I walk around my apartment getting ready to leave. The last thing I do before storming out the door is to check that my mobilephone is in the right place - my bag. I never leave my place without it.
Walking down the stairs I reassure myself that I remembered to put it in my bag - sometimes I even doublecheck to be absolutely sure. Some might call me a freak - and I might be sometimes when it comes to doublechecking everything - but I actually think that it's a quite normal procedure for the most of us.
I have evolved a dependence on my mobilephone and the need to always having the ability of getting in contact with people and the ability of peoples possibility of getting in contact with me constantly.
At the same time I often feel the need to secede myself from it, which sometimes results in me not answering when somebody calls. It can have a stressful effect on me, because I know that if I don't answer now, I eventually have to answer that somebody by either calling or writing a SMS. This is a factor you didn't have to worry about if having a stationary telephone. Then that somebody would just have to call back later - unless an answering machine is available of course.
So you can say that the mobilephone has a bifurcated effect on the way I (and most people I guess) act and feel in relation to my phone. It gives me freedom and the capacity to open up new spaces by calling and SMS'ing people with other locations and the capacity of being constantly online - which also is very useful, when I feel a need of being important or if I feel alone in a crowd. But on the other hand I in some way feel trapped by my phone, especially because of others need of getting in contact with me on times when I don't have the energy to deal with it, and my own impression that I can't ignore their needs.
But there is no doubt that I prefer to take the bad things with the good meaning I don't have to do without my mobilephone which as it is now is a necessary part of my identity.
