Mark’s nephew Matthew has been visiting us from Halifax for the past week. With his help, Mark bought his first cellphone. Until now, we have been a couple where neither of us owned a mobile device. Matthew has been helping Mark set up his new phone and configuring it to all sorts of functions. While on the way home this morning from a weekend visit to Walkerton, where we visited Matthew’s brother Jonathan, I endeavoured to download the Zyzzyva Scrabble lexicon for Mark. I have downloaded various versions of Zyzzyva to my desktop and to Mark’s and my laptops, so I was no stranger to the steps involved.
Mark and Matthew sat up front while I sat in the backseat. I took Mark’s new cellphone and went on-line to find the Zyzzyva link from the Scrabble website. It wasn’t long before I was overcome with nausea. I have hardly ever swiped a cellphone’s screen, and the constant motions of my fingers over the screen searching for Zyzzyva and swiping to find the required places to click on made me queasy. I immediately recognized the symptoms: I was feeling the same light-headedness and tingly sensations that preceded my stomach-emptying episode when I was in Inverness last year. What was happening to me? I felt as if I could vomit at any minute, so I held the phone at a distance, closed my eyes and told Mark I couldn’t do the download and needed to do it not in a moving vehicle.
I do not suffer from motion sickness, not in cars, planes or boats. So why did I feel so nauseous? I must have only had the phone in my hands for five minutes before I was overcome. An Internet search at home informed me of the condition known as cybersickness. I had never heard of this before. Apparently it is worse for those sitting in rear seats. With my aversion to acquiring a cellphone, was my body manifesting this fear or dislike in the form of nausea? In this case, I don’t think my technologically-averse brain was playing tricks with me. Could the swiping, and glancing up and down, left and right have disturbed my comportment?
When I got home I needed to take a Gravol to calm my stomach. If I ever do get a cellphone, I will be aware now of this adverse effect. Perhaps it won’t be as bad if I use the phone in the front passenger seat. However, I might consider this an omen.