Do people even use smartphones for their intended purposes, or are these things just toys that we play with to call other people at rare times? We text another person, whether it’s a friend, a relative, or a family friend, rather than call them and listen to their voices. I, who is guilty of the same epidemic, prefer to text people. This newest form of communication I prefer over having to call someone and hear them babble for minutes, potentially even hours, or worse, to hear myself babble. I remember the days before cell phones and never thought we would reach this point. Those were times when I would have to be home for a friend or a parent to get a hold of me.

Otherwise, I would need to use a payphone, which was always a bummer. They were dirty, sometimes with gum on the receiver and always with graffiti etched on the phones themselves and on the windows at a phone booth. You used to have to wait for someone else before you got to use it. Payphones ain’t around no more. When was the last time I saw one on the sidewalk? Way over ten years ago? There was something romantic about payphones. A lover in a thunderstorm missed his lover so much that he would call her with one, soaking wet, and plead to have her back.

“Please, I have nowhere to stay tonight.”

You don’t feel that same type of romance with a smartphone. Aside from it being broken, it’s too convenient. If you’re in a quarrel with your mate, all you have to do is pick up that thing that has mesmerized you for several hours in a day, and not even dial the number that you’ve remembered for so long. All you have to do is press the name of the person you’ve saved in your list of contacts. How is that passionate? The smartphone holds no passion. You would’ve known the phone number by heart if you cared enough about the person. I can barely remember my mom’s number without looking it up on my smartphone, which if I lost it, say if I dropped it in the sewer, which I’ve almost done on several occasions, there would be no payphone nearby to save me. I would be screwed, without even knowing what numbers to call let alone having a quarter.

The smartphone is a computer we can fit in our pockets. You can argue that a phone call is a last resort when using one. It holds almost infinite possibilities.

A typical text I send would be, “Are you there?”

Their reply would be, “Yup.”

That would be the end of the conversation. It saves so much time and energy over a windy phone call.

I still say bring back payphones because we might need them in the case of a disaster, such as a dying smartphone, which is one of our worst worries. We fall into panic mode when it happens and look for the nearest smartphone store to rescue us. When we get there, there’s a line that nearly goes outside the door, and we have to set an appointment for a few days later. Who can wait that long? Those are agonizing days.

I remember I spent a whole afternoon at an Apple store. The geek at the mall set my appointment using his iPad for about 1:30 p.m., but I never got to see him until about two hours later, so I had to hang out and wait in there until he was available. Something was wrong with the hardware. They had to replace it with a new smartphone, and it took another two hours for it to load all of my apps. It was a nightmare of a day. I wish a disaster such as that only on my worst enemies.

Technology blows my mind. We live in the age of gadgets. A male fantasy to become James Bond has surfaced a little because of it. The smartphone is a piece of gadgetry, and so are all the small components in a car these days.

You can now hook your smartphone up to the car and have them communicate with each other. Again, where’s the romance? There’s nothing romantic about a Tesla compared to a classic Mustang. Yes, the Tesla has a digital dashboard and the ability for Apple Carplay, but externally it looks like an egg on wheels, and internally it comforts you at the sake of visual aesthetics. Who can argue against the leather interior of a classic automobile or even the steering wheel compared to today’s cars? I’m falling off course, or am I? You can argue that today’s vehicle is just a larger smartphone. I connect my phone to the car and call someone just by pressing a button on the steering wheel. Who needs a drive-in theater when I can just watch a movie on the dashboard with my lover when the phone is integrated? Things just ain’t the same.