07 Jun The (Good?) Old Days: Part II – Cell Phones

There are a number of extraordinary technological developments that have literally changed our lives both personally and in the business world. Here let’s just ponder the cell phone/PDA. When I started practicing law, phone calls were on the phone. You had to be somewhere where a thing with a wire was attached to a wall. The newest thing at the time: a bulky portable phone for the home with a large antenna coming out of the top. My uncle, a crazy gadget guy, had a phone in his car that required it to call the marine operator to make very expensive phone calls. Everyone was amazed by that.

This also meant it wasn’t always that easy to find people. If you weren’t home or at the office people just didn’t know where you were. Think about that. Sometimes we would check in at the zillion public phone booths that were all over the city (now virtually all gone, some turned into Internet hot spots), but you only got 3 minutes for a quarter. Doctors and some others had pagers.

When we were young lawyers some of my colleagues would use that as an excuse to dodge work, especially on the weekends. If a partner left a message on your home “answering machine” (another then recent development) you could say you didn’t get it because you were out, or away, or whatever. This is also when the whole idea of screening calls came around (before caller ID).

If you were on vacation, you really got more of a chance to disconnect, although I certainly remember frantic calls to a hotel from my office, but again you only got the message when you returned to your room, whenever that was. One time they actually found me in the middle of a massage for a super-urgent call from the office. I would call the office once or twice a day to get any messages that came, and learn of any mail that came. No checking emails or dealing with texts or calls to the cell. Just that once or twice daily check-in. The best would be a cruise, still to some extent a disconnecting experience. But back then it was simply: you basically can’t reach me.

But isn’t it great that we can connect instantly from just about anywhere anytime? Check emails instantly or take calls at your child’s soccer game or when out to dinner or on vacation? Well yes and no. Now that I’m the guy looking for my staff, I’m happier that I can generally find them when I need them (I try not to need them in off hours). Plus it makes travel easier for me when I know I can be on any conference call and deal with email traffic from anywhere. But what it also means: less real down time. So we trade. More flexibility in life in exchange for being bothered more.

Not better or worse. Just different.