I’m excited. I’m excited because I am getting a new toy. I’m a total gadget freak. I love the latest and greatest when it comes to tech. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t have the means to support a lifestyle of having the latest phone, gadget or gaming system, but I do enjoy innovative technology. I wish I owned an iPad. I’ve been using my sister’s extra iPad until she leaves for London. I have to give it back to her at the end of this week. I am really excited though about the new thing that I am about to get. I am getting a new cell phone!! No, it’s not the iPhone 4s or the latest 4G LTE Android phone. I’m getting a regular Qwerty phone that pretty much brings me back to the dark ages of mobile cellular technology. I just want it to receive and send calls and texts. That’s it! While my new phone can access, in basic form, the internet, I don’t plan on using that feature. In fact, I plan on disabling internet on my phone altogether. I am excited about this.
This is certainly a change in lifestyle for me. I’ve had a smartphone since my Blackberry, even before smartphones were the norm. I’ve grown accustomed to checking my email, updating my status and tweets, keeping up with other people’s statuses and tweets, checking the weather, checking the news, and checking sports scores. In the race to be on top of all that information, I‘ve become tired and a bit encumbered, to be honest. To quote one of my dear friends, it’s about less words and more meaning. Having access at our fingertips has changed us in society, in the quest of being more communicative, we’ve essentially forgotten how to communicate. I once took a picture of 3 people in my office, all on their cell phones. While there were 4 of us there, there really were none. Sometimes we hide behind texts, instant messages, blogs even because it’s easier to speak to screen than it is to a living breathing human being.
Have we become slaves to the information? Information really is there for us to use and seek at our own discretion. But in the wake of the information boom, we’ve become enslaved to the ideal that we just NEED to know or that we need to be available to the opportunity. I’ll tell you what I NEED. I need to be there for my wife and daughters. I need to give them my one hundred percent. I NEED to be there for my family, friends, and people who rely on me. I NEED not be inundated with the feeling that I need to check my phone every couple minutes to check the latest and greatest.
So, to combat this, I bought a dumbphone, a phone that just receives and sends calls and texts. It’ll save me money, time, and energy and of course I hope it’ll add to the quality of life that I truly desire.
Less words, more meaning.
Unplug.
