[75 years ago this week, operator-assisted toll dialing was introduced to make long-distance phone calls much easier. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied some classic phone calls in American culture, leading up to this special tribute to what phones mean in my own 21st century life!]
As a son
who has lived more than 550 miles away from his parents for more than half of
his life, and as a Dad who has been apart from his sons about half the time for
the last twelve years or so, I’ve long relied on the telephone to help me stay
connected to the people I love most. But in the last few months, I’ve
significantly amplified that need: getting married to the love of my life who
happens to live thousands of miles away at the moment; and moving my older son
into college in a city more than a thousand miles away. Quite simply, if it
weren’t for FaceTime and video calls, for voicenotes and texted memes, for all
the ways big and small that I can reach out to these favorite people and they
can reach out to me and we can stay connected despite the thousands of miles in
between, I would be infinitely unhappier and less whole and less me. I’m well
aware of the challenges and problems that SmartPhones present, but there’s
literally nothing in our 21st century world for which I’m more grateful.
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What
do you think?
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