Received a blunt reminder about why I hate cell phones so much, or - at least - the culture that they foster today. I’ve always said that the worst things about cell phones is that people will no longer plan things in advance. For a while, I hadn’t been seeing a lot of that going on (perhaps because I am only participating in UW events planned ages in advance). But today, I received a rude awakening.

Literally.

I woke up this morning (or rather, was still awake from last night) because I was working on my Complex Analysis assignment, due Friday at noon. 8:30 - 9:00 rolls around, and I start feeling a little hungry. Wondering if I should go downstairs and eat some eggs or cereal, now that my mouth is freed up from surgery related stuff.

Since my computer is on from watching Conan O’Brien last night, I give the mouse a little tap to see what’s new in the world quickly before I head downstairs.

GMail - slow to update because I was disconnected from wireless - chugs along while I check my Twitter updates (thanks Binks for posting a few this morning that made the timing work out). After I’m done reading Twitter-related stuff, I notice an e-mail from “Michael Jackson” in my inbox. I almost dismissed it as Spam, except I read the first bit of the subject line, which said: “The Car: If you get this in time, dad and i…”.

Now, I begin to wonder if this is from my brother. Check the e-mail address. Yep. Sent at 7:30 AM. Better check it out.

The message reads as follows:

[quote]if you get this in time, dad and i are coming to get the car this morning. hopefully you havent already taken it with you to class. if so, thats not a big deal, i’ll be at the tim hortons on ***** st (carolyns work) i have my cell.###-###-#### [/quote]

I read that and think to myself, “Oh crap. My brother has come to Waterloo to get the car. I guess my mother didn’t tell him that Katie and I were coming to Stratford this weekend, both to visit and return the car. I’d better tell him.”

So I send him an e-mail. But then I realize, if my Dad is driving him, he’ll have his Blackberry, I should send him an e-mail and then call to be sure. Fire my dad off an e-mail so he can check it en route, then head downstairs to the phone.

And wouldn’t you know it. The car is already gone.

So, if I hadn’t been reading Binks’ Twitter updates, I would have gone downstairs before reading the e-mail, noticed my car was missing, and phoned the fucking police to report it stolen. Then, I would have had an emotional break down, phoned my mother (out of fear of telling my father that the car was stolen), and my day would have exploded in sadness and terror.

So, yeah. This is what I hate about the culture that cell phones has propogated. This idea of immediacy in communication, and that as soon as something is “out there”, everyone is in the loop. It just isn’t the case. The proper thing to do before taking something like a car would have been to notify me in advance (by, say, 24 hours notice so I could have the car in the right spot and get my shit out of the car). And not through e-mail. Through a good old fashioned phone call.

I’m so furious right now, and tired, and my assignment still isn’t done because I was freaking out/fuming over this for about 45 minutes. Now I have to bike to campus, finish my assignment, and hand it in.

GAH! Stupid cell phone culture! Planning in advance isn’t that hard. There was a plan and it got disregarded.