Prepayphones.smartphones.iphones.droids. oh my

I recently joined the 21st century and upgraded my phone and my plan to something a little more high tech and a little more reception abundant.

So i went from something like this...a kyocera cell phone from virgin mobile...this picture does not do it justice...the animations were not as visible nor as smooth. The only thing my phone could do was text and make phone calls, and that was only if I was NOT IN A DEAD ZONE...which was rare. I would drop calls left and right and there was a time when I could not or receive texts because of an error with virgin that lasted for a full 27 hours. The most advanced thing my phone posessed was that it had only three colors to mess around with. I paid 40 dollars a month for 1200 minutes and unlimited texting. The best adjective to describe the phone/plan was SIMPLE.


After months of complaints from me and from my friends- to get a REAL phone I have conceded. My boyfriend was very impressed to see that I have grown into a big girl phone. I have upgraded to a "real" plan and to an "real" android phone and the phone scares me. I don't like admitting that an inatimate object intimidates the poop out of me, but it does. Yes on the up side this mini computer can do so much: it synced up all my emails, social networking sites, and contacts with just a little swype of the finger. It has megapixels, a keyboard, applications an freaking HD camcorder....I spent the last three days just picking out a wallpaper for the phone. And yes Orwell did mess me up, by implementing the concept of "big brother" but I guess I was on the radar the minute I got an email address. or social security number, whatever.



In the end, yes I got a new phone and service mostly to subdue my friends' complaints and my own. But I miss the simple life.

My New Pet Peeve

Teaching ESL has taught me a couple of things. One major rule to understand and to make your students understand is that the English language is always changing. It is always evolving, it is a great example of how popular culture and how people continuously repeat an action to then consider it to be normal. Well one such instance would be the word- AIN'T. It is not a real word, it is not a conjugation of anything, but due to popular demand and usage it has now become a regular in the English vernacular as well as in webster's dictionary. I have accepted the fact that sometimes we as a culture should embrace change. The one thing I CANNOT ACCEPT are people using chat acronyms in their verbal conversations!

OH HELL NO!!!!!

I am totally for using short hand messages while on chat or text, but to then verbalize it while talking to someone is an offense that is punishable by a punch in the face. I have a friend, who used to get charged per text. So when she would send a text, she would try to fit everything on one page. One of her text went a little like this:

Hi at the lbry thn 2 th cffee shp, wrtng ppr fr clss n wll c cldia 4 dnnr wnt 2 cum 2 dnnr mtng at vggi bar. by.


translation: HI AT THE LIBRARY THEN GOING TO THE COFFEE SHOP, WRITING A PAPER FOR CLASS AND WILL SEE CLAUDIA FOR DINNER WANT TO COME TO DINNER WE ARE MEETING AT THE VEGGIE BAR. B YE

I find it comical that people who say, L-O-L actually might think its shorter to say then LAUGH OUT LOUD....its the same number of syllables! But then to shorten it so saying LOLS, makes me want to put acid in my eardrums.

There are also those who use the term OMG. Whenever I hear a teenager scream these letters, my body naturally shudders and I give the speaker the look of death. I get even more irritated when people slowly pronounce each letter for dramatic effect...ITS THE SAME AS OH MY GOSH- JUST FREAKING SAY OH MY GOSH/God! What the hell is wrong with you?!?!?!?!

As the younger generation pulls up in the ranks, I am petrified that they will develop a language that lacks vowels and syllables, I pity the immigrants of 2020...they are screwed. They have to learn how to spell and then learn how to drop letters in order to understand and communicate with people of America.