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I’m 40,000 feet up in the air in the middle of a thunderstorm; the weather is turbulent; the aircraft is rocking violently and enormous lightning flashes frequently explode just outside the windows. Yet I’m filled with calm. I look at the people around me and say to myself, “Life is good.”

Reading this, you may conjure up the image of a macho man of stainless steel filled to the brim with immeasurable valour. Much as I’d like that image to stick, I have to admit that internally I’m not exactly Ironman. In fact, as my children will gleefully testify, I’ve been known to jump a few inches when a paper bag has been exploded near me. The reason for my sitting in peaceful bliss while the plane is being tossed around like salad is external: no one around me is talking on the mobile phone. I’m aware that the moment we touch the ground, everyone will snatch phones out of bags and pockets, switch them on hurriedly, stare at the screen with twitching fingers while the phone gets its signal, and, when connected, talk greedily… much like drowning men suck air every time they surface. So I savour this brief respite, this mental calm in the midst of a physical storm.

There is no denying it: we are obsessed — addicted, even — with our mobile phone. We use it while working and also when shirking; we answer it while eating or in the middle of a meeting; we send texts while we drive and receive them while we jive; we talk while we walk and we talk while we talk (‘Excuse me; I’ve got to take this’)

I’ve seen grown, and apparently sane, men standing on the sidewalk to call someone; then, the moment they are connected, stepping boldly into the crowded traffic to cross the road while talking animatedly into the mobile phone, oblivious to the vehicles around them, vehicles which are, of course, filled with drivers talking on their mobile phones. In the good old nineties, if you saw a man driving alone and talking uninterruptedly, making faces and even gesticulating with his hands, you would have reported him.

Today you know he’s on speaker, or worse, if you see a monstrosity attached to his ear, a Bluetooth earpiece.
Life would be bearable — and amusing — if it were only a question of observing pedestrians, drivers and other strangers suffering from the mobile disease, but unfortunately my friends are severely afflicted too. My tennis partner thinks nothing of interrupting our game to answer his phone. I may have thrown the ball in the air to strike a vicious serve towards him but he’d have no qualm raising his hand and saying, ‘Hang on, I have to take this’. I’d have heard nothing, but his sharp ears, attuned to his beloved instrument, can pick up the feeble ring coming from the bottom of his bag on the court-side. It may be the laundry telling him his clothes are ready but he ‘has to’ take the call.

A colleague of mine and his wife don’t appear to talk much when they’re together. But when separated, they’re inseparable — via the mobile phone. He talks to her several times during the day and always over lunch at his desk. Sitting across, I can admire his technique: listening while he chews and talking as he prepares the next portion to put into his mouth. I’m sure he’s looking at learning to eat from one side of the mouth while talking from the other.

In restaurants, clubs, lounges and other public places, people sit alone talking to someone on their mobile phone. These places started with the honourable intention of preventing this, with signs that said: ‘Use of mobile phones not allowed.’ But recognising that they were losing customers too addicted to stay unconnected, they changed the sign to: ‘We request you to avoid using your mobile phone.’ This then changed to: ‘Please talk softly while using your mobile phones.’ The day is not far away when we’ll see the sign change to: ‘Please eat quietly so you don’t disturb others talking on their mobile phones.’

That’ll also be the day when airlines proudly announce that we may use our mobile phones in flight… and my one sanctuary will be gone.

Paddy Rangappa is a freelance writer based in Singapore. Read more on his blog: http://theflip-side.blogspot.com