There, I said it. I am envious of all my friends who have smart phones. I personally have an "average intelligence" phone. Yup, if my phone took an IQ test, it would score 100. If not for the touchscreen, it would have scored around 85. We're due for new phones in August and I had been counting down, licking my lips and drooling over the Droids. I polled my Tweeps (Twitter People), who told me which one to go for. I was set, counting down the days.
But, then something changed. First, I started researching costs. Do I really want to pay an extra $30 per month to have internet access on my phone? If both hubby and I got smart phones, we would pay more for internet on our phones than we do for the high speed internet at our house. Second, one of my Tweeps recently took a hiatus from Twitter, citing it was too much of a distraction, always staring at his phone. I realized that maybe having an average intelligence phone IS a good thing. I can't spend my day playing on my phone, distracted from real life. I can only tweet by sending "blind tweets," text messages from my cell phone, without seeing a response immediately. I can only check my email, my facebook, my twitter, and all my other internet obsessions (I'm talking to you Cute Overload, I Can Has Cheezburger, and Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - can you see a pattern?) while on the computer. And I really don't like to sit in front of the lap top for long periods of time - it's hot and not that comfortable. In fact, now that I am out of grad school, I rarely turn the computer on over the weekend. It's a great break and it keeps me from getting to obsessed.
In this age, I think we have lost some of our civility. A friend showed me a book she's been reading last night called "Choosing Civility: the 25 Rules for Considerate Conduct" by P.M. Forni and it got me to thinking. It use to be (back in my days, kids...) we didn't answer the phones or the door during dinner. If you were out with friends, there wasn't the distraction of a cell phone ringing. We weren't instantly available for anyone and everyone to reach us. That has been totally lost with all of this new technology and I miss it. For me, I try to make it a general rule of thumb: if I am with another human being, I don't answer my phone unless it's an emergency or information I've been waiting on. Everything else can wait. I don't expect this from anyone else, just something I do for myself, because I don't want to get lost in a world of technology. I want to balance it with real life experiences.
4 comments:
Ah, yes! I remember those days! Coming from an older generation, I still have difficulties doing anything else while on a phone--other than on a level of say ... emptying a dishwasher. N had a phone call while we were shopping at Fred's last night and I ended up leading him around and tending to his well being until we got home.
The smart phone monthly cost? It's pretty crazy. I don't want to shift from computer to phone. Yet, I hear the cell providers are going to begin pushing us towards data accounts. Limiting us to very simple phones if we opt out.
Ticks me off. Have you heard about this?
I can totally picture you leading him around the store, maybe with your hand on his elbow or something.
Yes, Verizon makes you purchase the data package if you get a new phone. I suspect you can still get very basic phones without it, but I am not even sure about that. They told sis you HAD to buy a data package. Boo.
You nailed the picture! :>)
When I heard about this I began to wonder about the cost comparison of using pay as you go. Buying $100 worth and seeing how long it would last.
Of course, that means we don't get the cut rate costs on our phones we want. I just don't know if I'm brave enough to give it a shot.
I researched all the big providers and found that basically, the costs are the same. Coverage is not. It would be hard to leave Verizon because their coverage is so good. And I too feel nervous about pay as you go.
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