It seems safe to say that everyone has a cell phone. The only two reasons people have for not owning one are lack of funds or to make a statement. I've known a few people who don't have wireless capabilities because they want to be different or because they think cell phones are robbing us of our humanity. I myself was once of this philosophy but eventually I broke down, signed a contract and appraised my options. Did I want to spend a little more money for the flip phone? Would the flip get annoying or would it make me feel important?

My parents are fond of saying that if our generation had our phones taken away, we wouldn't know what to do. The sad thing is they're right. Cell phones are a sort of external organ. Imagine a conversation between two people: "Did you hear Tom doesn't have a spleen? How do you think he lives?" Substitute the words cell phone and the dialogue still works just fine. You mention land lines to a person our age and they'd probably think it had something to do with ships.

The idea that someone can reach you at anytime anywhere — barring bad reception and dead batteries — is amazing but a little scary at the same time. I won't claim to know the exact science of how it works but the general gist behind mobile communication is that our calls are picked up and routed by satellites out in space. You could be calling someone 50 feet away but the signal that's made it possible has gone millions of miles.

Those in the technology industry are never satisfied, so nothing's stopping me from thinking that one day our phones will be miniature thinking machines with little characters inside who exist only to serve their owners. This could be immensely helpful. Say you're running low on minutes, it could remind you to wait until after 9 p.m. It could also refuse to let you dial a certain someone you swore you wouldn't call until you either sobered up or changed your mind.

When someone calls you, you don't want to be that person whose ring makes everyone groan. It shouldn't be something inappropriate either. You wouldn't, for instance, want your phone to go off in a crowded restaurant if the ring tone was rapid machine gun fire.

All in all there are simply too many things to consider about the future of the cell phone. Like how small can they get before they stop being functional? I'm sure somewhere they're working on a phone that folds up into itself when you're not using it. If anyone knows if I'm right, give me a jingle.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 19 2005.