O Tempora! O Mores!

After many years of abuse (mostly repeated droppings, mostly on concrete), it was decided that I need a new cellular telephone. I therefore made my way to the local cellular-telephone-store, fully prepared to have wares hawked at me. There is an almost antiseptic quality to such a store, what with its kiosks on an otherwise bare floor space. I suppose this is the most fitting sort of display for a technology so far removed from any sort of organic human experience. At least I was only there for a brief time: I stipulated that I needed a phone that I'll be able to use in Europe, and was pointed toward several options, of which I selected the cheapest and least modern. I was dismayed to find that it was a "smart" phone (am I using the proper terminology? I mean it was a phone with internet and a tiny little keyboard). Heretofore I had taken some consolation from the fact that I did not own a "smart" phone; was I to give up this source of satisfaction so easily? Alas, there were no other options. There can be, I confess, a fine line between Luddism and snobbery. I maintain that the amenities provided, beyond (or perhaps including) that of making phone calls, are patently unnecessary, and I felt as though pierced by the disapproving glance of Wendell Berry. But I now will use said amenities, nonetheless. Perhaps I should've put up more resistance? Probably. Shall I come to depend on these unnecessities? I do hope not. Is there a day when I shall give up the cell phone entirely? It is my fond desire, but not one I foresee fulfilled for a long while. In any case, I have resolved to limit my use as much as possible.