I remember when I was in high school, all I wanted was a cell phone. This was around the time when cell phones were becoming affordable but they had in no way penetrated the market in a substantial way. But the idea of being able to get in touch with anyone at any time, there was nothing I wanted more. Finally, when I was a senior, my mom put me on her cell phone plan and my dream had come true: mobile communication. Her reason for getting it for me was that I was driving and that if I ever had an emergency with my car I would need to get in touch immediately. But my idea for the mobile phone was completely different. It wasn't long before my high school boyfriend and I had used our cell phones to keep in touch on an hourly basis, be it through phone calls or text messages.
This anecdote is one that rings true for many people in my generation. And it really has changed the way we connect with our peers, be it friendship or romance. I can personally say I couldn't even imagine my life without my cell phone, although writing this post makes me think about how my romantic life would be different without one. I am currently single, and perhaps that is when single females feel most appreciative of their cell phones. In addition to staying in touch with romantic prospects, more importantly I am constantly in touch with my other "single mobile females (SMF)" which keeps my social life on its toes and makes me feel like I don't "need" a man to be content since I have my ladies to make me smile and send me sweet nothings on a daily basis. According to the Marketing Charts, the Cell Phone is the Single Females' New Best Friend. “The cell phone is an integral part of the SMF’s life, serving as a pocket-size detective, matchmaker, wing-woman and beyond. It is now officially a girl’s best friend,” said Randy Smith, VP of channel marketing for Samsung. (You can check out this and other cell phone related studies at the following link: http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/cell-phone-is-single-females-new-best-friend-877/)
When it comes to romance, the advent of the mobile phone has brought courting and the sustainability of relationships to a whole new level. As I eluded to in a previous blog post, mobile communication has brought the element of immediacy. Boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses of all kinds now have instant connection to their lover at any time of the day. But does this make a relationship stronger? Or has it made us more dependent on another person in our daily life? Maybe it has made people feel more connected to their sweetheart emotionally because they know what their significant other is doing throughout the day. In this way, it has also added to the notion of the long distance relationship, because even though two lovers may be hundreds of miles away, they can feel like they sharing their lives together in a different way through text messages, phone calls, videos and pictures shared instantly.
Whether cell phones make relationships more or less successful is still out to the jury. But at the very least, it allows two people to stay in touch in a way that was never possible before. And as a hopeless romantic and a "SMF" I can only hope this will ring true for myself one day.
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