Living without a Cell Phone

While I wait for my warranty replacement phone to arrive, I am somewhat flabbergasted at how entrenched that evil little device has become in my daily routine. Here are some of the roles it plays:

• Alarm Clock: Without my phone, I don't wake up on time.
• Weather Report: My phone dictates how I dress for the day.
• Calendar: Reminds me when I need to be somewhere
• Flashlight: Allows me to pick clothes without turning on lights in the bedroom, waking up my wife.

Once I get on the bus, I have other uses for my phone:

• Email: I get a jump on work-related topics before I get in, read personal email, delete SPAM...
• Kindle: or I will read a book to pass the time
• Social Media: What's life without Reddit, Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook, right?
• News Reader:  Feedly to the rescue
• Camera: capturing moments of life...

Of course, the phone has its general phone-like features:

• Phone: Yep.. what it was designed for
• SMS: Although I don't use this too often these days.

While I'm working,

• PagerDuty Application: What emergencies have happened at work?
• Jira Browser: Looking at opened issues, etc.

When I'm driving,

• Maps or Waze: Show me how to get there
• 4Square: Tell me where to eat

When I'm running or biking,

• MyTracks: Where did I go?
• DailyMile: Log what I did

So when I look at the $500-600 price tag for a new smartphone, I start to think that maybe it's not such a bad deal. With a typical lifespan of 2 years, that's $1/day. Still, there are things my phone can't do:

• Deal with water
• Avoid fall damage
• Remind me not to leave it behind (unlikely as that might be)
• Play with my children
• Have a date with my wife
• Fix the front-steps of my house
• Mow the lawn
• Clean the pool
• Visit with family
• Practice my guitar (as horrible as I am with it)
• Run!

The all-in-one device is convenient, and maybe too much so. The last couple of days have been eye-opening; I spend too much time with my attention on the screen rather than the environment around me. It is too easy to grab for my phone when I need to look something up or need a distraction. Instant gratification is the rule instead of the exception. Time to change that.