Object of our obsession, distraction, loathing

In a recent edition of Slate, there’s a wonderful slide show history of phone styles from the earliest of the late 19th century to the iSlab. Like many, I have a love/hate relationship with the phone. I love it when it rings on Mother’s Day and I hear my son’s voice on the line. I hate it every evening when the telemarketers ply their trade. And, in general, I don’t like lengthy phone conversations–I’d rather email or text (oops, that’s a phone function, isn’t it).

Don’t know how to text or use other smartphone functions? Don’t feel like an outlier. Here’s a little video introducing users to the brand new style known as “the dial phone”:

Obviously, the phone is everywhere in our daily lives–and newsworthy occasionally, like the episode on the Northway a few winters ago when a car went off the road and, because there was no cell service, one of the injured occupants died before help arrived.

Like a cigarette dangling from Humphrey Bogart’s lips, phones are a part of our film culture, too. Here’s a wonderful compilation of “phone” clips from movies put together by the artist Christian Marclay.

Okay, the line is open. Love ’em or hate ’em?

Tags: phones