Even though I have a Sidekick, I refer to it as a pager - I think because it's faster for me to call it a pager. The words have the same number of syllables, but "pager" is less harsh and flows more easily off the tongue.

This terminology has caused several "disagreements" with my husband, who insists that my Sidekick is a phone and people will get confused if I call it a pager. I say it's not a phone because I can't use it as such. I have data coverage and use it solely for email, Instant Messenger, and Web access. I understand that it has phone capability, but since I am not using it as a phone, why should I call it a phone?

The funny thing is, I've now got my kids referring to the Sidekick as my pager. They'll let me know if it's vibrating in another room. As in, "Mommy, your pager." After our last "argument," my husband - the real engineer/tech/geek in the family - took the time to explain to me in technical terms exactly why my terminology was inaccurate. It's not that it's a one-way device (which it isn't, like some people think), but that it's got the capability to be a phone. In turn, I tried to explain to him why I persisted in employing the word it: there simply isn't anything else for me to use.

This got me thinking. What do you call your mobile communication device? I conducted an unscientific poll, and the responses were very interesting. Apparently I'm not alone in calling it a pager or even running into opposition on the name. Many call it a Blackberry, while several still call it a pager. Mike Janger and his fiancé Elise Brady both have a Blackberry, only he calls his a Blackberry, and Brady calls it a pager. "We've had some rather pointed discussions on this topic," the New York City resident says.

Consuelo Gonzalez of Seattle, Wash., has a Sidekick. She calls it a pager, text messager, or "buzzy thing." "I don't say phone, because then people will assume they can call me, and that I'll call them back," she says. Exactly!

Like me, Katie Schmitz, Associate Professor and Chair of NTID's Department of Liberal Studies, calls her device a pager. She says people who actually speak on theirs call them cell phones, but she doesn't because she can't use hers that way. "My colleagues (deaf and hearing) seem to follow this same definition," she says. "Sometimes I'll say it's a Blackberry, but almost all the time I refer to it as my pager."

With Mildie Oberkotter, of Palo Alto, Calif., she says it usually depends on who she's talking with: "Generally, with the hearing and in the media, it's blackberry or bb for short...With the deaf, it's pager. Without thinking, I refer to it as blackberry, whether it's a Blackberry, Sidekick, iPhone, WyndTell, etc."

If you ask a hearing person what they call their mobile communication device, they'll say phone. Clearly, people who are deaf are calling it either by its brand name or text messager or pager. The first one is similar to what a hearing person might say, but if you get rid of the brand and focus on the device, the term text messager is long and cumbersome. Pager is antiquated and inaccurate due to wireless communication methods. It's a throwback to the two-way pagers everyone used to use.

As Oberkotter says, "I think the d/Deaf expression goes way back to the 80s, before we had these contraptions, email, fax, and other such techie marvels, and had TTY/TDDs where this device called 'pager' was introduced, where one can TTY or phone to it to let the user know she's to call back that person who left the message. That term has carried over to the present, and lost its original meaning."

Janger agrees that deaf people do use the term "pager" more often, especially when communicating with each other. "The ASL sign for pager/BB/PDA has little to do with the "pager" term, he says. "The primary sign, I think, is two thumbs typing an imaginary PDA. Sometimes they'll verbally say, 'I'll page you' when signing. Hearing folks don't call them 'pagers' and we don't use it much with them."

In the old days, we may all have started out with a WyndTell pager. Now technology has changed and we all have different things: an iPhone, Blackberry, Sidekick, or a Palm. We can't call everything a Blackberry, as that's not accurate. Calling everything a pager is clearly not accurate either. There's no consistent term we're using. We need a catch-all name. Suggestions, anyone?

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