I have, by far, a luxury problem.
Last thursday, my cell phone broke while at a Belgian festival (dutch only). I hear you, that’s not the end of the world. It’s only a cell phone. And that’s true, but in the last few days I’ve experienced that this stupid little gadget turned out to be more than just a cell phone.
So here’s what I liked and disliked about not having an iPhone for 4 days.
No e-mail
While the iPhone is still broken, I’m now using an HTC cellphone of a few years ago. In theory, it can do mail and such, but when you come from the iPhone it’s like driving a bike after getting used to a BMW. It gets your from A to B, but …
So for the last 4 days, I’ve not read a single e-mail on my mobile device. I’ve not replied to a single e-mail. I’ve not seen any possible alerts or problems sent by mail, whatsoever. The only times I could read those, was when I was at a laptop.
The first 2-3 days I was worried about all the e-mails I would only be reading and replying to after a day or so, instead of immediate. I was worried that I was missing a lot of information. As it turns out, reading e-mail in the evening or in the weekends isn’t that bad. It’s OK to reply later and not grasp your cell phone every 10 minutes to see if something important may have come up.
It’s OK to reply in the evenings, when you have time. It doesn’t have to be after 10 minutes of receiving an e-mail. If it’s that important, they’ll call you.
No Facebook/Twitter
I think this is what I was addicted to most. And by most, I mean Twitter. I’m an active Twitteree (or what’s that word for that?), I like reading other people’s messages and getting feedback/replying. I like the geekiness of that social contact. But I didn’t miss it.
I didn’t miss getting those notifications on every mention, or reading Facebook in the day while waiting at a red light. Instead, I enjoyed this wonderful thing called the world. If you don’t have a nifty iPhone to check Twitter/Facebook all the time, you look at other things to entertain you: people, buildings, activities, …
It’s a very relaxing feeling, to not know everything that’s going on with people you may hardly even know. You can catch up in the evenings, it won’t kill you.
No news apps
Whenever I go the toilet, or wait for the girlfriend, or sit in an elevator, … I read the news on the iPhone. Mostly HLN or GVA (Dutch newspapers) as they tend to update fairly frequently and thus give me something to read about, even if I open the app every 2-3 hours.
I must admit that my toilet breaks were far shorter and far less interesting. When you go to take a dump, you just take a dump. No more fiddling about with your iPhone, reading up on everything going on around you.
This is perhaps the part I missed most I think, since it ment I was no longer “up to date” about everything going on in the world.
No calendar
This turned out to be rather troublesome: having an iPhone at hand, meant always having an up to date calendar to make new appointments. Not having an iPhone at hand, meant saying “Errr, I’ll check my agenda tonight and let you know”. It still works, obviously, but it’s harder to keep track of everything.
Thankfully I had a rather quiet weekend with only “big plans”, no small things I could forget by not receiving notifications. I do however place small reminders in my agenda for simple things: do accounting, don’t forget to send mail to X about Y, pick up flowers, … Those things, I would definitely forget.
No music
I can plug in my iPhone in my car via the typical apple-connector, and browse through my music on the dashboard. Not being able to do so, caused me to listen to the radio. Not a simple thing if you’re used to listening to your own, predefined, music. People talk too much on the radio. There’s too many commercials. There’s hardly any good music on, unless you switch stations all the time to skip the bad songs.
I prefer my music, attached to my car on my iPhone. (luxury problem, I told you.)
No Foursquare
If you’re a Foursquare user, you’ll know the routine: arriving at a new place => make sure you check in first. Changing location? Check in to Foursquare. Hop to the bakery? Check in.
In the end, it’s like walking around with your iPhone in hand all the time, just to do checkins. It’s socially awkward and your girlfriend will get annoyed about it.
Not doing all those checkins made me relax more and was a very joyfull experience.
No photos/videos
I like to take snapshots of where I go, if I see funny things or beautiful buildings. I missed not being able to do so, not only because of the “fun” aspect but because of the “important” aspect as well. If you see injustice, taking a picture means you can prove it. If you see worthwhile events, you can take pictures and spread it to the world (as I would have liked to do on the horrible evening at the festival).
It won’t kill you not to be able to take pictures, but if you’re used to doing so, you feel like you’re missing out.
No alarm clock
I have/need 2 alarm clocks in the morning: a Philips Wake-up Light and my iPhone. Today, I only had the wake-up light, and I overslept by 2 hours. Damn you, iPhone.
So what
I know, it is a luxury problem. I still have a phone and I have food and water. Not having that iPhone the last few days made me realize for how many things I use it and what an important gadget it had become in my life. It also made me realize how attached and reliant I have become to that device.
But I’ve also experienced the joy in life of not looking at a pixelized screen all the time, and to experience more of what’s going on around you. And that part, I hope to continue doing.
So what will I do? I’ll try to fix my iPhone, and if that doesn’t work I’ll still get me a new one. Why? Because frankly my dear, life’s more fun with an iPhone.