relationships and mobile media.

I am an avid text messager. I use my phone to send and take images, track my time, and give little reminders to those I care about. I don't have a smart phone, or one with any remotely impressive PDA capabilities, I use a somewhat outdated Sony Ericsson model that fulfills my needs of very long battery life and good reception better than I have come to expect from portable telephony. I had a cell phone for almost 2 years before I used any of these things, despite them being available to me. And, I think, the deciding factor for me to begin using the cell phone as more than just a last minute communications tool (as in, 'change of plans, to another coffee house') was entering into a serious relationship.

I went, in the space of a few months, from being completely against the concept of text messaging, to being the kind of person who sends a few a day. My original stance on the issue was something to the tune of 'why would I pay ten cents to send a five word email I typed with my thumbs?' This is still, when I think about it, a reasonable position. I think, more than the introduction of a girlfriend into my life, this was a matter of my relationship with the telephone in general changing greatly due to the introduction of said girlfriend.

Let me explain; to the average single male, a telephone call need not last more than 45 seconds, unless one is talking to a family member. At that point in my life, most of the phone calls I made were about who was picking up whom, where we were going, what movie we were seeing, etc. Now that I had a significant other, I was actually having conversations on the phone. About how my day was, how hers was, making plans for the next few times we would see each other, and yes, sometimes just sitting and enjoying a mutual silence for exorbitant fees. This is, I would assume, a very common occurrence in young men, that entering a relationship is the point at which one makes phone calls for more than the sake of organisation.

The difference is, the telephone is no longer just used for voice conversation. So instead of changing the way I used a single technology, entering a relationship recontextualised SMS messages, sending digital stills, and other pocket technology minutiae, such as the use of a picture of my significant other for my phone background.

I changed my phone number today, and sent a message to some of my friends with the details. And I realised that I never would have done that, if my relationship to that technology hadn't expanded with my relationship to the phone, which in turn expanded due to my relationship with a certain girl.

And that, is my mostly sappy post for the day.