Armchair Adventures
for March 11, 2012
by Paul Sullivan
Smart Phone: Smart Choice?
Does the world really need another opinion on smart phones?
Only if it's from the viewpoint of a senior citizen, and only if
it is written by someone who doesn't take this stuff too seriously.
It's a phone, after all. Okay, it's a phone and a miniature computer. And no matter how gosh-darned amazing and useful and entertaining it may be, I am in charge of it, and not the other way around.
By now you may have come to the conclusion that I broke down and got a smart phone.
Never in my life have I seen one little pocket-size gadget create such a furor. If there is anybody left in these United States who does not have a strong opinion
on these devices, I'd be surprised.
For the last three years, folks I know who have smart phones have been raving and swooning and telling me about them, how great they are, how much fun they are and how useful they can be. And how could I neglect to say how brilliant and ingenious they are?
And for the past two years I have been doing my best to take a clear-headed, open-minded look at them.
I noticed a pattern to the things friends told me and I paid attention to it. They love their little miracle-makers but they told me to beware of several truisms. "These things really eat-up power," they told me. You charge them fully and often.
They were right-on about that.
The second thing they cautioned was that using a smart phone requires a whole lot more learning than using a plain-jane cell phone.
"You'll be making a phone call with it in no time," said my brother. "That's easy.
"But you'll be a month getting pretty comfortable with it and being able to do a lot of the other things it can do," he added. Right again. Note: Brother Glen is no fool, he is on his second smart phone, and I couldn't help but note that he is still learning about it after several years.
Another friend, still in the thinking-about-it stage, voiced his annoyance-widely shared, I might add-at people who can't lift their eyes from gazing deeply into that little
electronic screen in their hand.
He mentioned eating out a few nights ago and seeing other dining couples spending more time voicing sweet nothings into their phones than talking with their companions.
You can't blame that on smart phones, of course, but it does give us an idea how
many people there are who need to get a life.
If your smart phone is your best friend, I'm afraid a double-edged sword awaits your falling soul: A) You don't have any real friends, and B) You need help.
When I thought about getting a smart phone, I didn't fall into the trap of assuming I would get one and allowing the issue to become which one to get. Sure, there are plenty of differences-plenty of things setting one model or one service provider over another.
The larger question was always, do I really need this and, what can it do that isn't simply amazing and entertaining.
Let me demystify those two issues lest they become a distraction. I have an iPhone 4S on the Verizon network. There are many other satisfactory choices in both the units and the service providers. I had good reasons for those particular choices, but they
would not necessarily apply to others.
If you do not have a smart phone, please do not let my musings influence you.
I remember all too well when cell phones were the newest, coolest thing on Planet Earth. Everybody had to have one!
Eventually I got one. By the time the smart phone slipped into my pocket last month I had owned five cell phones. And you know what? Having a cell phone was nice; it was a convenience; it provided some sense of security, particularly when alone in distant places.
What mattered then, and what matters now, and what will matter 10 years from now is my health, a feeling of striving toward some satisfaction attainable only from useful effort…and my family and friends.
These things, you will notice, are not technological issues. They are eternal human concerns. If a smart phone facilitates any of them, it will earn its keep.
And if you have none of these techno-miracles, not to fret. I have friends who could have them but choose not to. And they are happy people, too.
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