It’s the walking, talking and texting dead

Eddie Puente / Associate editor

Zombies, zombies, zombies — everywhere you turn there are zombies. And that’s not counting the ones on television or at the theaters.

All around you, you can see “creatures” shuffling around, heads down, mumbling to themselves. It’s that 3-inch by 6-inch electronic device that is surely sent from the depths of Hades that controls the masses like a brain-control machine. Having witnessed students walk into cars, into other students and into closed doors is a prime example of the power that these machines command.

You can be sitting in class and hear that telltale sound of a vibrating buzz and look around to see that one person trying to be really sly as they cleverly slide the beast out of their backpack or pocket and check the latest unbelievably important communiqué bestowed upon them. You have to wonder, do they really think they are being cunning as a fox, because we all know what he says. No, you are not slick at all. The entire class knows what you are up to. Shucks, half of them are insanely jealous that no one is messaging them.

I once took a class where the instructor dared his students to give him their cellphones for 24 hours to see how much they relied on them. Of those who took the dare, the majority said they felt as if their lives were ruined. The only way they had to contact their “people” was on that phone. Back in the day we had to actually memorize telephone numbers.

Does this of class of freshmen even know what a real payphone resembles? Do they know what Superman used as a dressing room? Do the phrases “drop a dime” or “here’s a quarter, call someone who cares” mean anything to this generation?

Some worry that we could one day face a blackout and that lack of necessities such as clean drinking water and food will be the end of us all. I think society will suffer more breakdowns because of the loss of cellular reception.

Corpus Christi has finally stepped up and taken a strong stance against the use of cellular devices while operating a vehicle and I applaud city officials for the effort to save lives, but alas, I still see “the important ones” jabbering away on their cells.

Stephen King had an interesting take on these demons in our hands. Titled “Cell,” you should pick up a copy — it is a good read.

Worldwide there are 6.8 billion cellphones. China is the No. 1 country for cellphone use, with 1.2 billion cellphones, followed by India with 867 million and then America, with 326 million. Yea! We got the bronze!

We really too heavily on these little boxes of electronic crack and I think we miss smelling the roses or seeing the rainbows in life because we have these damn things glued to our ears. Take a break, skip that message, enjoy life.

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