The real value of a mobile phone

Historically, I've been "losing" my mobile phone at least once a year now, ever since I started investing in the flashy kind. No, I don't mean the bimbo-style multicoloured DIY Swarovski-studded variety, I mean the normal, functional kind - anything over Dhs. 2000 (US$545) - something that has clearly appealed to its new owners.

Every time I lay my eyes on my gorgeous mobile, I wonder if it might be the last moment I get to tap my fingers on its buttons. How and why do people get so attached to their mobiles, and so distraught when they're misplaced - and why is losing a mobile likely to cause more grief than losing something of higher monetary value, such as a pair of designer sunglasses?

From my own experience, I can say that the most hard-hitting part of losing a mobile is the theft of a personal belonging. It's that horrid feeling of helplessness and guilt when you look for your mobile and realise it's lost, then learn it's been stolen. A mobile is something you take everywhere with you. You've shared many special moments with it, and now it's in some dirty bugger's hands.

Another aspect is the photos you have stored on the phone, some of which you might never have wanted strangers to see. This is a matter of privacy. It's the equivalent of a home burglary.

Then comes all the telephone numbers you stored and might not see again...why didn't I upload them onto my computer, I think, shouldn't I have learned my lesson already? Nope: even after umpteen cases of losing my mobile, I still believe if someone has my number, they will call me. It's not worth having someone's number if they don't call anyway!

To make things worse, you lose your independence as you experience the coming days of life without a mobile.

Lastly, you have to schedule otherwise better-spent hours into shopping for a new mobile. The moment you step into a shop, before you can even find Nokia, you have a smelly salesman breathing up your nose asking if you want help. Your mental mission to say the ultimate goodbye to your old phone and attempt to make way for the new is disrupted. Yes, you have to contend with the emotionally unintelligent salesman, who not only has rubbish sales skills but zero product knowledge too. So you have to spend even longer reading the small print, like 3G, triband etc etc and finally you purchase your dream phone, only to realise that, historically, you are going to go through the same process again next year...