DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have had an interesting couple of days. Yesterday the SIM card in my Samsung Galaxy died. I had insurance, and Samsung will replace the phone. But until Monday I have no access to the cellular network, and unless I have an interent connection I have--
No phone calls, no texting, no checking email, no checking the weather! Wifi-calling and texting aren't working even when I do have an internet connection. So no phone calls and no texts until Monday, full stop.
A little inconvenient, I thought. But, then, when I was out today doing errands (including the visit to the Verizon store,) I realized how absolutely automatic it was to check my phone every few minutes!
I know some of you live in more rural areas where cell reception might be spotty, but I am in a big metro area where that is never a problem (barring natural disasters!) I am always connected!
Before international travel passes became affordable around 2015, I carried two phones when in the UK, so I was connected even there. Not that I used the UK phone much, as it was expensive, but I could make and receive calls and texts if needed.
How long had it been, I wondered, since I had been completely unfettered? I say "unfettered" deliberately, because after the first few slightly panicked, FOMO minutes, it felt...freeing.
Last night in our Reds & Readers Happy Hour we talked a little about time management, and today's experience was a wake-up call on my constant level of distraction.
Just how distracted are we all? And what would it be like to just...turn it off?
Will I do it? Probably not. But I will, hopefully, at least be more aware of what's frittering away my attention.
Of course, research nerd that I am, I had to look up the history of mobile phones, and try to remember what I had, and when. (I'm also trying to figure out what my characters in the book-in-progress would have carried around 2001, and whether or not they'd have had reception in and around Teddington Lock.)
The first really affordable cell phones arrived in the mid to late nineties. There was Motorla Startac--the flip phone! I never owned one, though--I had Nokias. Remember the Nokia? I carried one in the UK for years after I switched to a smartphone in the US. A funny thing, in the US we say NO-kia, long "o", emphasis on the first syllable. In the UK, they say Nock-ia, short "o", a little emphasis on the "i." I think the UK version is correct.
Blackberries hit the market in the early 2000's. I'm sure I was still using a Nokia in 2001, but I did switch to the Blackberry in the next couple of years. They were the thing! In 2002 Blackberry's 5810 introduced push email and web browsing, and the modern world was born! They have a lot to answer for, one way or another...
As does Apple, with the advent of the iPhone in 2007. Android was a bit late to the game, introducing its operating system in 2010. I must have switched from Blackberry to a Samsung Galaxy sometime after 2011, when Blackberry began to fail, and have stuck with them ever since.
Reds and readers, do you remember when you had to find a phone to make a call?
What do you think about our constant level of connectedness? Would you switch off? Could you switch off???
And have you had a favorite phone? (I love my Galaxy, but the Blackberry was the best ever for typing!)
I love my Galaxy Note phone . . . I like being in touch with the girls but I'd be okay without being constantly connected. In fact, I have an app that tells me when I have a message [so I don't miss anything from the girls] so the phone often just sits in a holder on the coffee table. I do remember those phone-hunting days; now I guess phone booths are a thing of the past . . . as is a rotary phone, but the grandchildren are quite fascinated by it and love making calls on it . . . .
ReplyDeleteI was one of the last to get a cell phone (seriously, my mom had one before me). I had a landline for the longest time, and I didn't feel like I needed two lines. Until my sisters-in-law pointed out I could get rid of the landline and have a cell phone. Within a few days, I had done just that. My first phone was a flip phone. I feel like smart phones were around then, but I didn't have one. But then I graduated to an iPhone and never looked back.
ReplyDeleteI do rely on it quite a bit. And it, and the internet in general, are very distracting. I think it would be good for me to unplug for a bit, but I haven't plan it out well in advance to do so. So we'll see if that ever happens or not.