Cell phone nation

It’s on the train, it’s at corner cafes, it’s at a wedding reception, and now it’s even on a 10 year-old’s birthday list.  It’s the small, portable device that is all the rage and landing in the hands of almost everybody: a cell phone.

In a rainbow of different colors and shaped to the personal tastes of the users, cell phones are used much more these days than just a 20-minute call to California- it’s like a floating device for consumers.  Serving as a security blanket, cell phones became the watch, the e-mails, the calendar, the phonebook and without it, users feel lost and disconnected.

“I have so many watches, but I just use my phone.  I can’t get myself to wear watches, it’s too much work.  Sometimes I use it for the calendar and the alarm, too,” says DePaul student Shaharbano Rizvi.

The cell phone a culture that leaves consumers helpless when it dies and it strips them of almost everything.

“One time, I got lost and my phone died and I was like ‘oh my God, I’m gonna die…’,” Sarah Ghazanfar shares.

Aside from the technological reliance, without these compact tools to fall back on, users fall into complete fear mode, and as if they don’t learn the first time, consumers find themselves in deja vu when their phones die again.  However, users like Caroline Fleege makes sure she won’t be in that situation again.  She says,

“I have broken my iPhone twice in the past year.  It was insured and backed up…there were no major problems.”

Like a nightmarish dream, once again the lack of a cell phone makes the world seem like a darker place.  Not only offering security benefits, cell phones continue to expand like an infectious disease as companies create more and more reasons for consumers to fall deeper into their obsession. 

What can’t a cell phone be used for these days?

With capabilities to play music, surf the web, and give directions, now the cell phone just makes the possibility of loving them more shattering to some.  Wide-eyed, Justin Berteaux says,

“My world would be gone!  I can’t do hours without my phone, let alone a day.”

Dramatic?  Not until it’s you.

Even though cell phones hold such importance to users, at the same time, these products are easily taken for granted.  Users hear of instances of cell phones being lost or broken, but they don’t even flinch.  As if consumed with cell phone arrogance, some don’t like to accept the possibility that it could happen.

However cell phone realists admit to their excessive technological, mental, and emotional dependence on these treasured devices.  As Sarah Ghazanfar shrugs, she says,

“It’s just a way of life and it’s not something I regret.”

Navy Pier: The Fear

It was a cold Sunday night. 

Once well lit and buzzing with little children, Navy Pier was stripped of its innocence as the time approached six: out came the hallow-eyed zombies and mutated clowns.  On opposite ends of the entrance, one hung from a lamppost and the other lurked back and forth, both luring in their next victims into Chicago’s haunted house: The Fear.

“You know you want to see what’s inside…” 

The shrill laughter that followed sent chills and then the sudden,

“Stand in a single file line and don’t look or talk to each other.  Face the rail!”

They shouted loudly, stomping their feet and standing unbelievably close that the warmth of their breath caused condensation.  The door swung open and the victims didn’t know what The Fear had in store for them next.

Inside was yet another line with more yelling, but this time chilling screams projected through the intercom to enhance the fear stirring up inside everyone’s stomach.  One by one, each group disappeared inside.  With pitch darkness ahead and a bloody lab technician urging hysterically behind, it was a catch-22: stay and endure the horror or escape wasting money.

Without another chance to think, the next group was swallowed into the darkness. 

Maneuvering through the black hole was difficult enough, and then came the constant stream of questions- what’s behind that, is it moving?  After overcoming several similar scare tactics, when does it end?  It didn’t.

There were severed arms, mutated legs, and a whirlwind of more gore at every corner.   The occasional piercing scream of the deranged characters was the cherry topping of it all. 

Ahead, the group approached a patch of light, real light and not the red glow from the “Exit” signs.  Heart rates began to stabilize.

Further ahead, the entrance of the monster’s mouth signaled that there was more to come.  Returning back into the dark, zombies crept and jumped out from every angle and at every turn as if it were the grand finale of all terror.

A sore throat and many new wrinkles later, it was the end. 

Pale-faced, but smiling 45-year-old Donna Koval exited through the back end of the monster as she laughed nervously, eyes wide.  Her wrist shaking, she said,

“Feel my pulse, then you’ll know.”

The anxiety still lingered behind Donna’s voice, even after it was over and her shoulders curled into her small stature. 

“They did an excellent job… The entire thing was scary,” Donna added.

The success of The Fear rose above and beyond several expectations as the “most feared creatures” came to life.  From beginning to end, The Fear crept up even at the most expected times and continuously left the crowd trembling in sheer horror.  

Q&A: RedEye's Curt Wagner

Curt Wagner, an editor at the RedEye and Show Patrol Blogger, experienced a big transition in his 20-year journalism career as it sculpted his way into the online world of journalism. After working various positions at the Chicago Tribune since 1993, Wagner branched out into the pop section of sibling paper RedEye and eventually endeavored into his own personal interest of television entertainment.  (Photograph Courtesy Chicago Tribune).

Q: How long has it been since you first entered the journalism field?

A: 1989.

Q: So it’s been a really long time, I mean that was back when you started off writing on typewriters and now with the technology changing, you own multiple Twitter accounts, you manage TV blog Show Patrol. How did you make this transition?

A: I mean that’s just where the business was going. It wasn’t until the last two years I think that I got really into the online thing once I started my TV blog and just this last year RedEye has really pushed the social media angle. But I mean newspapers are kind of going away so everybody’s turning to online now.

Q: Do you find it at all difficult at times to manage all of your social media Web sites?

A: Yea, I mean it would be easier because I’m doing this tool thing as the features editor and I have this TV blog and I’m writing stories for the paper, too, so you know, I have a lot of different things that I have to deal with, so it’s kind of hard. We try to post links on Facebook, Twitter, and on Digg. That’s just a whole other layer of going and posting all of the stuff everywhere, too, so that takes some time and sometimes I don’t get around to it.

Q: I wanted to talk to you about your TV blog that you’ve mentioned a few times, Show Patrol. How did this come about, how did it first start?

A: Well, I have an interest in TV and always have, so we were trying to figure out ways to get columnists in the paper and we had been using just wire stuff for TV stories and I was like well you know I should just start watching stuff and writing it and starting to do it and then when we started to put this in the paper then we thought let’s put it online and start a blog so we started doing some blogs.

Q: Is this something you developed yourself?

A: It pretty much was. I just decided to do it and then our web guy was like why don’t you write it as a blog and I said cool, I will! So that’s what we did. It was purely out of my own interest.

Q: I don’t want to take up too much more of your time, but I do have one last question for you. You made this transition into all of these social media Web sites and the online journalism field has seen a significant growth in the past years, would you suggest to current journalism students going into the field that being platform agnostic is a required ability to have?

A: I always think that you should know, even when we were doing newspapers, how to do everything. At that point, I thought you should be able to copy and edit, you should be able to write stories, you should be able edit stories, you should have all aspects, and be able to do everything. I think that’s useful.

They always used to say even for reporters, you should be able to report about different subjects. I think that’s true even in what you are capable of doing, like not just reporting, but in all of these different forms of media. I make video clips to go on my blog site and I know how to design pages for the newspaper and all of that kind of stuff.