No more mobile phones

anywhere! How would we cope? The internet is down! How can we work?

There is an article in this morning's paper about the banning of mobile phones in schools and the subsequent improvement in behaviour. There has apparently been a "thirty percent drop" in bad behaviour and an increase in achievement because of the ban. 

I don't know how they measured this - or even if it could be measured. It reminded me yet again of the way a former young neighbour told the Senior Cat about what she and her friends did in their lunch hours. What it amounted to was "we sit there in a row and play on our phones".  The Senior Cat did not say anything to her but he did say something to me, "No wonder they complain about being bored." 

Yes, games or short videos or other such activities are mind numbing I suspect. It is no way to learn about getting on with other people or reading their body language.

It is no secret that I detest mobile phones, even while I can appreciate their value in emergency situations. I just don't like being always available wherever I am. I don't like the way other people expect me to be that available. There are times when I want to be able to talk to someone face to face knowing I won't be interrupted. 

We are still trying to sort out the mobile phone situation for me. I am currently trying to use the phone the Senior Cat had in the nursing home. I now appreciate how difficult he must have found it. It is one of the most difficult and complicated things I have come across. "But you just swipe it to answer it," Middle Cat keeps telling me "You will learn to use it". 

No, I won't. I have discovered that "just swiping it" does not always work. It should but it doesn't. There is something wrong and it is not because I have wet paws or the screen is dirty or some other issue. It is the phone itself.  I also want to be able to make a phone call and I want to do it without going through the rigmarole which is apparently essential. The "touch" screen is not good either. A friend called in recently and borrowed it to make a call home to her husband because hers was not working. "I don't know how in the heck you can use it Cat!" she told me in frustration. We got there in the end but it is ridiculous.

Brother Cat tells me I need a phone which does more than make and receive calls. Really? I know he uses his for everything you can think of except making a cup of tea. He would use it for that if he could find a way of doing it.  If his phone fails he is in trouble of course.

I think I would prefer to avoid trouble. Perhaps some of the teens have discovered that too.