Cell Phones are the New Nicotine / by kevin murray

There use to be a time when smoking a cigarette was an accepted part of everyday culture, to which you could smoke at your desk, inside your house, at your leisure, in the park, at a restaurant or bar, and even incredibly on an airplane, but those days are either long gone or have been compromised significantly in many respects.  Nowadays, often we find smokers huddle together in hidden and dark crevices outside of office buildings, as if what they are doing is obnoxious, dirty, or vile, which is what many non-smokers often believe.  Although, cigarette smokers still smoke for the pleasure and comfort that it gives them, especially too treating their cigarette as a reliable and unquestioning friend that helps them to sooth away their frazzled nerves, as well as to deal successfully with the stress and disappointment of everyday life, it just isn't quite as good as it was back in the day, before the smoker was ever branded as some sort of disgusting pariah.

 

Yet, when we fast forward to the present day, we see that although cigarette smokers are on the defensive, often furtive in their smoking habits, we find that those that have the makeup of what would have been a smoker in the past, are in a figurative sense, smoking, but it isn't tobacco, it isn't nicotine, they are instead using their cell phone as a proxy for the whole cigarette smoking experience.  It seems that the way that so many people use their cell phones today are quite similar in nature to the way that people use to smoke cigarettes, back when smoking was socially accepted in America.

 

For instance, one of perceived cardinal sins in America, is to ever appear to be alone, or lonely, in just about any social situation.  Well, that can be easily rectified by simply having a cell phone and either blithely texting away or chattering away to another person, which is proof positive that you are an important and valued person.  Also, when you are bored in school, or at work, or just about anywhere, whereas previously there may have been a tendency to light up and smoke, now you just need to tap a few keys on your cell and you're in touch with a friend, or the internet, and all is well.  Of course, too, if you want to prove to your peers what a great time that you are having, you can effortlessly snap a picture with your phone, post it immediately, making you feel as if you are on top of the world.

 

There is also too a social aspect to cell phones which is quite similar to smoking, although it isn't quite as easy as asking for a match or to borrow a cigarette, but you can just as easily start a conversation with someone, by asking them if what they have is the latest this or that phone, or do they have the latest this or that app, and the social experience is eerily similar to two smokers, interrelating to one another.   So too, are cell phone users branded much like smokers, dedicated to a certain operating system as well as a particular cell phone manufacturer, to which they all have to have the coolest and sleekest phone, because that defines them.  No longer are they stuck pretending to be riding a horse, independent and strong such as the Marlboro man, they are instead today's iphone men, so beyond cool.