. Portable, but barely. I love it. Also I love desk top computers. they are cheaper, more powerful for the dollar, and large enough to never end up lost, stolen, or toileted. Are we, as a society, really sure that we rally want all this compact technology? haven't we by now figured out that the smaller the device, the more vulnerable to toiletry? At least I didn't drop mine in the toilet.