Telematics

Telematics play a huge role in my life, considering I'm a student at a school 1,100 miles away from home. I rely on devices that allow me to communicate across distances at each end. Devices like my cell phone and my computer that seemed superfluous and extravagant when I was never 15 miles from home and never in a place containing more than 10,ooo people suddenly became everyday objects absolutely necessary to maintain relationships, employment, and a sense of self accomplishment.

Email via my computer provides a way to keep in touch with people in both places, home and school. Email is undeniably essential in my life in order to obtain my ever changing employment that transitions between school and home. Email is also a requirement to maintain communication with teachers and staying connected with my parents. Email seems to be the only form of technology they are capable of operating.


Facebook, the technology that almost defines my group of peers became a daily habit, almost as pertinent as eating and having conversations. I find it absolutely necessary to maintain contact with my friends from home. I wouldn't remember birthdays or addresses without the site and every return trip home, includes conversations that trail off with "Oh yeah I saw that on Facebook." The social networking site also became a way to brag and a competition between myself and the people I graduated with but immediately thereafter deleted their contact information from my cell phone, knowing I would never speak in real time to them again.

Albeit my massive social cleansing post commencement ceremonies, my cell phone retained quite a few numbers. My cell phone is essential for me to keep in touch with my friends and family. Despite being halfway across the country, my best friends can know the detailed minutiae of my life instantly thanks to text messaging and my father can know that I still think about him often when I call him from varying locales, the bus, the grocery store, the National Mall.

The personal significance of my cell phone is extraordinary. I've often commented that my cell phone is "my life." It's my schedule, my alarm clock, and my only means of communication. My phone number is my identity. My area code represents my home (Minnesota) and the last four digits create a number and an identity that is uniquely my own. My contacts list is a fluid, ever changing record of the most important people in my life. My best friends and family have several numbers-- dating back to my first technological instrument that allowed me to communicate with the outside world-- pictures, and notes listed under their contact information. And when a life altering event occurs, my cell phone reflects that. Ex-boyfriends and estranged friends have all been ceremoniously deleted from my cell phone. Except one friend, who I vowed to never speak to again after a screaming match on a New York City corner. I couldn't bear to give up on our friendship preferring to label his phone number simply as "Do Not Answer This Call" instead of permanently deleting the digits forever. Some of these numbers have been added again or regained the natural born name after a slightly ironic reconciliation via text messages. But perhaps the most significant aspect of deleting a contact out of a cell phone is the emotion you experience when you delete a contact for literally, eternity. Several summers ago my father asked my to delete the name and number of a long time friend that had recently died because he couldn't bring himself to complete a final step in saying goodbye. Along with the increased ability to communicate via telematics comes the emotional connections that those without the technology never had to experience. Sometimes I think our ability to connect with anybody at any time leaves us dependent and infantile in our need for interaction. My grandfather, who I was very close to, died over a year ago and I still can't bring myself to remove his number from cell phone. Part of me hopes that in a time when I really need him I'll be able to look up the number and by some divine intervention the phone will ring and his voice will crackle through from some far away afterlife cell phone tower.