Losing your digits

16 December 2009

By Thomas Prosser

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A recent article in the Daily Telegraph highlights the fact that Londoners lose 10,000 phones a month in black cabs.

That’s right 10,000 phones.  And it gets worse at Christmas time:


“More people travel into London to buy their Christmas presents during this period who are not regular cab users, they hop a cab to get back to their train stations – and it’s always about an hour later we get a panicked call on their mobile phones asking for them to be returned.”


I’m sure many of us have misplaced things while out and about – an umbrella on the Underground, a pair of gloves in a café.  Although a phone itself can be replaced much like a lost umbrella or gloves, there is something deeper that affects us when losing a phone.  It’s not just a way to call family and friends – as phones have become more technologically advanced, it’s become an address book, a calendar with loved ones’ birthdays, a treasured photo album, a portable games console.  Chad Stoller explains more in the video:

When we lose our mobiles, we lose part of our identities which no replacement phone can readily replace.  In the words of Michael Hulme speaking to Sky News, ‘there has been growing evidence of an increased dependency on mobile phones - not just in practical terms, but in an emotional sense.’


Spare a thought the next time an unlucky friend makes a Facebook post asking you to text your phone number to his or her new number – and then ask them to contact the cab company.



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