Word: cig
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...situation of cigarettes. Consider the similarities. Cell phones and cigarettes (1) are annoying to non-users; (2) require users to huddle out-of-doors; (3) are addictive; (4) are the result of social pressures; (5) are a means of connecting with others (“Can I bum a cig?” or “You wanna go have a smoke and talk?”); (6) engender constant fiddling; (7) are more convenient versions of an existing technology (pipe is to cigarette as landline is to cell phone); and (8) are incongruous luxuries for Third World inhabitants...
...stories of the cell and the cig also have eerily similar narrative arcs. The cigarette began as a convenient tobacco vehicle for soldiers in World War I—soldiers who might not live long enough to fix themselves a pipe. After the war, the cigarette quickly evolved into a dainty feminine article to be held aloft by society ladies during two-cheeked kisses and a brooding device for suave anti-social heroes. The early incarnation of the cell phone was an unsexy anvil-sized apparatus for doctors and moguls. Now the base has expanded to include gabby soccer moms...