So this is what the twenty-first century looks like

Even though (or perhaps because) I work in a digital lab, I have a touch of the Luddite about me.  I like technology, but in its place – I’m not a fan of technology for the sake of it.  I like to use the tool that does the job best for me, which is not necessarily the newest and shiniest toy.  Which is not to say I’ll always avoid the new and shiny (far from it – I can think of several new and shiny things I’d love to have and that only the exorbitant cost is keeping me from), but that I’ve got to convince myself it’d make life better than what I’m currently using.  Which is why I write with a fountain pen, why I love my antique wooden ironing board, and why I’ve resisted buying a smart phone… up until now.
Because yes, I finally gave in, and upgraded my ancient Nokia dumb phone to something that can do more than just phone and text.  Finally the number of times I’ve been in situations where I’ve thought “It would be really useful to be able to [check map/bus arrival times/look up details of a business/check whether x has emailed me/other smart phoney type things]” has reached a tipping point where not having a smart phone went from “I don’t really have a use for one so why bother” to “Ok, now I’m just being stubborn about it”.  So I spent way too long comparing service providers and plans, and then even longer looking at the different phones, and then spent an hour or so in the mall this morning asking many many questions of the very patient shop assistant in the Vodafone shop, and finally walked out with a shiny new phone.  Which I have spent the rest of the day manually transferring numbers onto from my old phone (patient Vodafone guy looked very relieved when I said I didn’t expect him to be able to magically find a way to connect very old Nokia with shiny new phone to transfer the contacts across – some tech is just too old to be compatible with doing things automatically).
So here it is.  Very much a mid-range, just does the things I want it to sort of phone, and I’m sure those with i-whatevers or the latest $1000+ models will look down their noses at it, but I’m happy (or at least, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that Google will now know even more about me than they already did, but I think that was a lost cause anyway).

I feel like it needs a name…

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8 Comments

  1. Oh honey! I feel like I could have written this exact entry! My thoughts exactly. Brilliantly stated…. all of it!
    ‘Smart phoney.’ Double meaning there…. 🙂
    -“Ok, now I’m just being stubborn about it”- yeah…. that….
    – i-whatevers ha!-
    (I’ve resigned myself to the fact that Google will now know even more about me than they already did, but I think that was a lost cause anyway). Oh …. ain’t it the truth?
    And finally….
    -I feel like it needs a name.-
    OMG. You ARE my long lost twin!
    Only thing is…. now you have a smart phone and I don’t. I think I see the handwriting on the wall…..
    PS I love fountain pens. But at the moment, I don’t own one. I haven’t been able to find one that lets me write as fast as I want to. I like the romance of them… but the reality is somewhat different.
    Go ahead, name your phone. I can’t wait to hear it!

    1. Definitely twins separated at birth!
      I still haven’t come up with a name though. Given that I usually refer to my kindle as “my magic reading device” (in reference to Clarke’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic) and my mp3 player as “my magic listening device”, maybe my phone should be “my magic everything device” – I keep discovering new things it is capable of doing!

  2. Does that mean you now start playing Pokemon ? Seriously you don’t need to pay a lot of money. I only spent about $500 and it wasn’t the latest model but it is sturdy which is the main thing for the way I use my phone. I never thought that I would sing the praises of a smartphone but I have fun with mine. Most of my workmates only seem to use their phone for Facebook but I rarely use it for that. The main apps I use are Pokemon, geocaching, Garmin Connect, the camera (my sony camera died) and a QR scan for geocaching puzzles. The most frequently used website for google on my phone is a crossword solver one.
    I also like the Vodafone TV guide app that means I see what is on TV (not usually anything much)

    1. I think I can resist the lure of Pokemon… probably…
      I suspect my biggest use is going to be checking bus arrival times when I’m at a stop without an arrivals board. It’s already proved its worth with that when I had to go over to Fitzgerald Ave for a meeting this morning.

    1. Nice! Mine is just a cheap one off Amazon, but it writes remarkably well for something that only cost me about USD30.

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