Cell Phone Curses, or: Inventions Waiting to Happen

Awhile back I read a great book, Why Things Bite Back, by Edward Tenner, about the unintended effects of new technologies. Until we use new technologies, we don't see how they will apply to our lives; once we begin to change our habits by utilizing them, new challenges result. One example that stuck with me was the so-called paperless office. Turns out many people don't really trust online record keeping, so we actually generate MORE paper than before the computer age.

I joined the cellphone crowd kicking and screaming. My cellphone scared me for the first year or so - I never knew exactly how to use it, but I did warm up to it as I began to see how convenient it was. When the family went out together to run errands, we could be more efficient by splitting up, and we could still find each other. On vacation or when walking, I could fill downtime with check-in calls. And of course the familiar letting people know when I'd be arriving, by calling them en route. These uses are imperfect, of course - sometimes you can't reach the other person, or you lose service.
However, the most common curse is losing the cell phone altogether. My daughter and I have each lost them twice, at home or in the car. Suddenly your life is upside down - mini-crisis! This is the first invention waiting to happen, a cell phone locater. Can't they put something in a cellphone that would make a CellPhoneFinder beep when the phone is in proximity? Once, the phone was under the prom dress, carefully laid out on a bed. We looked in the house for days, but if we'd had a cell phone geiger counter, it would have beeped in the hall and led us to it. Likewise, mine cell was in the car, wedged in between the seats. The CPGD would have gone crazy as soon as we opened the car door. If this does exist, please tell us all.

A related mini-crisis: we all become more cell-dependent by adding ever more of our contacts' cell phone numbers, without having any backup - so a cellphone number backup system is sorely needed. I recently traveled to Boston where the plan was for me to call my friend when I got there. I didn't bother to write down her phone number and then, you know what happened: my cell died, with her number in it. I stopped at the airport Wireless store to find out how to download my numbers into hard copy. (I know some cells are in sync with laptops, but I'm not there yet.) The answer is that no technology exists to read numbers off your simcard (the little fingernail size chip inside the computer where the numbers are stored.) Hard to believe! We got my phone working again, but upon my return I manually copied all my numbers onto a heavy notecard for safekeeping. There has to be a better way! Likewise, if there is, let us know that, too.