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.