watches, pictures and pay phones: my month without an iphone

August 1, 2010 by 2 Comments

The month of July has come to an end. It’s been hot, busy, exciting, and will result in one heck of a water bill. But most of all, it’s been absent my tiny digital friend the iPhone.

A recap if you’re just tuning in: I gave up my iPhone this month. No texting, no Facebook, no tweeting, no email, no calendar, no Google Maps. If I needed to use any of these things, I would access them on my laptop. I pretended that my cell was a home phone (we don’t have a landline), and left it at home when I went out.

What did I learn? Some valuable lessons. Firstly, that living without a cell phone makes me a bit like a cavewoman. I felt naked and slightly panicked for the first few days. What if someone needed me? What if there was an emergency? What would I do? But day by day the panic subsided and I was left feeling, for the lack of a non-cheesey word, free. While I was out and about going through my day, I didn’t have to worry about that email or kick myself for not returning that phone call. I didn’t worry about it because there was nothing I could do—it simply had to wait. I never resorted to using a pay phone, but I thought about it quite seriously once. Turns out I don’t carry much change.

When I was home, the temptation to keep my phone in my pocket remained. Before this hot little month began I would pull it out whenever I had a free minute to check Facebook, email, tweet a quick quip. So what did I do with all those new free minutes? I gave my daughter my undivided attention. I read books and magazines. I gardened. I cleaned the car. Nothing truly exciting, but it felt wonderful. At the end of the day I felt as though I had accomplished a lot and still had some time to relax. I no longer distracted myself through the day; the day distracted me.

In the beginning I told you that I would decide at the end of the month whether I would keep my iPhone or not. I have since found out I am under contract with AT&T, so it’s a financial no-brainer to stick with my current phone for now. But in my head I still debate about it. There are some features of the iPhone (in some cases, of any cell phone) that I can’t live without and some that I should live without. And here’s how the cards fall:

Texting. The one thing I really, truly missed. I won’t part with this one. I’m a lazy, anti-social creature by nature. Sometimes I don’t feel like talking on the phone, and sometimes I especially don’t feel like talking to the person I need to talk to. So I text. It’s one convenience of living in 2010 that I fiercely embrace.

Facebook. I’m being wishy-washy about keeping this app installed on my phone. First of all, I sort of hate the mobile version. Second of all, it only encourages me to check it more than I need to or should. I think getting rid of the app will help prevent me from falling back into the pit of iPhone distraction.

Twitter. Twitter and the iPhone go hand in hand. When I feel the urge to tweet something, by the time I find my laptop and log on, the urge has passed. Tweeting is quick, short, and I sort of hate the full version. And I’m certainly not as addicted to Twitter as I am to other iPhone apps, so I’m keeping my TwitBird.

iCal. My husband and I have a shared calendar in which we keep track of all of our appointments and events. Being without it has been sort of a nightmare. As much as I wanted keeping a paper calendar on the fridge to work, it simply didn’t. I forgot about important dates, failed to write future appointments down, and likely annoyed my friends and family by forgetting about things. I am scatterbrained as all heck, and I need my iCal.

Google Maps/GPS. I have the worst sense of direction known to man. If I can plug in my destination, check the traffic along the route, and get turn-by-turn directions that will tell me if I have gone astray, I will save myself a lot of headaches and wasted gas. And no, I will never, ever succumb to one of those wackadoodle GPS devices that speaks to you in a British accent. They freak me out.

Camera. So many pictures of my daughter doing ridiculous things were never taken. I don’t carry my SLR everywhere with me, and at so many points I wished that I could have taken a quick picture or video. Sadness.

Clock. Okay, laugh at me on this one. But I don’t wear a watch because I’ve never needed to. I became one of those strangers that asks you for the time and when they walk away you think, how on earth do they not know what hour of the day it is? It’s probably because they don’t have a cell phone and haven’t worn a watch since 1989.

Email. Am I the only one who takes days to return an email? This month, it felt like I was. Because I only checked my email when I got around to opening my laptop (which isn’t often when you’re chasing after a speedy toddler all day), emails stacked up and went unanswered. This one I’ll keep, just in case. But I now prefer to type out my emails on a keyboard that isn’t the size of a matchbook.

So there you have it, folks: the manifesto of a reformed iPhone junkie. If you find yourself in a similar spot, I’d recommend just giving it a go. Put your phone down for a day. Or a week. Or a month. Because when you’re staring at a tiny glowing screen, you’re missing it. And you’ll never know what you’re missing until you look up.

-RDG

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iphone update 3.0

July 22, 2010 by 5 Comments

With 9 days to go in my iPhone experiment, I wish that I had something more meaningful to report. I haven’t run into any huge snags or missed it so much that I caved. But I have learned a few things, or noticed a few things, that I never had before.

1. There is something blissfully freeing about being out of touch. When there is no way for anyone to get ahold of you, you can focus on what is right in front of your face.

2. I tend to lose my phone a lot less when it never leaves the house.

3. I tend to lose myself a lot more when I don’t have GPS. Google Maps, I miss you.

4. I’ve had more telephone conversations with friends that have generated loud, uncontrollable bouts of laughter than ever before. Texts can’t giggle.

5. The non-moblie versions of websites are actually a lot better than the mobile ones. In most cases.

6. When I don’t have a calendar at my fingertips, I tend to forget what I was supposed to be doing and shop for shoes instead.

7. There are moments when even a tiny, blurry camera would do.

8. I should have procured an iPod before this lovely experiment began.

9. Digging in the dirt is the coolest thing ever. And they don’t make an app for it.

10. My daughter is the most amazing, funniest person on the planet. But I already knew that.

-RDG

P.S. Check out Unplugged Sundays, a new website that encourages us all to give our digital devices a break.

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tick tock

July 12, 2010 by 9 Comments

If you’ve been keeping up with my iPhone experiment you know that I’m currently on day 12 and have so far been blissed out at the freedom that it has afforded me. I’ve gotten an overwhelming response, both from the media (just ignore the comments below the article—my skin is trying to grow thicker as we speak) and from readers. I find it ironic that I’m essentially a food blogger and yet the most attention I’ve ever gotten has been from an article on technology!

My food is not taking it personally. Or trying not to.

Sitting here on day 12, I feel fairly different than I did on day 1. I don’t really look at my phone anymore, unless I think I’ve missed a call or need to make one. I frequently leave it places around the house and forget about it for the entire day (one night I left it in the backyard, which I wouldn’t recommend for any electronic device). I’m getting lazy about returning emails, I rarely check Facebook, and I tweet considerably less than I did before. I haven’t run into any big snafus where I needed a phone and didn’t have one (except for a nasty hour-long battle with the 520 bridge, which could have been avoided if I had been near my trusty Google Maps), and I feel more in-tune with my life and my surroundings. It feels amazing, and if it weren’t for this blog, I would hardly be on the internet at all for this hot little month.

I was watching a movie the other night called TiMER, which is set in a world where people can choose to be implanted with timers that tell them when they will meet “the one.” It’s a future where all of the guesswork has been taken out of finding love—nothing is unpredictable, everything is planned down to the second. Some people choose not to be implanted, some are implanted and waiting for their clocks to start counting down, and some people have known from the age of 14 who they were going to end up with.

For me it’s reminiscent of how we let technology dictate our lives today. The way I see it, we have a choice. We can do our social networking, our recreational activities, our shopping, our what-have-you behind a screen, or we can do these things out in the real world. In TiMERland, you make the same choice: let things happen naturally, or have technology assist you in making decisions. And in either world, what happens after you make that choice? Does your life get better? Easier? More difficult? More fun? More boring?

I’m beginning to sound like some nutzo tarot card reader who believes in destiny. And I’m the biggest hypocrite of them all—I write a blog for pete sakes.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that the chances of something really wonderful happening are far greater when I’m out in the real world rather than behind a screen. My iPhone can’t tell me that it loves my shoes or that, yes, bangs were a bad decision—only being with my best friend can do that. I can’t hear the voice behind that email; I can only do my best to interpret whether that colon smiley face was sincere or not. For this month, I choose no implant. I choose to leave my digital life by the wayside and make new decisions, more real decisions. Because when I sit behind a screen, I’m just on a timer, waiting for some digital device to chirp and tell me when life can begin.

-RDG

Oh, and I took these black and whites out on the water yesterday. Seattle is purdy.

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my month without an iphone

July 1, 2010 by 13 Comments

My iPhone holds my entire life. My calendar, telephone numbers, editing software for this blog, photos, my to-do list, email, and everything else that I need to keep my life organized. I wake up and skim the newspaper on it. Throughout the day I use it to check social networking sites, read recipes, take quick pictures, check traffic. I go to sleep reading digital books on its tiny screen. It is the only material thing that should I forget at home, I will turn back around and drive miles to fetch.

My life hasn’t always been this technology-driven, but it’s hard for me to remember a time without it. Husband and I purchased the first models in 2007 and quickly became addicted to the convenience. Internet on the go, GPS, restaurant reviews, movie times—it has lent a faster pace to our daily movements and made many things easier. But convenience doesn’t come cheap, and ours is no exception. We pay exorbitant monthly fees for minutes, data and texting. We buy applications, books and audio books, music, and countless apps. We’ve upgraded to newer, faster models. Everything we do or want to do is assisted by this tiny, pocket-sized device. But in the grand scheme of things, has it made our lives better? More communicative? More enjoyable?

Last week during our stay in the Rocky Mountains I came to a frightening realization. We had no cell phone reception in our camp—only wifi in certain spots. When I was in those spots I was voraciously catching up on Facebook and Twitter. I gulped down celebrity news from gossip sites as quickly as I could. I binged on my favorite blogs, and even my not-so-favorite, just to get a little screen time. When there was no wifi, I became antsy. I was missing something. I felt naked without my internet-connected touch screen. The moments I could tap and swipe gave some relief—I immediately felt better. But what did those moments get me? Where did they get me?

A distraction for 5 minutes, and that’s about it. And the whole time I was being distracted from friends and family that I hardly ever get to visit with; people that I should have been paying attention to. But most of them were not any better. We were all guilty of swiping and tapping our little gadgets the whole week, even during meals, at the fire pit roasting marshmallows, during a family wedding reception. By the end of the vacation I was in a pit of despair. I love my gadget, but with all of it’s promises of a new level of interconnectedness, it left me feeling more alone and more isolated than ever.

Now that we’re home, the full weight of the situation has finally laid down upon me. While I was cooking (read: reheating) dinner yesterday evening, Husband was getting Lucy ready for our meal: bib, highchair, milk. As he was motoring his way through these tasks his right hand was (to my un-suprise) glued to his iPhone. Playing games. I was miffed. I swirled around the kitchen in holier-than-thou huff, tossing around pork chops and throwing tomatoes into the salad. He doesn’t have two seconds to concentrate on getting dinner to his daughter? He has to be distracted by a game the whole time? I picked a fight. We argued. And after dinner, still peeved and eager for a solution, I retreated to the glowing light of the laptop to write about it. I needed some clarity. I needed a solution.

But what I came up with was that I was no better. I too am guilty of ignoring our daughter at many points throughout the day. I check Facebook nearly every hour in an effort to interact with people I hardly know; I tweet the goings on of my day to an audience of strangers. I text instead of hearing the voices of my nearest and dearest. I stash my addiction in my pocket so when the urge strikes, I can indulge in a moment of digital drug use.

What I’ve decided is that I need to go cold turkey. I need to remember what life was like before this gadget, and decide whether it is important enough in my life to keep around or not. It costs money, time, and brain power. What do I get in return? What does it bring me? What am I losing, and what have I already lost?

The Rules:

  1. For this month of July, 2010, I will live as though my iphone is a home phone. I will stay on it’s dock and I will not carry it with me when I leave the house. (Why go completely non-cell phone? I don’t need the temptation. Plus, I’m pretty darn curious to see what it will be like.)
  2. I will not use my iphone to access the internet, check email, text, or use any other capability that is not available on a regular home phone.
  3. Husband, when he is home or with Lucy and I, will not use his phone for anything other than phone calls and texts (he’s not willing to perform the full experiment with me yet, but I’m working on him).
  4. I will document our anti-digital endeavor on this blog, and in the end, make a decision: iPhone or no iPhone.

For some of you, this may sound ludicrous. Give up technology? Why on earth? At this point, on day one, I don’t feel as though I am giving up that much. I still have this laptop on which to check internet goings-on. I still have a telephone, I still have the means to communicate. What I am really giving up is those moments of distraction that ultimately (I feel) are a waste of time.

For the other half of you who aren’t in the iPhone world, this may sound completely simple. I assure you it won’t be easy. When you’ve become accustomed to life as we know it, your whole world seemingly exists inside one tiny screen. We are junkies, and this is a self-imposed intervention.

I’ll keep you posted. And until then, wish me the best of luck.

-RDG

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