Victoria KimbleThe Worst-Case Scenario happened the other day.
I had to restore my phone to factory settings.
An app freaked out on my phone, and it Would. Not. Stop giving me error messages. After a visit to my carrier’s website and a tour of their help section (via a computer) I learned the only resolution would be to basically scrub my phone and let it get a fresh start.
My first thought? “Oh good. I thought I was going to have to buy a new phone.”
My second thought? “What do you mean this procedure erases all saved data??”
All my settings. All my pictures (which are backed up to the cloud and on Instagram, but you know what I mean.) My wallpaper. Gone.
These days, this is a Level I Crisis. It takes us weeks and months to customize our phones to our exact specifications. Our lives are wrapped up in these tiny, amazing devices that give us so much information and freedom. Is that a good thing?
Once I accepted the full gravity of my demise and started my phone on the path of being wiped, my writer brain took over. What would a world be like without our little computers in our pockets? The easy answer would be to look back at history, and not even that long ago. Believe it or not, I survived childhood and high school and even college without a smart phone. And I’m not that old…college wasn’t too long ago.
But my mind didn’t go to the past. It jumped to the future.
What would our world be like if we decided that our current smart phone technology is actually detrimental to our lives, and we adjusted how we used them?
What if we only used them for direct communication, via calls, video chats and texts only, and we completely eliminated the gaming and social media aspects? What other industries and activities would be born because our time was no longer sucked up by personal devices? Can you imagine?
Hmm. You’ll have to excuse me. I need to go write down a story idea.
Are there any parts of smart phone technology that you wouldn’t miss? Or that you can imagine our lives better without? Hit the comments and let me know!
Julia N. White
Misha
Laurie Germaine
Catherine Price wrote a book called “How To Break Up With Your Phone” because the amount of time we spend on those things IS so detrimental–in so many ways. I didn’t get a smartphone until about 5 years ago, when I was in my mid 30’s, and I’ve noticed my creativity output has decreased as the use of my smartphone has increased.
I’m a huge advocate for waiting as long as possible before getting yourself or your children smartphones. These little elementary and middle school students with the world at their fingertips yet lacking the wisdom to maneuver through that world is NOT a good combo. :/
And don’t get me started on social media.
Oh, the hot buttons this post hit upon! 😀
Ooo…I’ll have to look up her book!
I remember when Cell phones were new and someone asked my mom if she was going to get one since she spent so many hours driving on the back roads of rural Douglas County (Not as many folks here then!). Her reply has stuck with me even as I have had my “Smart phone”
“Why would I want to have one of those things? I don’t want someone to be able to reach me all the time! Some times I want to be unreachable so I can reach myself and find my own way. You can hear that still small voice of God when you are alone in your car away from all other distractions so much better! A Cell phone would rob me of that!”
She has a flip phone that only makes calls, I can’t say it receives them because she never seems to answer it when we call her!! Of course it may be because she can’t hear it ring but we may never know!
Her generation is so wise. 🙂
Every morning I walk past middle graders at their school bus stop. Each one is staring at a phone. It’s rare to see any face-to-face conversations.
I wonder what it would take to have that change.
I wrote an essay about how excessive uses of phones and screens are in our lives. The research I came upon intrigued me… did you know children ages 3-12 spend around six hours a day on technology? The amounts and time we spend engaging in this sedentary activity is astonishing!
It is troubling for sure! I’d love to hear the conclusion of your essay. Did you have any ideas on how to counteract it?
After years of resistance, I broke down and got a smartphone. I love it. And I hate how it captivates me. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that technology is supposed to serve us. Too often, it feels like my phone has become the master with all the notes, camera, calendar, alarms, and stored information I keep there. The day I left the house without my phone at first felt traumatic–then so freeing! I could breathe again! The chains were gone! I could hardly wait to get my phone back to make a note of it.