Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Well that makes sense. But the double-edged sword is that while you only have it to text/phone, people keep it in them for basically the same reason. Next thing you know, you’re bored in a waiting room and browsing CP, or Twitter or whatever and the slippery slope begins.
I also think that people expect you to have your phone. Like 20 years ago, you could phone someone and not reach them. You were OK with that. Today, we all know the guy actually has email (even when the out of office says you don’t, but you just can’t bring yourself to say “I’m taking a break”). We all want to be able to text people and when they don’t respond we wonder why not. To me, that’s the real poison of the cell phone.
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I would say the biggest detractor to having a 'dumb phone' or a smartphone without data is access to services when out and about.
Going for a walk and noticed something City-owned is broken in your area? Using the Calgary 311 app, you can report it with a precise location and include a picture so the City can open a service request.
Taking Transit? We (finally) have an app that works so you don't have to waste time at the ticket machines.
Walking in the +15 and thinking "where the f... am I going?" There's a +15 app and it is friggin' fantastic. It shows the entire +15 network and colour codes them to show their daily hours of availability, and will even let you know if it's an enclosed +15 or open to the sky (good to know when the weather is sh-te).
But by far, the biggest one for me is parking. While there are many (CPA's MyParking, Indigo Neo, AHS Parking, Diamond's PayByPhone, Impark's hangTag), once you have them set up, paying for parking is something you can do as you walk to where you're actually going instead of a whole separate side task as you find the machine, wait if it's busy, etc.
As for people committing too much time to their phones when around others and the expectation that you text people back IMMEDIATELY, this is about being disciplined, respecting who you're with, and setting expectations. If I have someone over, unless I need my phone for something (ordering food, expecting a call for another friend coming over), my phone goes on the night-side table in my room and it stays there until I need it or if we're going out somewhere. If someone calls or texts during that time, I've set the expectation that I will get back to them when I can and that texting is not an instant message conversation. That may mean you're texting me and I don't get back to you for three, four, five hours. If we're actively texting back and forth then it's different, but otherwise it's not an IM, don't expect instant responses. My adopting this approach has broken me free of that "why aren't they texting back" anxiety because I've adopted my own expectation for others too, and it's really allowed me to be more present and in the moment with people.