How far we've come

Today I was sitting in a restaurant when a dear online friend who lives in Sweden sent me a private message on Facebook.  I texted her back and she answered almost immediately.  I know people complain about interruptions with cell phones and texting but I find it amazing.  Why?

Do you remember those days when we couldn't even dial a phone number and we had to tell the operator what number we wanted?

We would pick up the phone and the operator would say, "Number Please" and we'd tell her who we wanted to call.  We also had party lines. We'd pick up the phone to call a friend and we'd hear two people talking on our line.  Sometimes it would take an hour or more to be able to make our call. 

Then came the rotary phones. Do you remember them?  I have had bad dreams of the dials falling off, or the dial sticking.

How many times have we sat beside our phone waiting for someone to call, either for results from a medical test, or a boyfriend to call, or to hear if we were going to be hired for the job we wanted?  Business people were stuck in their offices waiting as were most of us.

Now we are free.  We have cell phones and yes sometimes it is annoying to overhear others conversations and of course the phones should be turned off in church, movies, concerts and other times. But on the whole look how cell phones have allowed people to get out and do things while they wait? If a person is nervous about a pending medical result they don't have to sit by the phone waiting, they can go shopping, visit a friend or do something to help them take their minds off the worrying.

Now we have almost instant communication with Facebook, Twitter and the like.  Sure, it can become too much but that's not what I'm writing about.  I'm focusing on the Miracle of instant communication and Freedom we have now to get our messages on the go instead of being stuck.  Another wonderful thought is that private messaging on FB is FREE.   I have no idea how much it would cost me to call my friend in Sweden or text her but I'm so glad to be able to communicate with her. 

For those of you who never had to sit by a phone and wait, you may not appreciate how miraculous all this is to me.  Yes, we need to disconnect sometimes, get into nature and all of that but we can keep our cell phones in our pockets and enjoy nature too while waiting for an important call.

Love from Jean, an older lady who loves technology