Monday, November 22, 2004 @4:30 PM
I read Sumiko Tan's column in Lifestyle on Sunday, November 21 and found it quite interesting.
It's a topic on mobile phone. Here are some extracts:
[I was at Topshop the other day when, reaching into my bag, for my wallet, I realised that my mobile phone wasn't there.
Horrors.
No wonder my bag felt suspiciously light.
Did I lose it?
I felt amputated.
It wasn't so much the cost of replacing a phone I was concerned about. It was how, from a mere consumer item that I had bought out of necessity, the mobile phone has become the single most important gadget in my life.
I haven't reached the point where I've acquired a cushion for it to rest on (there are actually products like that out there).
But every night before I sleep, I place my Nokia 6100 lovingly on my bedside table, near enough to wake me up should I get a call or SMS.
My mobile has become more than a phone. It is my clock, calendar, directory, repository of memories, fortress and refuge.
Say I spot someone annoying who looks as if he is about to approach me. What better way to shield myself from him than to put the phone against my ear and pretend to be engaged in conversaaion?
Or I'm having lunch by myself. To avoid appearing pathetic, I can fiddle with my phone and look as if I'm engrossed in SMSing a friend. To the outside world, I'm no longer friendles. I'm connected.
That tiny device contains not just the number of everyone from my drycleaner to my hairdresser, but also a record of my love life.
I have, at last count, 164 SMSes I am loathe to delete.]
[IN FACT, I would go so far as to say that you can judge a potential mate by his mobile phone.
First, there's the model.
If his phone is of the latest, fanciest, most expensive design, he's probably vain, concerned about looks and image and hard to please.
If he makes do with low-end model, he's a nice, unpretentious chap - but unlikely to ply you with gifts from Tiffany.
If he keeps his phone plastered in a plastic casing, he's finicky.
If he wears a mobile phone chain, he's more likely than not a gay.
If he keeps checking his SMS when he's with you, he's not that interested in you.
If he excuses himself before answering a call in front of you, he has manners.
If he ignores that call and continue paying attention to you, he really digs you. Or has something to hide.
You can tell a person's level of personal hygiene from his phone. Is it scratched, scuffed and oily? That probably describes how he maintains himself too.
His SMSes will give you an insight into:
a) his language and spelling skills;
b) his wit and sense of humour, or lack of;
c) whether he's long-winded
If he uses minimal words to convey maximum meaning - without resorting to abbreviations - wow, he's clear-minded
If he spells out every word and uses proper punctuation, he's either not comfortable with you yet, or uptight.
And what does it say if his SMSes contain smileys which, I'm told, men never ever use when SMSing each other?
If he deigns to return your smiley with his smiley, chances are he does like you.
But if he initiates the smiley, maybe that's another story.
So there you have it - mobile phone stereotypes].