skullaria wrote:
I'm always afraid that I might become a social suspect one day simply for NOT carrying my cell phone with me.
Very interesting! Not too long ago possession of a cellphone, at least by people in certain socioeconomic classes, was likely to arouse suspicion. I recall when I was young it was literally illegal to possess a cellphone or pager if you were under 18, as only drug dealers would need to do so (according to the authorities). I resented this as a technically inclined person who wanted to early adopt such toys. It seemed like more irrational, mindlessly overboard assertions of authority by adults. I legally possessed a radio that enabled me to (illegally) listen in to people's cell phone calls but I could not possess the phones that made those calls. Clearly only criminals communicate with each other! Now it is becoming a social expectation that you carry a phone. All those old laws have met with resistance and have been repealed. Pay phones are being pulled off the street because no one needs them anymore. In the future perhaps it will be more so... only extremely poor, marginal people would fail to carry a cellphone. Most payment for goods might occur with the phone. Numerous public services might be operated under the assumption that users carried web browsers with them. Public transport maps and schedules, for example, might only be made available electronically. Restaurants might expect you to access electronic menus or request a reservation via SMS before you arrived. Communities seeking beautification might pass sign ordinances reducing outdoor advertisement in favor of location based messaging that would make it difficult to even identify businesses without an electronic device. A middle class person without a phone would be viewed as garishly eccentric in a way that arouses suspicion. As people become more familiar with the idea that cellphones are used by the authorities to monitor them, failing to carry one might be taken not merely as extreme luddism, but as a sign that you have something to hide... Like a stranger who doesn't have a credit card or a driver's license; there was a time when most people carried neither. | 
