As of this writing, our planet has almost as many mobile phone subscribers as inhabitants— about seven billion! China and India, between them, have over two billion subscribers. In the United States there are more subscribers than its 300 million population.

While a majority of subscribers reside in more developed countries, where it is not uncommon to own multiple cell phones, there are about one billion people in poor, undeveloped countries who do not yet own a cell phone.

Remarkably, it was little more than a decade ago that the cell phone became such an integral part of our lives, so much so that we frequently find ourselves asking: How did we human beings ever manage to function before its sudden appearance?

Roger Minick’s book CELL PEOPLE is an insightful, often humorous look at our twenty-four-seven love affair with this ubiquitous, talking, listening, texting, computing, imaging device. When one looks at the people in Minick’s images, one almost begins to believe that this “thing” at the end of their hands, invariably pressed against an ear or being stared at incessantly, has become a virtual extension of their anatomy.