Hi, my name is Drew. And Im addicted to my cell phone.

This is a shameful thing to admit.&bsp; However, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and boy did the past few days most definitely prove to me that Ive got a problem.

What happened? Well, I dropped my long-suffering, three-year old cell phone about four days ago, and the sucker died out on me. Since it was Saturday and I was serendipitously getting a new phone on Tuesday, I thought nothing of it and steeled my resolve to live without a phone for a few days.

And honestly, I thought it would be pretty good.&bsp; Ive always secretly worried that Im too attached to my phone and so having to go without it for a few days would be good, I assumed.&bsp; Id learn the value of unplugging, of not being in constant communication. Id remember to sit back in the midst of this fast-paced world and smell the roses every once and a while.

I can unqualifiedly say that my three days without a phone were one collective unmitigated disaster.&bsp; Since I dont own a house phone, I had absolutely no way to get in touch with anyone so I was reduced to going to my friends place of work and hoping she was there in order to have someone to talk to.&bsp; Luckily, she was.

Also, I had no way of knowing what time it was since I dont own a watch and the only way I can tell time is by checking my cell phones screen (savvy readers might take the time to point out that I should probably have a clock or two in my house, to which Ill retort that Im in college and therefore deeply impractical).&bsp; If I wanted to know the time, I had to either open my computer up and see what the time was on the computer or ask somebody.&bsp; It was not cool.&bsp; On top of that, I felt a desperate need to be in touch with my friends.

At least I wrested some self-knowledge out of the whole unpleasant ordeal: I cant live without a cell phone. It must be a generational thing. The fact

that (trips out of the country excepted) every day since I was fourteen Ive had a functioning cell phone in my pocket has made me dependent upon it, because unless Im face-to-face with a person, I dont know how to communicate with people without one.&bsp; For example, how did people make lunch plans before cell phones? You could call them on a regular phone and then set a time, date, and place, but then what if somebody was running late and they needed to let you know they were still coming? Or what if they went ahead and sat down in the restaurant and the other person waited for them outside? You cant rectify these situations without cell phones as far as I know, though Im probably egregiously and offensively wrong.

Like I said, I think that people of my generation are just so used to having cell phones that theyre an innate part of our existence and we just cant function without them anymore.&bsp; And maybe Im just blaming my own personal problems on my entire generation as a way of spreading the blame a bit, but I might be kind of right.&bsp; I guess Ill just have to call everyone I know and find out.~Modern Age written by Drew Millard