Very cool, usnamom. I think that all sounds very wise, and it's interesting that yours also seemed almost relieved.

A downside to cell phones that my mom pointed out is that she doesn't get to talk to anyone but the person she calls. My brother and his wife are a cell-only family. We aren't. When she calls here, anyone could answer the phone... the kids, DH, or I. She gets to chat a bit with that person before asking for the one she actually *needed* to talk to (and 99.9% of the time, that's me! But she gets to speak to my husband on a regular basis since he answers the phone much of the time... and the same goes for our kids).

Mom realized the other day that she hadn't talked to my sister-in-law for weeks, simply because the person from their household she *needed* to get in touch with - my brother / her son - has his own number and so she calls him directly and they discuss what they called about and hang up. She rarely has anything specific she *needs* to talk to her daughter-in-law about, and so those incidental conversations you have with whomever answers the phone never take place.

I LOVE Facebook and how it has made the people I enjoyed from my past part of my *current* life. It's weird to think that I have a lager circle of *current* heartstrings because the old friends and the new friends are *all* today's friends. I know my friends list of 200+ people isn't huge by some standards, but for the most part I don't accept, willy-nilly, people I didn't really *know* well at some point in my life. It's interesting that I *see* my current friends and the rapport that they have with their *past*-life friends through their interactions on facebook. I think it's a lot of fun.

I guess another 'situation' that has arisen with technology is the fact that it's also very easy to be distracted, agitated, whatever by *strangers* thanks to message boards! LOL! At least our kids are texting people they actually *know*! LOL