The Death of Sanity: Irish Mobile Born 20 Years Ago Today

I was listening to the Irish equivalent of CBC Radio One this morning, Ryan Tubridy announced that 20 years ago (to this day) cell phones were introduced to Ireland. I never really was into the whole cell phone thing back in Calgary. I would just borrow the 'family cell phone' on the few times I was going to be out late. Once I got over to Ireland though, it seemed like everyone and their grandmother had a 'mobile' here. I don't even have a have home number for most of my friends in Ireland. I have their mobile number. It seems that 24% of the Irish population has joined the mobile craze. Mobiles are used 50% more here in Ireland then Europe on average.

Evidence of the infiltration of cell phones is all around. Ring tones, everything from your favorite movie line to the latest release from the evil Crazy Frog, have became one of the latest definitions of individuality. They can be heard everywhere. People, it seems, can't bear to be without their phones. One or two go off each time I go to mass. Even when flying, it seems that as the plane lands and the 'all-clear' is given for mobile use, half the cabin on their phones, yakking about the in-flight movie... the airplane food... I'm not so convinced that some of these individuals aren't talking to other people on the same flight. Two of the three leading cell phone companies, Meteor and Vodafone, are currently running competing advertising campaigns in Dublin Airport to try to get visitors coming into the country to select their network when turning on their cell phones once off the plane.

People have created whole businesses to cater to cell-phone users. Customizable covers & cases, decorative charm for your antennae and battery compartment, every kind of ring tone one can imagine, wall papers... You can enter competitions, get your horoscope or tarot readings, get the news, jokes... all through text messages.

The business next-door to our apartment is an internet cafe. Recently, they introduced a line of cell phones (by Meteor) available for sale. The owners have told us that the display of phones in the window have brought in almost more customers that they can keep up with. Much of their time is spent repairing phones, or changing SIM cards. Other businesses, from gas stations to candy shops to the post office, offer Top-Up services. These allow anyone using a Pay As You Go plan to add more credit to their phones on their network of choice.

Many phones are equipped with cameras (allowing for great photographic opportunities as well as the threat to privacy that is evident in some of the uses of this feature). Internet access is fast becoming a standard feature of the average mobile phone, which only introduces another element that contributes to the swell of over-information (for an example, look the the trailer that runs along the bottom of a CNN broadcast). It's hard to complain about the lack of personal interaction or the lack of respect that sometimes goes along with cell phone use. This is because the phones are so common and so integrated into our lives, the best we can hope for is a little cell phone etiquette.

This little rant is one-sided, I know... and was only bourne out of a bit of pent-up frustration on the issue. If anyone wants to discuss the matter further, you can reach me on my cell.