It’s more realistic that I update this once a day. Hopefully, I won’t completely skip a day because I know I’ve already failed missing out in the morning.
One amazing benefit of this blog I’ve already seen: I only put a single space at the beginning of my sentences. Apparently putting two spaces is an unnecessary carry-over from the days of the typewriter that isn’t appropriate anymore. The more you know…
I recently learned that my cell phone provider gets terrible reception out west. Therefore, my mom decided to switch our family provider, and thanks to advertised deals, we also got new phones.
Out of the box, mine looked pretty cool. It flips open—my last phone was just a bar—allowing me to answer calls like in the movies. It feels thinner and more modern, and the black exterior creates a mysterious aura. (Calling for an opinion here: I switched to present tense in the middle of that paragraph; is that appropriate? Past tense makes it sound like my phone no longer does that, but it’s also awkward to switch.)
I ruffled through the box and found the quick-start guide. I hadn’t kept up with the technology and wanted to know what features it had. Maybe the camera also worked as a scanner to read in phone numbers and text. Maybe the GPS could sense locations and situations where it should switch to silent. Maybe it could fight crime while I slept, flying back when I got a call.
The pages were laid out exactly as I wanted, each with a feature to show off. And forget about. Instant messaging? I believe I can also phone them. MP3 player? I would get one if I needed it. Internet browser? Thank goodness I have a computer. Send video, picture, and sound messages? I don’t even send text messages. The camera swivels around? I guess I can satisfy my narcissistic urges now.
Well, it’s not all bad. The contact list is slightly more intuitively designed. The font is cute. And I can flip open my phone and look cool doing it.
It would be premature to say that it isn’t a better phone. I don’t know yet if the audio is clearer, or if it gets better reception. Maybe it has great in-call features. But the trend to improve it is to make it more than just a phone. It’s also an MP3 player, camera, camcorder, and web browser.
Technology is chasing me. I never know whether a camera phone will make me the next reluctant internet celebrity. Programs and features beg me to check my email more frequently. And we’re constantly connected. I can think of eight ways to contact my friends if I need them.
But I can’t fight it. The internet links me to news sources and knowledge databases for me to explore. With countless feeds, I can keep up with the latest news and get several perspectives on any event.
Several days ago, my family was playing Trivial Pursuit, laughing at the obscurity of facts. Whenever we were curious about an answer, we did a search on our laptop and found far more trivia. I don’t remember that from our games in the past.
We have many choices today for how to do things, because everything is always at hand. We always have access to them, yet this limits our choice. We can’t choose not to have them. I wish my phone would just be a phone.
I don’t have much patience with rewrites either.
Tomorrow: who knows. I’ll figure that out tomorrow.