So Google is releasing free software that helps people keep track of each other via their cell phones. The devices use GPS systems along with something called "cell tower triangulation," to help find out where your friend or family member is. It`s going to be marketed as a way for parents to keep track of their stupid kids, but it can also be used to see if your husband is really at work, or if your girlfriend isn`t banging that young waiter that served your dinner at the Palm last night.
This idea that everyone needs to know at any given time where someone else is, makes me want to throw up through my eyeballs. I`ve seen this happen in restaurants, where a person walks in - on the phone - saying, "where are you, where are you.... oh there you are," as though he might take a wrong turn somewhere between the door and the bar. He would have made a great pioneer.
Now I will admit all of this new technology is pretty awesome - but it makes me long for the days when you could disappear, and no one could find you. I once drove across country in a piss-poor car, (1956 VW Beetle) with nothing but a few hundred bucks, and three pairs of clean underwear. I made it in one piece, without ever having to call anyone to tell them where I was. Even better, because there were no cell phones back then in the 1960's – no one seemed to miss the folks I picked up.
Those were the good old days.
