Surviving without a cell phone

September 25, 2017  Klaus Doring, Opinion

Mr. Klaus Doring

I REMEMBER the time, when one of my first Japanese friends kept on complaining, why I didn’t operate a cell phone. Believe me, during that time, sometime in 2000 or 2001, I even typed my articles on an old typewriter from Germany.
My Japanese friend then bought me a computer - and a cellphone! Some other friends congratulated me: “Welcome back to the world!” 
Last Sunday, I really got mad. Attending mass, I observed a family (father, mother, boy and girl) keeping on using their cell phones during almost the whole ongoing mass. Heaven forbid! Even, while falling in line receiving the holy communion, the father kept on texting and browsing in Facebook. Step by step. Just in front of me! Heaven forbid! Guys, why are you still attending mass? Later on, the children kept on playing video games....
Sometimes, I observed (business-)people operating with two or even more cell phones at the same time. Even while taking lunch in a restaurant. I asked them: “How did you survive doing business before without these units?” Believe me or not. The answers have been mostly: I really don’t know!
Doing business nowadays without a cell phone? Even in  very private life? Many people can’t imagine it anymore. I can! Though Philippines’ cell phone companies really provide us with the widest distribution and the broadest coverage to very affordable charges. I really enjoy, for example, the “unlimited call” experience - just to mention one. But, not at any time!
Two handsets or even three. Ok lang, as long it keeps my business running. Again, I am not available 24/7! I am sorry, I am not!
But then it happened! I thought I had lost my cell phone. I got panic, losing all my important connections. This “thing” really got a special meaning for me. And here we are: not only for business. Just even for a short 
“Hi - kumusta ka?” I really felt lonely!
A couple of hours later, I found IT. Misplaced somewhere in the bathroom under a towel in silent mode. Four miscalls (yippee!), several text messages. Not only “Hi - kumusta ka?” A special evening meeting had to be confirmed... .I only got one big problem. I need a translator, if the words of text messages indeed go weird.
Allow me to quote Philippine Star columnist Igan D’Bayan, who wrote a couple of years ago: “We don’t speak like Hamlet any more. Most of us speak Taglish and write in Filipinzed English. And while holding a mobile phone, we type ‘2b or not 2b’. And that’s supposition!”
Btw (‘by the way’), during night time, I turn off my cell phone. How about you? And, I really get mad, if my students keep on using their “machine” during class....