There are certain things you realize when you don't have your phone anymore that seem like big problems which become unimportant after a few days. For the first twenty four hours here were my first world problems I had to deal with:
- How was I going to Snapchat all the pictures of me eating ice cream to people? I found some great deals on ice cream and it's sad that my first thought was to take a picture and send my find to someone. (I did buy two boxes of Drumsticks and a box of 24 Fudgesicles in case you wanted to know)
- How was I going to continue the everlasting ongoing text messages that I had going on? Some of these were very important conversations that I no longer was able to continue.
- How would I Instagram my selfies of me doing nonsense things like making dinner on the BBQ?
- How would I check in to all the non important places I went to on the weekend on Facebook?
- How was I going to survive a bus ride without my playlist of music?
- How was I going to check my daily horoscope?
- How was I going to check the weather for today, tomorrow or next week in Ottawa or a random city? (I did get poured on today not knowing it was going to rain)
- How was I going to set my alarm in the morning for work? I don't have an actual clock in my room anymore.
- How was I going to get all my pictures off of my phone? (They were pretty dumb ones but still)
- How was someone going to call me (Let's face it my total talk time in a month is maybe ten minutes)
- How was I going to make plans to meet up with people and know if either one of us would show or be late?
- The moment I walked out the door I had three construction guys on my street say hi to me all in a row.
- My Ipod is so much lighter than a phone and easily fit in my pocket, freeing up my hands for my purse and bus pass without me being all awkward.
- The bus driver actually said hello and smiled at me this morning.
- I may have danced at the bus stop listening to Fleetwood Mac's Sweet Little Lies and am now obsessed with the song.
- I paid attention to people. There was one woman doing make up on the bus, one reading a book, a man outside cutting hedges on the sidewalk side of his property, a mom with her child on a slide at the park. It was the people watching I love to do.
- I realized how boring my job really can be without the extra distraction at my desk. This could be a very good or very bad thing.
- I started looking at vintage clothing, looking into my dreams, reading the news. Stuff I used to care about.
- I stopped looking for my phone, waiting for text messages, deleting junk emails. All the things that waste so much time in my day.
- My phone does have a voice activated command thing. I finally used it and realized I can set my alarm, send and receive text messages and call her a whore when she doesn't do what I ask, but then she tells me to come back when I feel like being nicer and that she doesn't understand when I say goodbye forever alone.
I may just want to wear my jean jacket, pretend it's 1987 and listen to Little Lies on a plain old Sony Walkman.
We seem to realize what the best things in life are when they're not with us misplaced, broken
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It seems that in today's regular activity, we cannot be without a cell phone, work on a computer, use a calculator or just talk to someone without sending a msg, text or email.
God, what happened to the times of 20 years gone by or more?
How did we ever survive without facebook, twitter, the internet and google?
I remember in my 1st year of high school calculators were not even an option to try to do math or calculations, writing was with a pen and a piece of paper and if we needed to talk to our family and friends we went outside and walked across to the neighbour's house or picked up the telephone with the rotary dialer and called our family and actually talked to them across the miles.
It's sad to see that evolution has changed 1000% from those days.
Being without seems sometimes better than having the gizmo and gadgets of today as then we were more a trusting society, involved in our kids lives, rode a bike and actually stopped to smell the flowers while taking a walk and saying hello to the new neighbour who has just moved in down the street.
Jenn, thanks for bringing back perspective in understanding that there's a time and a place for cell phone, texting and messaging. We should realize to take the time to say hello to a random person as you walk by them on your way to work or just a friendly smile to the person next to you on the bus.
Put down the cell more often and watch the scenery around you. It'll make you smile and possibly laugh even before you realize it.
I couldn't agree more with either of you. I have now lived in Canada 11 years and had all those things when i lived in England (The cell phone, the Sony Walkman (hey i'm knocking on a bit )I came to live here because it reminded me of times that were slower, where people cared enough to smile, say hello and offer a helping hand and the crime was a lot lower here. (My first front page read in Fort Erie was of the birds migrating and the big hullaballoo was that a young boy was pretending to be (the free/25 cents a month) paper deliverer.
ReplyDeleteI have NOT owned a cell phone, Ipod, tablet since being here. I have a computer and i am on face-book. The only reason is, it's great to stay in touch with friends and family. I have walks on a regular basis where people smile and stop and talk because they feel as though they can. I am not saying don't use these things , just stop on occasion and smell the roses and watch the people walking by. The world is passing you by whilst you're glued to that 4/5 inch screen!
Omg!!I just pulled out my Walkman yesterday to listen to tape from psychic lol. It rocks! But people think I'm crazy for just having one still lol. I know how you feel, when I came home from Scotland I went 6 month sans phone, it was glorious. But note I'm reliant and I don't even have a good one. Still using pen and paper for calendars and note pads lol.
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