reconsidering connectivity (By Laura)

This was my facebook status yesterday:

"So far, I am more frustrated than pleased with the new iOS. This is a serious first world problem. Someone bring me some cheesecake."

I thought it was funny.  And it's true - the latest download of for the iPhone system has bogged my smartphone down and it is now jamming fairly regularly.  Annoying, especially when I use my phone for all sorts of things throughout the day.  Google maps, email, facebook, surfing, calendar, camera... the list goes on.

(Why do we still refer to them as "phones" anyway?)

I'm guessing most people would decide that the system needs to be tweaked so we can get back to our normal use of the phone.  I feel somewhat differently.  My beef lies with the fact that I've become completely reliant on the thing.  This bothers me.  I can't tell you why.  It just does.

I guess I feel that I don't want to be a slave to a little computer in my hand.  I don't actually enjoy being connected all the time, everywhere I go.  I don't enjoy that I pick it up at all hours of the day just to fill a moment of boredom.  Boredom is a GOOD THING, people!  Those are the moments in which we think about things, about life, when we get creative ideas, make plans, make decisions!  If I am filling up every little empty moment with my phone, I am missing out.  MISSING OUT.  I can't emphasize this enough.  I can say that my life has become more full and less thoughtful since I got the iPhone.  

I was watching Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone the other day with Plava (note to self: that movie is too scary for an 8 year old!), and reflected on the fact that when the kids were wanting to know about a certain character that had been named, they had to do some research in the library...in BOOKS.  When do we do that now?  Remember having to do that in school?  I mean, I never liked research.  I found it tedious.  But really, there is something lost when we wonder something and then just reach for our phones and google it.  Instant access to all sorts of information, good or bad.

Louis C K, the comedian, was recently on a talk show talking about this smartphone business and really says some good, and sad, things about it.  Here - watch it.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yR8E8wQhseA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And so here I am, wondering, for the thousandth time in the past year, whether I should trade the iPhone in for a good old flip phone.  My cousin suggested this humorously in the comments of my status, and it reminded me of the huge impact this would have on my level of constant busyness.  A simple flip phone with calls and texts only.  That sounds so heavenly.  Yes, it would be harder to go back to using a map book, and reducing the frequency of my email and facebook checks (from 50 a day to 2 or 3), but doesn't that sound refreshing?  Doesn't it sound like there would be so much more room for, oh, reading, thinking, sitting still and listening, enjoying the flavour of a good cup of coffee, feeling the warm sun on my face, smelling the crunchy leaves of fall?  It's enough to make me swoon.

Well, we shall see.  I think it may fit very well with this whole simplifying thing....

(PS - here's a link to another great piece on the overuse of smartphones!)
http://gawker.com/short-film-about-smartphone-overuse-is-smart-poignant-1189811144