Defy Monday: Life Before Cell Phones

This past weekend, I traveled to upstate NY. Upon my return to Philadelphia, I realized I had left my cell phone behind.

OOOOhhh Noooo.

Then I remembered that I'm returning there next weekend, so until then, I'll live free from social overload for one week. I think most people faced with this situation might not feel so free, they might feel a little more like lost.

Pondering this today, I had a memory of my 80's childhood. My dad running errands. My mom forgetting to add something to the grocery list. My dad either having to return to the grocery store for the forgotten item, or worse, being paged over the intercom when my mom would call customer service.

Does anyone remember the days before cell phones?

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Remember? When you got the option to say, "sorry I missed your call, I wasn't home!"

Well, these days, there are no excuses. Thanks to cell phones, internet capable smart phones, and facebook, not to mention email (already verging on extinct, tweet tweet,) you have to go far far far away from civilization to escape your social counterparts.

To be in your 20s or 30s is to be part of a weird pivotal generation where the younger folks have never used a pay phone (those are vintage now, right?) and most older folks seem to complain about all this new-fangled technology.

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My last phone conversation was with my mom, who told me about my dad's new Droid,

"it does everything, I mean you wouldn't believe it, that little thing does E-VER-Y-THING, It's Amazin'!"

So, it's the same ole "I walked to school in 12 feet of snow when I was a kid" story... times change and technology advances. Now what to do with all these unnecessary phone booths lying around, taking up space and looking like trash?

Repurpose, as art - of course!!!

Check out the work of street artist Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign, the anti-ad art crusade:

Street artist Poster Child gets back to nature with this one. And be sure to read his manifesto.

More info on Poster Child can be found at www.bladediary.com

Defy Monday, but really, do this every day... make some treasure out of trash. And get a vacation from your cell phone, occasionally, anyway.