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10
years ago I was the clueless college kid strutting close to with my silver
Motorola RAZR, convinced it had been the pinnacle of technical advancements. It
let me personally text, call, and consider freaking photos, everything I'd ever
possibly have to do with my phone. I am talking about, what else was presently
there?!
Here I
am ten years later, a veteran associated with four different smartphones, and
capable of doing just about all short of teleporting towards the moon via a
mini computer during my pocket. And don't misunderstand me, I love my iPhone --
it complements me literally everywhere, and I bust out in a cold sweat
basically ever dare leave house without it -- but simply because I can check my
personal email anytime, anywhere doesn't mean I ought to feel on-call 24/7. I'm
ready for any break.
As it
simply so happens, the answer to my present conundrum could just be that flip
phone from the past life. What's aged is new, what's out is within (kids these
days, 'm I right? ), and flip phones are experiencing a moment -- actually
Rihanna uses one! Motorola released a nostalgia-laden teaser video a couple
weeks back, setting off rumors that the Android revamp of the old-school RAZR
is going to be revealed today at Lenovo Technology World. Whether it's accurate
or not, it got me thinking -- perhaps a flip phone will be the perfect iPhone
substitute. For my blessed iPhone, let's say I treated it like another thing
entirely?
There's
nothing new or novel concerning the desire to break free of the anxiety of
feeling so connected constantly: I just checked and you will find 663, 000
Google search engine results for "smartphone detox. " But the
backlash towards constant connectivity is more vocalized than in the past. Last
month, France ushered into regulation a "right to disconnect" that
empowers citizens to straight-up disregard any work-related emails through the
night or over the weekend break, in an effort to safeguard the country's
workers through feeling burned out.
Even
in the usa, smartphone sales are slowing for the very first time since 2008,
and Apple Watch sales continue being dismally disappointing. Maybe individuals
are slowly backing away through being so intimately associated with their
devices all day time, every day. Interestingly, Americans bought nearly
twenty-four million "dumb" phones this past year, which is up almost
2 million from just 2 yrs ago. Even Rihanna's famed flip-phone make use of --
arguably a fashion statement above all else -- may prophesy the collective
readiness to decelerate a bit.
Right
now, to be clear, I'm not arguing against using smartphones. I think they are
incredibly useful, and have improved our standard of living far more than they
have derailed it. But actually making a ask an iPhone is annoyingly tedious --
they're a lot more convenient for scrolling via Instagram or getting strange on
Snapchat, listening to music and podcasts about the train, or navigating via
unfamiliar cities and communities. And could someone please show me what the
point of the iPad is these times? It's bulky and redundant -- if you wish to
type up a Term doc or watch Netflix on the run, get a damn laptop computer.
If I
had this my way, my iPhone would work as my de facto pill -- a super-powerful
gadget I keep stashed during my backpack that I'm not really nervously checking
15 times an hour or so, or accidentally dropping about the sidewalk and
shattering in to 50 pieces. And during my pocket? A sturdy, sexy flip phone
which keeps me connected and doesn't go out of battery in half each day.
If you
take the great ole Motorola RAZR in the days of yore and throw inside a dash of
today's technical prowess, what do you receive? A phone that does all you need
it to do -- phone, text, and take excellent photos. If they can discover a way
to pack it with enough storage for many music or podcasts, or contain it
connect to the impair, I'd be golden. I'd not, however, be a slave to mobile
email any more, and rather than maintain my nose down looking at a screen to
examine Instagram or Twitter each and every five minutes, I might actually spot
the world around me a little more.
So whether or not
really Motorola's big RAZR rerelease is really a marketing stunt, I, for just
one, am totally on panel. Who's with me?
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