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Twitter-ers vs. the big bad cell phone company
By AprillBrandon in Pop Goes the Culture
August 4, 2009

You know when you try to call someone on their cell, and they don't pick up, and then that annoying snooty woman (who sounds like she's secretly judging you) comes on and goes "You...have...reached...(insert number or name here)...To page this person press 5 now. At the tone, please record a message. When you have finished recording, hang up or press 1 for more options."

Each word is drawn out for as long as humanly possibly and by the time you actually get to the "tone" you forgot what you were going to say because it's suddenly next Tuesday.

Ok, technically, that standard cell phone voice message is only about 15 seconds long. But this is 2009. 15 seconds is now the equivalent of three days and I, for one, could do without Little Miss Snooty-Pant's voice appearing constantly in my life every time I need to remind Schnookum Bear that we are out of dog food.

That's why New York Times tech columnist David Pogue is fighting to get those 15 seconds back. He has done the math and discovered that if every single one of Verizon Wireless's 70 million customers leaves a voicemail and checks their voicemail once a day, the company makes $850 million a year.

$850 million. All just from a 15 second voicemail. Man, I am so in the wrong industry.

Sadly, this is just another case of corporate America trying to stick it to the little guy. But rather than just complain about it, Pogue rallied the troops on Twitter and now cell phone companies have been inundated with letters and, you guessed it, angry voicemails (Ha! Ain't irony grand!).

New Strait Times did an article on Pogue's campaign, and how it spread like wildfire, once again highlighting the power of social media such as Twitter.

Of course, no one is sure if this will actually work and if cell phone companies will actually fire Little Miss Snooty-Pants Voice. But still, I salute you, Mr. Pogue. People say grassroot efforts for social change died after the 60s. I say it just moved online.

Viva la Cell Phone Revolucion!