The other day someone stopped me to ask me for the time.  I did the funniest thing, something I apparently ALWAYS do when someone asks me what the time is but I never really think about it.  I stopped and checked my cell phone!  In the last ten years my cell phone has replaced any form of watch in my life!  How did this happen?  I’m not really sure but it is interesting… to me.

I do remember the days of wearing a watch.  I remember having various types through my childhood.  I remember having that sweaty mark underneath the plastic wrist band.  I remember having that “farmer’s tan” of sorts from having no sun exposure on my wrist.  I remember replacing those tiny batteries that were never easy to get to.  And, the most annoying part, I remember having to set the time… MANUALLY.

Image by alexkerhead via Flickr

My days of wrist watch wearing did finally come to an end.  It was probably with my first cell phone.  Man, the cell phone just makes everything easier, doesn’t it?  Time isn’t just kept, it’s held in the palm of your hand!  No nuisance of strapping something to your wrist.  No changing tiny batteries!  And no manually setting the time!  Cell phones even change with daylight savings time!  Basically, we carry them around anyway so there’s no reason to having a separate time-keeping device taking up space in your life!

This is really not all that new, cell phones have been in the hands of the everyday person for quite some time.  In fact, it dawned on me the other day how pervasive they have actually become in today’s culture.  Today, ANYONE can afford to carry some type of cell phone.  These days, even those who abhor technology, the Internet, and almost anything electronic (you know the type) break down and carry cell phones, whether or not they know how to use them!  The purpose of this post is just to give a proverbial “farewell” to the age of the watch and to give the well belated “welcome” to the age of our beloved digital pocket watch, the cell phone!

Image via Wikipedia

Am I off my rocker?  Let me know!  Do you wear a watch and are offended by my opinion?  Let me know!  I don’t care, I’ll probably just delete the comment anyway (just kidding, of course)!

Quit wasting your time with voice mail!

I was reading this article that was saying that fewer and fewer people have time for voice mail.  Interesting, huh?  Do you remember the days of answering machines?  Some people still have them, don’t they?  Well, with the move to cell phones, people have become accustomed to voice mail instead.  Now, people don’t even like voice mail?

I know that my family has elected to cut voice mail out of the picture unless absolutely necessary.  With caller ID, we know you called and we’ll return the call.  What’s the point to a voice mail saying, “Hey, this is Tim, call me back!”  If you call me and leave me a message, I will not shoot you.  You may be good to call back a bit later also, in case I don’t get the message right away.

Warning, another plug for Google Voice is coming!

Google Voice may be working to change the voice mail problem.  If someone calls my Google Voice number, and you leave a message, I will promptly get an email telling me so.  In that email, I will have a transcription of the message (not perfect yet but getting there) and a link to listen to the actual message.

There are several advantages here to typical voice mail.  For one, I get an email so I am instantly notified (a reminder in the email is nice).  On the cell, messages may be there for days before I even realize there is a message!  Yay for email!  Secondly, the transcription saves me from having to listen to the message if I am someplace where I can’t.  Thirdly, when I DO listen to the message, I can skip around to retrieve key information.  Oh, and I can do other nifty things like download the message to my hard drive and email it to someone else.  Very cool, huh?

In essence, Google Voice lets you have better control over your voice mail possibly making the whole process easier!