The other day, at a book stall at a fair, a fellow author was appalled that I didn’t have a Square to my phone to have potential customers pay with a debit or credit card. Her face fell even more when I told her that I didn’t even have a smart phone. “But you have to have this!” she insisted. My answer was a blunt “No”. Here’s why.
First of all: I don’t have to have anything just because somebody else thinks so. I would have been flooded with thermomixes, microwaves, smoothie blenders, Ugg boots, woks, flat screen TVs, fitbits, air fryers, fancy cosmetics, and whatnot. All to the extent that each got a season’s use until it ran out of fashion or needed to be upgraded. Or just to be able to say that I have one of the kind, too? Well, I have all that I need, and I’m not telling you what to buy either.
My second point is way more important: I don’t want to be available 24/7. My mobile phone is about as much as I want to handle. The other night, it rang at three in the morning – some superfluous call by an even more superfluous 800-number most probably from an indifferent caller from a different time zone. Guess how I appreciate a call that startles me out of my deepest sleep, just a bit over an hour before I have to get up! I am aware that on a smart phone you can switch off the ring tones, the beeps of incoming emails, the signals for tweets, Facebook comments, and messages etc. But then – why have one in the first place?!
To me, just having an old-fashioned flip phone means that I have a way of calling my husband when need be and 911 in an emergency. I can take photos in case I need to document something. I can text – that’s my alternative to tweeting. Otherwise – silence. And I enjoy it.
On a daily basis, I see parents sitting in playgrounds with their smartphones, staring at their screens, while their kids are trying to catch their attention and to figure why that thing is so much more important than they. Or families walking, each glued to their own screen. Friends meeting in restaurants – only to sit at the same table without talking, intent on the next commentary popping up out of the ether. No communication whatsoever though everybody could have each other’s company. Chosen isolation for the sake of virtual worlds instead of the real life that is now and unique and unrepeatable.
I am that person whom you can see walking around Waughop Lake without a device in her ears or her eyes on a screen, ready to say hello, to pat your dog (if permitted) and smile at your child. I am the one who looks for the birds singing in the trees or for the fish jumping in the water. I won’t check whether anybody has reposted a meme for me to reshare because that’s “what you do”. I’m not expecting any mind-blowing call about having found a leading publishing house or won the Literature Nobel Prize. I know I am far from number one on the Amazon bestselling lists and don’t have to check for my hourly ranking. I don’t want to know the irritating news about what has just gone awry in the world this second (I will find out soon enough) because either it’s close enough to impact me immediately or so removed that I don’t have an immediate impact on it even if I tried to act asap.
In other words – being off the grid gives me peace of mind. It also makes me enjoy my here and now. Experiencing with all my senses what no device whatsoever will be able to convey to me. There are places, too, where I don’t even have to choose to be off the grid – most of the Cascades e.g. and the greater part of the Olympic Peninsula don’t have cellphone reception. Last New Year’s Eve, in Kalaloch on the Pacific Coast, I observed somebody who desperately tried for the better part of an hour to get some reception on their smart phone. There was no Wi-Fi either. Nor TV. I have rarely felt so utterly calm and relaxed and close to whom and what was around me.
Do I need a smartphone to run a Square? (And do I need such a Square?) In the end, I sold a couple of books at that stall at that fair. I was never asked whether I took cards. I was paid in cash.
Amen to absolutely everything you said! I am another who chooses to be off the grid! We are becoming a society that has forgotten how to talk to each other. Most of the time we are talking to some kind of gadget. A good conversation should at least include eye contact and body language which you don’t get from a phone. We watch people in restaurants sitting across the table from each other looking at their phones. They’re not always talking on the phone, but always staring at it.
And why do you suppose there have been more injuries between cars and pedestrians, especially at intersections? We’ve witnessed people walk right out into the street while staring at their phones. I don’t get it! So many folks out there have lost all sense of personal responsibility. And it’s probably not going to get better anytime soon. As you mentioned…another new upgrade will be on the market soon along with the rush to buy it! We may not have money to pay our rent or medical bills..but there always seems to be enough for the next upgrade.
Thanks for putting my thoughts into words!
Thank you, Pat! It didn’t even occur to me that, of course, technical gadgets are often rather paid for than human necessities such as healthy food, medication etc. Good pooint!
Preaching to the choir…….as in me too!
I guess, our choir is dwindling, though.
Another Amen, Sister. I got this email recently, absolutely beautiful:” Smart phones enable us talk to people far away and ignore the ones sitting next to us.”
Dieter M.
Thank you, Dieter! Unfortunately, so many people deem the fads of technology essential, forgetting they will create an insane amount of garbage and lose touch with their inane capabilities.
Susan, I echo your thoughts on the inappropriate use of smart phones that lead to personal isolation, lack of observation of the world’s natural beauty, and reduced joys of face-to-face interactions. You have “hit the mark”.
KJ
Thank you, KJ! Your words make me wonder whether missing out on natural beauty and face-to-face interaction is what depresses or aggravates some people these days so very much.
Do you think the rest of the world will ever figure this out?
Eventually, they might wonder what went wrong when, maybe. Alas, you cannot turn back time.
Its so refreshing to hear that I’m not alone in this world with my always ready and cheap to replace Flip Phone! My family cracks up when I proudly display my antique transmitting and listing device in there presence! Next we will see a new phone, one that knocks everything to the ground, Heads Up Display eyewear, glass’s that have a heads up like in some of the cars on the road and fighter planes. I’m not ever going to play the game that I need to get a Smart Phone, when you loose your phone can anyone go one day without going crazy or when you leave your home? We don’t see Pay Phone’s around anymore so a phone is a security device to me, and my leash for my daughter to watch my grandchildren which is my pleasure. Nice to know there is a small group of Solid Flip Phone Believers that still proudly display there communicator to one and all!!
Absolutely, William! The day I feel that I cannot live without even so much as only temporary access to a smart device will be the one when I know that a market has manipulated me into making a product more important than the world I’m actually living in. I wonder how many smart devices everybody has tossed in the past years because of upgrades that are “must-haves” to create a mountain of garbage the next generations will have to deal with.
I am the proud owner of an “intellectually-challenged” land line. It’s great to go out and not be interrupted. All of it can wait until getting home; that is, if someone “leaves a message at the tone.” I’ve also noticed that telemarketers don’t bother to leave their oh, so important messages.
There are some of us left who remember what we did before all of this constant communication existed.
Exactly, Dave! I love this especially! I realize that these calls have diminished over time, too. You can discourage these enervating calls by simply having a landline.
My cellphone was on mute, in my pocket, as my wife and I sat for a quick lunch at a favored fast food place. Across from us sat a dad and a young teenaged son. It appeared that this was dad’s weekend to entertain and bond with his son. How sad as the young man, slouching in his seat, never took his eyes or fingers off his cellphone, and we watched in utter disbelief as 10 minutes passed with not one word spoken between father and son during their”quality time together”.
I have a smartphone, but it’s used sparingly. Text me once and if important I will reply. Text me twice and I’ll pickup the phone and call. The sound of a voice is so much better than trying to communicate one texted word at a time.
Thank you for sharing this story. I see that all the time, too. I am not principally against smart phones, by the way. But I think nobody has the right to tell me that I need one when I prefer to be without one. For all the given reasons. And especially not for a Square …