Mobile Phones Rock!

My dressmaker is one person I can’t help but call every so often. When I do call, I hold my phone a few inches away from my ears as I am treated to her ring song (tone). Goes like this;

 “Small girl you don’t know de tin, I am teaching you de tin, you are playing with de tin...”

The line of the song would usually repeat itself twice before my lady picks up- a small price to pay if my dress comes out right. She insists she did not set the song as her ring tone but I so doubt that! I think she loves that ridiculous song!

The part where I have to be oppressed by her favoured song is what I don’t get. Thought the thing would be to record the song on her music device and play it repeatedly to her soul’s delight all day long.

I suffered similarly at the hands of a project partner when I walked into the office of a manager of a company with him to follow up on a request to undertake an exercise. It had taken quite some doing to get this interview and I was keen to present our best first impression. My partner’s phone rang just when we got settled in our seats in the official’s office and he had a “quick” chat, thankfully. I started our introduction again, smiling sheepishly. Just when I felt the official warming to our mission, my partner’s phone rings again. I wince in embarrassment and hope my partner will pick the call quickly and switch the phone off. That was not to be, like my dressmaker, he is not even in a hurry to pick the call until I turn and glare at him.  His ring tone is; “mobro o o hu fo agya ee...”   

Mobile phones do rock, but the days of “me gyina abonten na me kasa” are long gone. The expression; literally translated, “I am outdoors and speaking” was popularized in an ad in which a braggart called a friend on his mobile phone and excitedly announced his mobile phone status with the expression. It was quite a creative way of introducing the mobile phone to my country people and enticing us to acquire the device in the early days. We got the message.

Mobile phones arrived with all the trappings and possibilities. They also came with loads of challenges, one of which is their capacity and power to intrude and assault an individual’s space. A typical example is mobile phone service providers who relentlessly clog our phones with ads and “promotions” without so much as an invitation and with absolute abandonAs it were, this technological capability assumes and imposes on us the task of sifting through and rejecting the “trash” that comes with the benefits.

Regrettably though, we are not always in a position to reject or pick and choose our options; which leads me to think new technologies, along with the manuals for manipulating the devices, should have arrived with additional protocols to manage the implications for how we relate. Now that’s asking too much from technological innovators and off course I am kidding.   

What I really wish for is an appreciation of the collective responsibilities (inherent in my view) in the “power” that mobile phones bestow us.

Here are some mobile phone experiences that support the call for a manual of sorts;

o   The very fact that “ye gyina abonten na ye kasa” (communication not constrained by location) means that one can tell a lie with reckless abandon and get away with it, if one is so inclined. Arguably the most remarkable consequence of the mobile phone on our lives.

So I am speaking to a colleague, friend, somebody of no special appeal and this person unashamedly tells another on the other end of his/her phone that he/ she is doing anything other than what he/ she is engaged in at that time, which ordinarily would be speaking to me. Clearly it’s not enough that a straight faced lie must be delivered; it must be delivered with me as witness.

Well guess what, you may be leading a shady life, your life may be rotten, your partner may be a terror, you’ve stolen someone’s money, EOCO (the thief catcher) is after you ...  but could we not share those details of your life? Who do you think I am anyway? Your partner in crime? C’mon!

o   The world is a “global village”. So they say but there’s such a thing as time zones. However the call that comes through at 2am (my time) with the sole objective of “I just called to say hi” does not seem to appreciate the difference between a yawn and a chirpy hello.  The unchangeable truth though is, I am no bat, never will be.

o   No doubt mobile phones can be great company and fun too. We know that before we decide to go out, spend time with someone or some people. So why do we end up talking on our phones or fiddling with them half of the time, when we have human company? Tongue-tied perhaps? 

o   The gardener is still at work when I am leaving home so I call to him to give him his day’s earnings. As he walks towards me, his phone rings. The gardener gestures a “wait” to me and carries on ... and carries on. Well, I drive off leaving him staring at the dust! He later comes to “explain” that he was attending a “foreign” call.

My friend on the other hand, does the good deed of offering a woman a lift. As soon as the woman is comfortably settled in the car she starts a conversation on her mobile phone –yapity, yapity, yapity. 
My friend stops the car after a few minutes of this verbal assault and asks the woman to kindly step out and get on with her conversation.

So what should one do when in a conversation with someone on a date, in a meeting, while visiting ... and a call comes through? Excuse yourself and take the call if it’s important? Take the call but let the person know you’ll return the call later? Take the call and carry on for as long as it takes? Take the call and make the necessary apologetic noises later?... Don’t ask me! Take a wild guess. 

o   The phone is ringing and it’s within reach. Actually he has it in his hands and is staring at it but he lets it ring until it’s almost out of breadth before answering with a slow drawl.  I am clueless because he is sitting across from me and we are in the middle of a discussion – official I must add.   If only the phone was not that loud and if only it wasn’t that song and if only he said something... perhaps I would understand?

o   When my phone rings, I take it someone wants to reach me. I also presume that the call has been possible because my phone number has been available to the caller. That’s why chances are that when my phone rings and the caller’s identity or number is purposely hidden I am likely to ignore the call. It’s a booby trap and I smell it!

A few times some courageous person has had the nerve to ask why “their” call went unanswered. Say what? 

o   When a mobile phone rings during a meeting, I am always taken by surprise. I can’t shake the reaction. I mean, a meeting is scheduled, this person walks into the meeting with mobile phone active, the phone rings and this person takes a minute to get to it (it’s in the pocket, under some papers, in a bag ...), then this person proceeds not only to receive the call but to have the conversation while still sitting in the meeting.  

o   I notice that people generally don’t want to disturb others so they keep their phone earpieces in place ... all the time, even in meetings. Works well in a climate where people generally like to repeat themselves more than once.

.... and it goes on and on and on. Dare I say then that the common themes are Respect, sensitivity, and just plain courtesy?

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