Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category:
I could make excuses but I won’t
I could come up with a lot of reasons I have a new cell phone — a fancy, do-everything-but-the-dishes, touch it — heck — just look at it and it knows-what-you-want cell phone. I could say that my contract was up, which it was. I could say that the last time I got a cell phone — a blue flip phone - was a month before the last BlogHer conference in Chicago in 2007, which it was. I could say I got headaches and sore thumbs from pushing the seven-key four times every time I needed an “s” in a text message, not to mention the endless loop of button-pushing involved if I whizzed past the # or the $ or the @.
I could say that I needed my phone to pinpoint with Big Brother accuracy my exact location on my living room couch and that I was in desperate need of knowing the time and weather in cities around the world while I’m walking around the grocery store. I could say I was longing to Tweet from the parking lot while I waited for my fourteen-year-old to come out of the movies or that responding to comments on my Facebook page while I watered the flowers made me a much better “friend.”
iCould but iWon’t.
The truth is…I wanted the cell phone of the future because the future is now. I’m not sure when I last bought something I didn’t need and just wanted that was frivolous and fun, technologic and hip. (Do people say ‘hip’ anymore?) I’m not only enthralled by the idea of listening to podcasts by my favorite authors as I work out on an old-fashioned, do-it-yourself eliptical trainer, but the fact that the regular calculator becomes a scientific calculator when you turn the phone sideways is really going to come in handy when I am making fat-free banana muffins from a box.
Having a cell phone like this means I can send emails from my bed instead of my office - and that everyone will know I’m sending them from my phone because the phone tells them with its icons and “sent from” messages. I quickly learned how to change that message and find I’m glad that the GPS and email are not linked — because I’m sure some people send notes from places we really don’t need to know about. Not that I would ever do that.
The new cell has become a conversation starter for me and my two teenagers — which games to download (the free ones), how to adjust the volume and of course, when they can get one too, as to not be left behind. It’s a way to track my eating and my spending and most importantly, the vehicle through which I throw virtual balls of paper into a make-believe trash can with a finger flick (darned fan!). It has also made my Mom-Texts much cuter to look at, because “Where r u?” and “Where R U?” and “WHERE R U?” and “When is the movie over I’ve been out here for 20 minutes” all look absolutely adorable in little green on-screen dialogue bubbles.
Fact is, keeping up with the technological Joneses is something I don’t often do as it’s usually beyond the reach of my wallet.
Much to my son’s chagrin we have nary a wide, flat, big screen TV or HDTV or Tivo or DVR or a pool table (that’s a different post). I have a DVD player I’ve forgotten how to use and a VCR just in case I ever need it. Our TVs are fat, not slim and sleek, and although they are plenty - they are also plenty old.
I’m enjoying my stint on the almost-cutting-edge — with my neon green case and my special cloth for cleaning. My time at the top will be fleeting, this is something I know for sure, because as everyone else gets things newer and shinier, I’ll be happy enough with what I have because it’s mine — as always.
Although I wouldn’t complain if there was an App that folded laundry.
