Landrew’s Take on Technology

In the olden days, when you asked someone what time it was, he would say “Right ho, old chap,” and take out his pocket watch (this is the olden days in England). Now people still reach into their pockets, but it’s to pull out their cell phones.  But are cell phones really better for telling time than watches?  Let’s find out!

You’re probably thinking, “well I can call people on my cell phone and I can’t call people on my watch, so I like my cell phone better.”  You’re right about that, but for this article I’d like to look only at their time-telling part so that they can be totally even before we see which one is way better.

One thing that is sweet about watches is that they have wristbands.  This way you don’t need to reach into your pocket to get them anymore.  With cell phones you always need to reach into your pocket, unless the guy at the cell phone store is really sneaky and he tricks you into buying one of those belt clip things.  This may seem like a good accessory, but unfortunately the only people who look cool with their cell phone clipped to their pants are guys who build houses.

On the other hand, one thing that is sweet about cell phones is that you don’t need to set the time on them.  The time sets itself using satellites.  This is not the case with watches.  You have to set the time, which is not always easy.  For example, let’s say you go to the mall and get a watch and forget to check what time it as at the watch store.  Then you stop and get some really thick sunglasses that make everything look dark.  When you walk outside, you’re like, “It’s already late!” and you set your new watch to nine at night even though it’s only three.  Then you end up going to bed at six, like an old person.

That said, with cell phones you’re taking a dangerous risk by just assuming that your phone company’s satellite won’t get shot down by another company’s satellite.  If this happens, you won’t know what time it is or be able to make any calls.  All you’ll be able to do with your phone is use the tip calculator, but you won’t know if it’s dinnertime so you’ll never go to a restaurant.

So there are ups and downs for both of them.  In the end, though, cell phones can call people, which make them cooler than watches.  Maybe in the future they’ll start making watches that have phones built in to compete with cell phones.  That way you could wear your phone on your wrist.

As for telling time, the only real reliable way to do it is by looking at the sun.  This will work forever, unless the sun explodes.  But then you’ll probably have other things to deal with that are more important than trying to figure out what time it is.