We are living in a paradoxical time; we have never been more interconnected in history, yet we have never been so isolated either.
As technology has advanced with the development of cellphones, cell service and the increased accessibility of internet service,, the ability to reach people has gotten exponentially more difficult. Phone books are getting thinner, landlines are becoming a thing of the past and payphones are bygones. Payphones are the most important part of this issue of connectivity.
The freedom and security that a payphone offers is something that we do not have in any comparable way in our current times. Available 24/7/365, they were hardwired phones to telephone wires that always worked, save the telephone wires being broken. With payphones being coin-operated, they were very economical ways of reaching people when you were out of the house.
Now our society is based on cell phone infrastructure; access and reachability is based on your ability to afford a cell phone bill and whether or not you have good cell reception. Without a cell phone, you are a goner, unable to contact anyone even in densely populated areas unless you can find someone or a store that would let you use the phone. Even with cell phone ownership, you have to worry about your ability to charge your phone as well. If you spend a long time away from an electrical source and your phone dies, you now have a $1000 paperweight that is useless to you in an emergency.
Returning to a society with payphones would be beneficial to everybody. It would allow people to have telephone access with minimal cost to them and afford people a constant source of communication. As someone who grew up during the final gasps of payphone use and have used one personally, it was very useful. I was able to make a phone call with my pocket change at a time when cell phones were still somewhat of a luxury. Affording people that access is something we need to revive.
Payphones would give people a sense of freedom and security in traveling. It would also limit the grip that cell phone companies have on people. Cell phones have become the primary mode of communication, giving these companies an undue upper hand. There is certainly a decent-sized group of the population that may give up cell phone use if payphones were an option for them, forcing these companies to re-evaluate their marketing strategies. There are many issues historically and we have made great strides as a society, but payphones are one of the things they had gotten right in the past.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
