Unplugged

I got rid of my Smartphone and cancelled my data plan.

When you read that line, did you have trouble processing the logic of it? How many of you would immediately reject that suggestion? Seriously, how many of my meager readership would reject outright the option of rolling with a basic no-frills cell phone instead of an iDroidPalmPad with (cue angels singing) Apps?

Yeah, I rejected it too.

I mean, come on. If you brush away the vajazzle of the time-killers, smart phones are still very very useful. I travel for my job, so being able to check the weather, grain markets and road conditions on the go is pretty cool. Email access, built-in GPS navigation, mobile web… these are all amazing tools for any adult in any profession. So based on that (and that alone… I swear) I originally turned away from the idea of ditching my Incredible.

But eventually I came around, because saving thirty bucks a month is a strong argument. I got a simple phone, I cancelled my data plan, and set out to sell my smartphone. It sucked. I missed emails because I was away from the internet all day. I couldn’t just whip out my phone and check movie times on a whim, or look up which county my inspection was in. I couldn’t listen to the news while I was driving. And you know what else? I was bored. Because for every time I checked WeatherBug on my Droid I checked the Chive twice, and after checking the grain markets I checked my Gmail and Slickdeals and What Would Tyler Durden Do. I played Chess and Armored Strike.

And...

My girlfriend called it my “dumb smartphone”, because just about every time I sat down anywhere or had a few free minutes I pulled the thing out to fuck with it. Useful? Yes. Distracting? Also yes. My mom and sister once bet on how long I could go without touching the thing (the over/under was 5 minutes). I scoffed then.

But you know what? We are all WAY too plugged in. Don’t tell me we aren’t. When you go out to eat with a group of friends, and more than half of you pull out a Droid or iPhone immediately after sitting down at the table, you are too plugged in. There you are, sitting at a restaurant with friends, and instead of talking everyone is checking their Facebook accounts. 

Those Windows phone commercials? 

 

Those Sprint commercials? 

Both are clever as hell, but also a glaring sign of the times that is more sad than humorous.

By becoming more connected we’ve fallen out of touch. We can look up the lyrics to a song with the swipe of a thumb, but we can’t call our old friends. But it’s okay, because you liked their status earlier in the day. I see people sitting on park benches, playing with their iPads while their kids go without parental interaction (or worse, unsupervised). I saw a TV show where a mother-to-be was updating her Twitter feed while in labor. We are all placing too much value on networking and not enough value on interaction, too much value on instantaneous knowledge and not enough value on learning.

I’m sure I will get a smart phone again some day. Their usefulness is too… well… useful… for me not to own one when I can afford to. But when I do, I think I’m going to leave it in my pocket more, leave it in my car more. And for the time being I guess it’s good to be unplugged. Off the grid. Out of touch. I miss Angry Birds. But I don’t miss the world going by. And that’s what really matters, isn’t it?