An Ode to a Rectangle of Plastic and Glass
Do you remember life before smartphones?
It wasn't that long ago for me. I wasn't exactly an early adopter. I hung onto my old slide out keyboard basic phone for as long as I could. (I'm not usually an early adopter of anything.)
But I was thinking earlier today just how drastically my life has changed with that one little device. Sometimes with little things and sometimes with huge, dramatic differences. For example, the other day M and I were killing time in the library parking lot before it was time to pick up the other kids from school, and I was scrolling through my facebook feed. Someone posted a quote that mentioned singing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, and I started giggling, remembering sing-along sessions back in the day on the way to school. But M had NO idea what I was talking about. So I googled "Bohemian Rhapsody" and right there we watched the actual Queen music video (and I sang along for good measure). I'd never actually seen the music video before and M certainly hadn't, but there we could sit and stare open-mouthed at Freddie Mercury's skin tight satin glory and funny teeth, long after the man has passed from this world.
In my van.
In a parking lot.
On the end of more important smartphone life, even though I HATE phone calls with a passion I am in just as much contact with my sister Amy even though she is in Texas because we both have smartphones and carry them everywhere. I pop on and shoot a comment to her about all kinds of things all through the day, and I usually hear back from her pretty quickly. Kristi and I message each multiple times per day, and even though she only lives down the street we couldn't do this without our smartphones. We are far more connected than I have been with most of my friends in the past (at least since my mission-- hard to beat spending time with a companion/friend 24/7).
I check the weather on my phone. I ask google for the answers to whatever random questions the kids ask. (Siri is more fun to ask, but I'm not in the iphone camp.) I update my food diary, habitica, my race training log, and my blood pressure charts on my phone. I read ebooks all the time on my phone (either ones I've purchased or the ones I've checked out from the library). I use it for directions when I'm going somewhere unfamiliar.
I study my scriptures and make notes and occasionally journal on it. (I still prefer to handwrite in a hard copy journal.)
I carry around and frequently drop a piece of computing equipment that would have filled an entire room 50 years ago. Maybe not even 50 years ago.
What a miracle!!!!
Love them or hate them, smartphones have permanently changed our culture. And I'm coming down on the LOVE side, loathe as I was to adopt one.
What in your life has changed because you own a smartphone? Do you think it makes life better or worse on the whole.
It wasn't that long ago for me. I wasn't exactly an early adopter. I hung onto my old slide out keyboard basic phone for as long as I could. (I'm not usually an early adopter of anything.)
But I was thinking earlier today just how drastically my life has changed with that one little device. Sometimes with little things and sometimes with huge, dramatic differences. For example, the other day M and I were killing time in the library parking lot before it was time to pick up the other kids from school, and I was scrolling through my facebook feed. Someone posted a quote that mentioned singing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, and I started giggling, remembering sing-along sessions back in the day on the way to school. But M had NO idea what I was talking about. So I googled "Bohemian Rhapsody" and right there we watched the actual Queen music video (and I sang along for good measure). I'd never actually seen the music video before and M certainly hadn't, but there we could sit and stare open-mouthed at Freddie Mercury's skin tight satin glory and funny teeth, long after the man has passed from this world.
In my van.
In a parking lot.
On the end of more important smartphone life, even though I HATE phone calls with a passion I am in just as much contact with my sister Amy even though she is in Texas because we both have smartphones and carry them everywhere. I pop on and shoot a comment to her about all kinds of things all through the day, and I usually hear back from her pretty quickly. Kristi and I message each multiple times per day, and even though she only lives down the street we couldn't do this without our smartphones. We are far more connected than I have been with most of my friends in the past (at least since my mission-- hard to beat spending time with a companion/friend 24/7).
I check the weather on my phone. I ask google for the answers to whatever random questions the kids ask. (Siri is more fun to ask, but I'm not in the iphone camp.) I update my food diary, habitica, my race training log, and my blood pressure charts on my phone. I read ebooks all the time on my phone (either ones I've purchased or the ones I've checked out from the library). I use it for directions when I'm going somewhere unfamiliar.
I study my scriptures and make notes and occasionally journal on it. (I still prefer to handwrite in a hard copy journal.)
I carry around and frequently drop a piece of computing equipment that would have filled an entire room 50 years ago. Maybe not even 50 years ago.
What a miracle!!!!
Love them or hate them, smartphones have permanently changed our culture. And I'm coming down on the LOVE side, loathe as I was to adopt one.
What in your life has changed because you own a smartphone? Do you think it makes life better or worse on the whole.
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