I don’t own a cell phone.
Why is that? It’s very simple.
I don’t want one. I really don’t.
And in case you are thinking that I am that much of a luddite, no really, I don’t have a landline either.
This has nothing to do with being anti-technology, or getting older – even when I was younger, pre-computers, I never spoke on the phone unless I absolutely had to – but it does have everything to do with quality of life. My life. I have my rich online experiences and I communicate with my family and friends daily online. I just don’t see the need to be inextricably tethered to a device that, well, frankly, disturbs my calm.
I can’t stand talking into a void. “Are you there?,” I constantly find myself asking the device. I like visual, face to face contact when I’m having a conversation. The static and the choppy conversations also make me edgy. I tend to yell a lot when I’m on a borrowed cell phone, no one seems to be able to hear me either. It’s just a nuisance.
I’m not opposed to using a cell phone for a job, I totally get that I would have to have one, but while I’m unemployed, and it’s not in my budget, unh-unh.
And before you query, “but…, but…, how do you travel?” Well, my dears, the old fashioned way. I just point myself in a direction and go, I see what’s in front of me, and I ask locals for directions. I eat what’s put on my plate unless there’s meat and then I eat around it, and I pretend that I’m the first traveler to arrive where ever it is that I am.
I’ll just bide my time until the neural net (telepathy) gets here …
I came across this post as I was perusing my old posts – looking for new subjects to write about.
I have a cell phone now. I consider it to be a camera and a mini-tablet computer, rather than a phone. I still don’t like getting phone calls, and it bugs me to no end that people get upset if I don’t respond to their texts immediately. I turn it off at night while I’m sleeping and during the day it’s around somewhere (safe), but not necessarily where I can hear it ring.
I also use it to watch Netflix, Prime, or Hulu late at night when I’m not sleeping in the pod, and sometimes in the middle of the afternoon when I’m having lunch or knitting I’ll watch an episode or two.
I love being able to capture images with it though.
Has your cell phone changed the way you move through your days, or how you live your life?