{"id":4809,"date":"2016-12-15T20:04:23","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T01:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2017-12-13T18:24:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T23:24:14","slug":"365136-phone-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365136-phone-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#136: Phone Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><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=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>On October 21 my cell phone died. At first I thought it was just sick and I tried to repair it. I\u2019ll spare you all the gory details. Suffice it to say I spent way too much time on the internet diagnosing the ailment, on my landline phone with 3 different tech support people, and one trip to Best Buy before the illness was confirmed as fatal.<\/p>\n<p>Too bad, but not a deal breaker. I knew I had some old phones around the house which I was ready to resurrect. I am embarrassed to say that I found 6 phones which I had intended to recycle but had not gotten around to it. Of the 6 phones:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 had no chargers that fit. Since a cell phone is pretty useless without a charger, I dismissed those.<\/li>\n<li>1 could be charged but only with a USB cord which had to be connected to a computer<\/li>\n<li>1 had a charger that worked in a household outlet. Yea! It was an old prepaid TRACFONE. No problem. I figured I\u2019d just call up TRACFONE, reactivate it, and pay for a couple months which would get me to Christmas when I hoped I would be given a new phone. Unfortunately, I was told that TRACFONE had upgraded and my phone would no longer work but they would send me a free new one in 10 days. Since I was leaving town in 4 days and wanted my phone at the airport that wouldn\u2019t work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Everyone I knew well enough to borrow a phone from couldn\u2019t spare theirs for a week. In the spirit of letting go, I decided to try a <em>Phone Fast<\/em>. I didn\u2019t expect this to be permanent but I was intrigued to see what it would feel like to be phone-free. After all I survived for over 50 years without a cell phone. (Granted most of those years cell phones were not yet invented.) I wondered what I would learn.<\/p>\n<p>Even though my experience might not be transferable to many people, I wanted to try. For example, my husband and I both have home offices with two landlines. I don\u2019t need to go out much. Also, I would be spending 10 days at a meeting in Rome during which I wouldn\u2019t need a phone plus six day on trips with Jim who had a cell phone. Still that left one work trip and 34 cell phone less days to contend with.<\/p>\n<p>What I learned:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>It\u2019s possible, but not easy<\/strong> \u2013 Although I had had a smartphone, I\u2019m not a heavy phone user. All I <em>really<\/em> needed it for was phone calls. I had a small camera to take photos in Rome. I had a travel alarm to wake me up. I had my laptop computer when traveling to get email as long as I could get wifi. The lack of a phone at the airport, however, was a challenge because my arrival flight was delayed and I couldn\u2019t reach my pick-up person. My return flight ended up being cancelled. These incidents caused me some stress, but\u2026<\/li>\n<li><strong>Generosity of strangers<\/strong> \u2013 I also relearned to depend on other people. I found fellow travelers to be gracious in letting me make several calls on their cell phones to the people who were meeting me.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expectations have changed<\/strong> \u2013 Once upon a time a missed flight might have meant hours of wandering around an airport looking for someone; or possibly never making the connection. People used to have to make very specific plans about where to meet for dinner, a party, etc. Now we just call when we get near and somebody tells us if the group has moved to a new venue. We don\u2019t have to plan as carefully. But, people also expect you to be reachable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inconvenience<\/strong> \u2013 I was at the grocery and needed some additional information about a product I planned to get. I couldn\u2019t just call home and ask Jim the details. Another time I was in the car, running late. I couldn\u2019t call my host to explain.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Insecurity<\/strong> \u2013 I was surprised that I found myself feeling a little insecure driving to gatherings 30-60 minutes away, especially at night. What if I had car trouble? I\u2019m sure eventually someone would stop and help, but I was used to feeling more secure knowing that I could call for help if needed. 10 years ago I seldom felt this insecurity because I didn\u2019t know there was an option.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cell phones are more than just for phone calls<\/strong> \u2013 Although I could get by with a pocket camera and travel alarm, I forgot that I had come to rely on my phone as a GPS. Back to printing out MapQuest before a trip, or, heaven forbid, actually pulling out a paper map and planning my route. It\u2019s nice to have all these functions in one device rather than carrying around multiple gadgets. I don\u2019t text much but sometimes that\u2019s the least disruptive way to communicate short messages. I like to listen to podcasts on my walks.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Bottom line, I got my Christmas gift early (December 8) since I had learned enough from my <em>Phone Fast<\/em> and I think the kids were tired of my limited communication and hinting that I was ready for an early Christmas gift. If a Luddite like me has come to depend on a smart phone, I guess the times they are a changin\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>How long could you go without a phone? What electronic device would you least like to break, lose, or fast from for awhile? Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 21 my cell phone died. At first I thought it was just sick and I tried to repair it. I\u2019ll spare you all the gory details. Suffice it to say I spent way too much time on the internet diagnosing the ailment, on my landline phone with 3 different tech support people, and [&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],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-stuff","tag-electronics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","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=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4812,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions\/4812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}