Ms the word: Get off the phone and check your cholesterol
*Why are we willing to pay more for our cellphones than for our health insurance?*
I do not want to appear a hypocrite, so I admit up front, that I have a problem with telephones.
After four years resisting a Blackberry, I was forced to have one.
I became Saul on the road to Damascus.
It lived with me. In fact, I would take it into meetings, put it on vibrate, and leave it next to my notebook.
I got a buzz out of the number of times it buzzed.
It was proof that I was important.
However, I moved company, lost the Blackberry, and received an iPhone.
I joked with the finance head that it seemed to be missing the application that turned it into a Blackberry.
I could not get on with it, too difficult to send text messages, and too fragile.
My Blackberry slid across the floor more times than I care to think about but, apart from some trendy battle scars, kept on working.
It seemed to have a battery life of several days, while the iPhone needed to be in constant contact with mains electricity and looked as though it would break if I was rude to it.
So I was weaned off the addiction, and learned to get that part of my life back into control.
Nature abhors a vacuum though, so before you ask, I bought a Nokia for personal use, a really neat 6600 in shiny black, with a sliding case and Nokias no-nonsense predictive text.
Normal service was resumed, for about a month, until I received the first bill from Sunrise, that is.
I had spent just over 300 on text messages, and something called roaming.
Roaming sounds such a desirable pastimeopen fields, no boundaries, may the sun always be at your back, and the road rise up to meet you, etcetera.
It turns out to be a way that telephone companies can make additional revenue.
The air does not seem to reflect national boundaries, and neither do radio signals. Neither do wholesalers, come to think of it.
But phone companies seem to know exactly where we are, all the time.
Big brother may not be watching you, but he sure is watching your cellphone usage.
But hang on, wind that back again.
I am moaning, but I have just paid more for my cellphone than I pay for my health insurance.
It is good to talk, but perhaps checking my cholesterol might have more long-term benefit.
Funny how easy it is to sell me a phone with all those subtle extra costs, but how unfashionable it is to talk about my health.