My cell phone, age 9, died early Tuesday morning.

I don’t know what phone years are compared to human years or dog years. I know countless generations of technology, wanted or not, needed or not, had passed me and my phone by.

It wasn’t a brick phone or a phone that needed its own carrying case with a shoulder strap if you wanted to carry its 15 pounds around with you.

But it was almost that old. A flip phone, it was cheap and likely a year or two outdated even at the time I got it.

I should’ve saved it before it bit the dust. It could’ve been a relic of turn-of-the-century technology.

I had it set on vibrate overnight, I guess since being at the district golf tournament Monday afternoon. Sometime early Tuesday morning it vibrated off the kitchen table and smashed onto the tile floor.

The hinge, after surviving tens of thousands of flips, mostly to check the time, rather than to make or answer a phone call, finally, entirely, gave way. It was dramatic, but probably painless for the phone. It was a completely clean break, perfectly in half.

The phone also had a camera. If I recall, that was actually kind of a new feature in 2002. I played with the camera, taking the grainiest photos possible. I never downloaded a picture onto a computer or wound up printing a photo from the phone.

My wife is the opposite when it comes to technology. She upgrades her phone often. A couple months ago, she asked me if I should think about getting a new phone. The question was already meant as humor.

I asked if it was possible to upgrade from my current phone. No. I asked if I could just get the exact same phone, just a new one. She laughed at me.

I don’t have a choice now. Between work and the countless other reasons why every American must have a device with more capabilities than a three-year-old computer in his pocket at all times, I’ll still be cheap and outdated, but I have to get a new phone.

This new wonder — a Blackberry or iPhone or Droid with a clock, a better camera, the same percentage of dropped calls and the ability to Tweet and Facebook about how difficult everything is when the power’s out because of the latest hurricane — probably won’t last through 2020.

Somehow, I suppose, that’s progress.