If you carry your cell phone everywhere you go like I do, it has become an art to use it and order a tuna on rye at the same time. It's just weird putting the waitress on hold while you're closing a deal on your cell.

It's the same with my pager. I can't have lunch with someone without being beeped at least 15 times. Depending on the person you're having lunch with, you either ignore the page or be rude and keep checking your messages. I remember one meeting where I had my pager set to vibrate and received about 20 messages in a half hour. It must have looked like I was having a bad reaction to the roast beef.

In the three years I've been in business for myself, I've owned four cellular phones, a couple of pagers, three fax machines, and numerous communications software packages, all in the pursuit of being easily accessible. I wear my pager now just about every day, no matter if I have it turned on or not. It has become a piece of me, and I think that's pretty pathetic. Same with my cell phone. I've even seen people carry them into the toilet: "Hey, guess where I am?" I've got so many gadgets on me that at times I look like a mall security guard.

The reason I've owned so many cell phones is because that's how often I've had to change service plans to get a better deal. The phone comes with the new service, and, of course, there's always some new feature I had to have. Every time I turn around, the price comes down and the phone gets smaller. Pretty soon, they'll come in Cracker Jack boxes. For now, it's a status symbol. Last week I heard two guys arguing about who had the best service. Here's a sampling: "Well, mine is smaller than yours, and it fits right on my belt." Amazing.

All of this, of course, is designed to make life easier for us and to give small businesses an advantage when competing with larger ones. Truth is, these gadgets have eliminated downtime forever. And downtime is not necessarily a bad thing. No longer can you tell a client, "It's in the mail. Give it a few days." Everything is instantaneous now. Between E-mail, the Internet, fax machines, and message-capturing devices, there's absolutely nowhere you can hide.

So here's the issue I'm struggling with: Do I give up my pager and just rely on my new fancy phone, which also has messaging capabilities? I don't know. Kind of makes you yearn for the days when you just got a busy signal on the other end.

George Giokas is the president and CEO of StaffWriters Plus, a specialty agency that places writers in temporary and permanent positions with corporate and other employers. It also provides editorial consulting work. His database includes 2,500 writers and editors specializing in more than 60 categories. His Web site is located at www.staffwriters.com, and you can E-mail him at george@staffwriters.com.

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