Cell phones can now drive cars, vacuum floors and take dogs for walks. Okay, maybe they can’t, but they do keep us occupied with music, movies and games. We can also read the paper, record TV shows remotely and keep track of our daily schedules and appointments all with the click of a button. Most of us feel lost without our cell phones and are starting to become way too dependent on them.

Some may think I’m exaggerating, but when you blame the loss of your job on a faulty iPhone, I think we have gone over the edge. I came across a story on the The Huffington Post this morning which featured an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs from a displaced writer/actor complaining that she lost her job as a restaurant server due to an iPhone which alarm clock feature malfunctioned, therefore making her late to work. In her letter she referred to the iPhone as an alarm clock stating that: “An alarm clock is the only way to ensure that I am up on time to go serve brunch to people much like you, your friends, and your family.”

Actually, an iPhone is not an alarm clock. It’s a phone. Albeit it is a really cool phone that can do a lot of cool things, but in essence it’s major function is to operate as a phone. Is it inconvenient when it malfunctions? Of course. Should there have been an announcement warning iPhone users about the alarm clock glitch? Absolutely! Should you blame the loss of your job on your iPhone or on Steve Jobs? No. As the writer expressed in her letter, a battery operated alarm clock costs $5. Better yet, a corded alarm clock (remember those?) can be found for under $20. These items are a fraction of the cost of an iPhone or it’s monthly bill. You should never rely on a iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone to wake you up in the morning. If you do, it’s not a crime, but you only have yourself to blame if a malfunction occurs. Alarm clocks are old school, but they are mostly reliable. Sad to say, but technology with all of it’s bells and whistles has lulled us into a coma.

Even highly paid professional athletes have seemingly fallen victim to the seductive charms of the technology teat. The Yahoo! sports blog Ball Don’t Lie also featured a timely tale today about three members of the Los Angeles Lakers who may have been affected by the same glitch as the unhappy Huffington Post contributor. To their credit, none of them have taken their complaints about the glitch to Steve Jobs, but even admitting that you didn’t wake up on time due to an iPhone malfunction  has to be pretty embarrassing. I am a technology aficionado myself, but some things you can’t leave to chance.

As adults we need to take more responsibility for our actions. Our mothers took us off the bottle or breast when they thought we were ready and we were the better for it. Now, we need to take ourselves off of the technology teat. It’s way past time for us to:

© 2011 – 2014, TamekaMullins. All rights reserved.

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