Modern Day Phone Tag

We've come a long way from the days of carrier pigeons and party lines, but one thing has remained the same throughout the centuries. Phone tag. Give it any name, it doesn't matter, the endless game of communicating back and forth without actually talking to each other. It's been around for eons. back in the 1880's Marcus would go up to the door and knock and Mrs. Black would answer and Marcus would ask if Kevin were there and Kevin wouldn't be there, but Mrs. Black could give him a message, which would then send Kevin the three miles to Marcus' house where he would find that he was not home, but the missus could take a message. And so on, and so forth.

Eventually it moved on to the wonderful age of technology, and instead of walking the three miles, Marcus' son Mark could call up Kevin's son Ken and leave a message with his mother. This saved a lot on shoes. Soon answering machines came into the picture, and then people began screening their calls. Then the internet came into play.

I'm of the opinion that e-mail is based on phone tag. Really, I mean, you type this thing up, send it to a friend, leave your desk, do a dance, make a sandwich, watch a rerun of Law and Order(because they're ALWAYS on) and when you come back, whoa, your friend e-mailed while you were gone. Strange though, how so many people get frustrated with phone tag, but never with e-mail.

Now it's even gotten to the point where we're playing IM tag, people get online, log on, and then put up away messages saying things like "I'm at school! Leave one." or "I'm sleeping! Zzzz. Leave me something nice." Isn't that the same as e-mailing? I know I for one can't just leave one. To me, sentences are like Pringles, once I pop, I just can't stop. People also say things on their IM away messages like "Sleeping, call the cell if you need me." or "Went to the store, call the cell." In the first example, why would you ask people to call and wake you up if you're sleeping. But aside from that, then, if you do really need to talk, or sometimes are just bored, you call the cell, only to recieve voice mail. It's ridiculous.