{"id":4109,"date":"2015-06-30T16:04:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T20:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2015-08-29T18:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T22:26:35","slug":"365101-tmi-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365101-tmi-phones\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#101: TMI-Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phones are a handy, nay essential, means of getting information and connecting with\u00a0those we love. Can there be too much of a good thing? Explore with me the pros and cons of the different kinds of phone use &#8211; their cost in time and money.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4118\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Days 365+101 Landline cropped\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped-1018x1024.jpg 1018w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-Landline-cropped.jpg 1464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>LANDLINES:\u00a0<\/strong>The phone rings at dinner time. I can almost guarantee that it\u2019s a solicitation. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Charity call. My response &#8211; &#8220;Yes you have a worthy cause but we have already allocated all of our donations for this year.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Political call during campaign season (which has become all but 6 months of a 4 year cycle) \u2013 See above<\/li>\n<li>Offers to increase my safety as a senior citizen or to protect me from burglaries. My response \u2013 Hang up. (I used to wait till I got a live person in order to ask them to take me off their list, but they disconnect as soon as I start this spiel.)<\/li>\n<li>Offers for a \u201cfree\u201d cruise \u2013 Hang up. (See above)<\/li>\n<li>Offers to reduce my credit card interest payments etc. \u2013 Hang up (See above)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes, I know about the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.donotcall.gov\/\">Do not call<\/a>\u201d service and have used it but it only prohibits <strong>sales <\/strong>calls. You still may receive political, charitable, debt collection, and informational calls, plus telephone surveys.\u00a0Still, we have a landline because my husband and I both work at home. Having 2 lines is a convenience and part of our internet package.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-TracFone-cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4119\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-TracFone-cropped-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Days 365+101 TracFone cropped\" width=\"132\" height=\"132\" \/><\/a>CELL PHONES: <\/strong>Until recently I only had a basic cell phone. This was fine for phone calls, text messages, and marginally passable photos. BUT, I would\u00a0see colleagues and family using smart phones to check email while at a meeting, on the road, or well,\u2026 anywhere. They used it as a GPS, a daily lectionary, and could answer interesting trivia on a moment\u2019s notice. I was impressed but I\u2019m a late adopter and I figured I\u2019d just wait. My TracFone gave me enough annual minutes for about $100. Besides, I didn\u2019t get any solicitation calls.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-smart-phone-cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4120\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Days-365-101-smart-phone-cropped-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Days 365+101 smart phone cropped\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>SMART PHONES:<\/strong> However, my kids kept telling me that I should probably \u201cadopt\u201d a smart phone soon since the learning curve was about to increase exponentially and it might be hard to adjust later. This was sweetened by them doing the research for me and giving me a usable hand-me-down smart phone. I\u2019ve been using it for about 6 weeks now to test whether\u00a0it\u2019s worth continuing. What I\u2019ve learned from my experiment so far:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Upon the advice of one son I went with <a href=\"https:\/\/ting.com\/\">TING<\/a>, \u00a0a low cost provider with excellent tech support (He knew my needs.). It looks like it will generally cost me about $170 &#8211; $200 annually. It&#8217;s more than my basic cell phone but it does a lot more. Of course the data amount is small but I try to use Wi-Fi connections most of the time.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s unlocked so I can buy a sim card when traveling in a foreign country.<\/li>\n<li>I can use \u201cwaiting time\u201d and travel time to check emails.<\/li>\n<li>It syncs with my computer for Gmail, contacts, photos, and Dropbox.<\/li>\n<li>It makes phone calls.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It\u2019s not very usable for serious emailing and computer work \u2013 but then I didn\u2019t expect it to be.<\/li>\n<li>I can see how this could\u00a0become addictive. I might be tempted to check my phone in social situations which detracts from being present to other\u00a0humans I am with. I hope I can balance personal presence with internet availability.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s possible that my hunger for more data may bump me into getting an unlimited plan which would be more convenient but more expensive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>BOTTOM LINE:<br \/>\n<\/strong>The jury\u2019s still out. I think using technology this way will facilitate my connecting with others, make me more productive, and make my life easier. Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t just complicate life and interfere with being human.<\/p>\n<p>I welcome your comments on the\u00a0pros and cons of your own experiences with phones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phones are a handy, nay essential, means of getting information and connecting with\u00a0those we love. Can there be too much of a good thing? Explore with me the pros and cons of the different kinds of phone use &#8211; their cost in time and money. LANDLINES:\u00a0The phone rings at dinner time. I can almost guarantee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,43],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-stuff","tag-electronics","tag-tmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4125,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions\/4125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}