Since I was a kid, I could say that my family is not always in good terms. My mom and dad often fight. They argue even of simple matters, matters that if only they could talk about in a nice and more systematic way with due respect and understanding plus acceptance of one another’s opinion and thoughts, won’t lead to misunderstandings giving way to worse problems that contribute to family’s status at stake. I got used to the system or should I say, we got used to the system (me, including my two brothers). Because of this, we did not grow up too expressive of what we feel. We did not grow up sweet and caring to our parents, brothers or my brothers to me. We grew up knowing not much of one another’s inner personality. We grew up not so engaging with one another’s thoughts though we are living in one roof. I even said one time, jokingly, “My family is whole but incomplete,” though the truth is, half of the joke is really meant by me.
I was only in grade six when I got a cell phone. That’s the very moment I first learned how to text and make phone calls. I even felt superiority over those who do not have the gadget because only few people got cell phones at that time unlike nowadays. This gadget became my best friend. Best friend in good and bad ways.
At first, I treat it just as a gadget as it really is. Later on, it is becoming more sensible to me. It’s like saying, “Nang dahil sa kanya.. Haay buti na lang nandito ito... Buti na lang talaga…” as if it is a person I am talking or thanking to giving it much likeness and appreciating its existence. If not because of my cell phone, I won’t be kept in touch with my friends and loved one♥. In my family’s type of relationship present within the members, my way of surviving in this kind of setting is to have someone to talk to in which, with the presence of my cell phone, I am able to do so. I could survive without being able to talk to my housemates in a day for as long as I have my phone with me (with load pleaseJ). This is the biggest help of my cell phone to me as I see it on my view point. However, because of it, I got addicted to texting especially during the high school days. It was in fourth year high school that I got an unbelievable blood pressure of 90/50 during one of my check ups and this was due to too much lack of sleep. Who is to blame? Or should I say, what is to blame? LOL.
This has been few of my self scrutiny since this thing came into my life. I even experience this scenario that even while you sleep, you are not comfortable unless you have it beside you. Even going to CR, it has to be with me. I use it as a music player while taking a bath or even while doing the call of nature. When I eat, it has become a part of the table setting placed beside the spoon. Ask me to enumerate the parts of the computer surely cell phone is now part of it, placed in front of the monitor beside the mouse. I even cry a lot whenever I experience losing my cell phone and while I’m blogging this blog of mine, my cell phone is just right in front of me. Funny or weird, whatever you say upon this stuff, it’s just me and it. It, becoming a part of me, for years already.
That is why I got caught by the theory which says MEDIA is equals to REAL LIFE, presenting, Media Equation respectively. It made me smile a bit, knowing that I am covered or an existing example of this theory. Brilliant Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, if only I lived during their lifetime I could’ve been one of their fans. I thought I’m different, an outcast, because I feel weird of myself giving too much love for my cell phone. Now I knew that I’m not alone and there is an explanation to such phenomenon I am feeling through years. This is not just in the context of a cell phone but the media, all that it covers. People not only do but “treat” computers as if they were humans. Thank you to Communication theory (Ma’am Virgie), I was able to reflect and understand more of my self-observation.
