I have an i-Phone 55

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"What is an i-Phone 55?" 

"You tell me."

Putting numbers on a phone is a marketing ploy that elevates a necessary gadget to a status symbol. Let’s use an imaginary phone called iTalk. Some girls only want to consider boys that carry the iTalk 22, not iTalk 21, 20, 19 or 18. They say yes to boys for one reason. “Prove that you love me. Buy me an iTalk 22.”

It becomes a problem for struggling parents when kids want the same phone as professional athletes. I’m not good in math but I think about numbers all the time, especially in my bank account. They don’t add up because they are just not there. I think about proverbs like the boss telling me my days are numbered. I think about the meaning of: it's a numbers game. I think about assumptions that some people are Number 1 in what they do. The only number one I know is myself because I’m not you. I’m one of a kind. So are you, to yourself.

The word ‘number’ is constantly changing, thanks to technology. It also spills over to human interaction, expectations. You meet a stranger on a pavement. You respond to his greeting and he asks for your number. Wrong. It is a demand because he already has his hypothetical iTalk 22 out of his pocket.

The number that is out of bounds is age. Technology or no technology, you don’t ask a woman her age.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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