Meet the closest thing I have to a significant other: my Verizon Motorola RAZR.

He’s my most trusted companion and way better than a boyfriend. He’s always there when I need him; plus, he does whatever I say. We’ve been together for three years now. Before that I had an AT&T Samsung, but he was an asshole and always dropped my calls.

Our generation has a technological addiction; we are in love with our phones. We can’t go a single day without them, and they always have to be at hand. I don’t know about you, but every time I hear my phone vibrate during class I almost burst from the anticipation. No teacher, lesson or obstacle — imagine the full backpack with the phone all the way on the bottom — is going to deter me from getting hold of it.

But hey, this isn’t cocaine, right? My nose isn’t going to fall off, and I’m not going to be sent to rehab with Dr. Drew. But what if your cell phone addiction was not only hurting your classroom etiquette, but also your health?

TIME Magazine has an article this week called “How Safe Is Your Cell Phone,” which talks about the possible dangers of cell phone radiation.

I know what you’re probably thinking — this is just more health hoopla. It’s like in the ’90s when mothers across the nation were yelling, “Don’t stand in front of the microwave, you’ll get brain cancer!”

But this isn’t a silly conspiracy theory. Cell phones do emit radiation that can’t be conclusively labeled safe. There have been studies that link similar radiation to cancer and cell damage. And studies that have declared cell phones safe, like those from the wireless companies themselves, have not been totally unbiased or foolproof.

A little side note to all of you BlackBerry fanatics: The BlackBerry 8820 is at the top of the list for radiation emission. But don’t fret too much. Texting emits a lot less radiation than calls, and you guys only communicate through BlackBerry Messenger anyway.

France, Israel and Finland, among other countries, have already issued warnings for cell phone use. According to TIME Magazine, a bill is the works in Maine that would require cell phone manufactures to include a warning on their product saying, “This device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause brain cancer.”

If this scares you as much as it scares me, check out the article. It’s online (but I’m not sure of the technicalities of laptop radiation, so don’t blame me if your cells become deformed).

What surprised me most, however, was not the article itself — I have heard about cell phone radiation before — but, rather, how unfazed most people were about the issue. They laughed at me or blew it off. Most of you will read this article, then continue on your way like everything is fine, yakking away on your cell phone to your mom about how miserable midterm week is.

We’ve been told many things are bad for us in excess: tanning, SPLENDA, Big Macs and now, cell phones. Yet many people choose to look the other way. The only way some of us would let go of our bad habits would be if God Himself came down from heaven and proclaimed, “THOU SHALT NOT EAT BIG MACS, NOR OWN A BLACKBERRY!”

We are so infatuated with our cell phones that we don’t want to believe they could be bad for us. What’s inconvenient is disregarded.

I’m not trying to advocate the burying of phones 20 feet below ground or the wearing of tinfoil hats. I’m just saying, don’t let your love affair with cell phones blind you. Be aware of the facts — don’t ignore them just because they’re ugly.