Remember back around 2003 or so when Nextel’s Direct Connect was the hip thing to have in cell phones?  It seemed like you weren’t cool if your phone wasn’t making that obnoxious bleep every five minutes.  There was just something about that walkie-talkie feature that made you feel important.   I got on the bandwagon myself and loved it.

The great thing about Direct Connect was that it made phone calls so informal.  Direct Connect was the easy way to contact someone before texting was.  Prior to direct connect, if you wanted to tell someone something quick, it involved making a phone call and often getting into a longer conversation than you wanted.  But with Direct Connect, you could just tell someone something instantaneously and be done with it—which is probably the reason I liked it so much.  I’m not much of a conversationalist.

It was like your own little fraternity.  You felt like you had a special bond to anyone else who had one.  “Hey you have a Nextel! Me too! What’s your two-way number!?”  I didn’t even have to like the person. I just wanted someone else to two-way. (more…)

Yes you read that title right. There’s an old saying that says “necessity is the mother of invention.” Well…I think it should be the other way around. Invention is really the mother of necessity. You don’t realize how much you need something until you have it. I realized recently that if certain gadgets were removed from my life, I’d have a very difficult time adjusting even though there was point in my life when they weren’t around. Therefore, I have compiled a list of items that were once considered luxuries that have now become necessities. (more…)