It seems like nowadays everyone has a smartphone. Not just that they own one, like someone owns a book or a bicycle. But that it is an essential accessory that must be on them at all times….. like underpants. And it’s not only busy business people or social butterfly trendy folks – I see kids in elementary school waiting at the bus stop playing games on their very own phones. So here I stand, vulnerably, in front of all of you to confess – I do not have a smartphone.
To answer some of your questions that I can already anticipate – yes, I am from earth. No, I do not live in a little house on the prairie. Yes, I have the physical capacity to see and hear. No, this is not an April fools. Yes, I still manage to breathe every day. And why you ask? Well, let me tell you the top 10 reasons I do not have a smartphone:
1. Initially, I wanted to wait to see if it would catch on.
Why waste the time to learn a new skill if there was a chance it was just a fad and no one would be using it anymore in a few years? Once it was apparent this wasn’t going to go away, then it felt overwhelming to learn the extra new skills that had already been added on to the original new stuff. Maybe it would be easier to just wait it out until, like everything else eventually does, it faded away and I could just learn the next new thing to take its place.
2. I’m always late buying things, and know from experience it will just change again.
I did’t want to have saved up and spent a lot of money for something that might soon be obsolete. I learned this after finally saving up for my 8-track stereo (thanks a lot cassette tapes), my boom box with cassette (thanks a lot compact discs), and my disc-man (thanks a lot mp3 player). Even with encyclopedias, after finally buying “Y” and “Z”, computers came out and no one was writing school papers from their own home library anymore. Not to mention, new things always have glitches that get worked out on future improved versions. I didn’t want to get one, only to find all the problems the new version had just fixed.
3. Cost.
Smartphones aren’t cheap. Not only is there the cost of the phone, and the cost of the monthly phone service, but now it would add an extra charge for internet and data usage. I already have to pay for internet and cable at home – and am always trying to figure out which channels I can live without to crop that bill down lower. The last thing I need is to add an entirely new category of expense.
4. Sound quality.
I’ve tried my husband’s smartphone and it’s harder to hear on. I think the sound quality of my tried-and-true flip-phone is clearer. Maybe because it only has to be a phone. I realize I could get extra gadget ear-pieces to improve my listening experience, but my current cell phone doesn’t require extra gadgets and I like the simplicity of that.
5. Feel.
There’s something to say for the feel of a landline. The speaker right up next to your ear, the microphone right in front of your mouth. It’s the perfect prototype for something you need to hear and speak into. My flip-phone is like a mini version of that and it makes sense to me. Not to mention, it seems practical to text on a full querty keyboard with individual buttons for each letter so I can feel each key move when I’ve accurately hit it. It worked well on my old typewriter and it was so successful that they kept it for computer keyboards. It feels familiar, I don’t end up with a gibberish message, and I like that.
6. I already have a computer at home.
It sits on my desk and plugs in. I never have to worry about it running out of battery life or recharging it. Its large screen is easier for my 40-something eyes to see and read on. And I already pay for internet once. Why pay a second time every month for something I already have?
7. I already have enough homework.
How many things must we check every day? I already have to check my home phone messages, work phone messages, home computer emails, work computer emails, and bills in my mailbox. Now, thanks to social media, I look bad if I don’t remember the birthday of every person I’ve known since grade school or comment on the events of every acquaintance’s life since “it was poooosted on faaaaacebook”. A smartphone would be just more pressure to have to keep up with social media every day.
8. Social anxiety.
With the ease, and pressure, of being on social media more comes being open to everyone’s opinions about everything we post. Our thoughts for the day, pictures of great memories, plans for vacation – it is all fodder for people’s opinions of it. Not just if people “like” it or not, but long monologue responses, and then others’ responses to their responses. For someone like me with social anxiety, what should be a less stressful social experience can become even more anxiety-provoking because of how strangely comfortable people can be voicing their negative opinions from the anonymity of their computers.
9. Germs.
People touch their smartphone screens all day long. And because they are on them constantly, every germ they acquire on their hands through the day eventually ends up on that screen. (Not to mention all the surfaces it is put down on throughout the day.) Now that same e.coli infested screen is up against your face – all the easier to jump into your respiratory system. Yes, I still touch my phone to text and then hold it to my ear – but it wasn’t touching every environmental toxin I’ve encountered today prior to its intimate exchange with my mouth.
10. To stay more present in the moment.
When you fill every moment of every day looking down at a screen, you miss the little things that make your own personal life interesting. The outdoor sights on a pretty spring day, sharing a nod with a stranger as they pass you by, eye-contact with your partner across the dinner table, the sparkle in my dog’s eyes when she tilts her head and smiles at me….. those special little things. Even the smartphone’s ability to take pictures and videos, while great, can be another pull out of the present moment. I love going to concerts – and though it’s fun to take a few pictures to help remember it, lately I look around and everyone is watching the event through the screen of a smartphone while they record it. Sure, it would be fun to be able to re-watch it later on, I’m not denying that. But it’s not the same as experiencing the energy of it in the moment. I choose being swept up in the moment, intoxicated with the grandness of all the sights and sounds surrounding me, over being so focused on getting a good shot to post that I miss out on the big picture right in front of me.