Because I don’t need it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a technophobe. On the contrary, I love gadgets of all sorts. iPhone looks cool. Many smartphones look cool, and offer various neat things, like being connected all the time, being able to surf the internet all the time, check your mail, tweet on the go, and so on and so forth.
The thing is, I don’t need any of it.
I barely use my cell phone as it is. I got my first cell phone just before SO went to Russia on business; texting was a good way for us to communicate. After that, I kept it, and changed the model twice: once when the one I had become almost useless (I could hear next to nothing in moderately noisy surroundings), and once when my phone started to overheat, a few years after I got it. These days, it’s useful for occasional texting, especially when I travel to Croatia, and people can find me in the case of an emergency, if the emergency isn’t in the middle of the night and if I’m not somewhere where a cell phone should be turned off.
I don’t have a data plan, either. I use a prepaid card, and barely remember to keep it active.
A smartphone is good for staying connected, but I work from home and sit at my laptop most of the day, which means that I’m already connected most of the day. If a go out, well, that means that I went out, to meet with friends, or watch a movie, or have a lunch with my mother, or whatever. If somebody needs to cancel something, a “dumb” phone is just as good as the “smart” one. Everything else can wait until I get back home. If I want to post pictures of my coffee or my lunch (le sigh), I can post them when I get home. The same goes for random kitty pictures, and for pretty much everything else.
These days, we seem to forget what we used to know only a decade ago: It can wait, and the world won’t end because of it.
Smartphones also have a bunch of apps, and shiny colorful games.
I don’t use those apps, and manage to survive without them. I play games at home, I don’t have to play them on the go.
While I tend to react like a magpie — ooh, shiny! — I also tend to stop and to ask myself: Do I really need it? As in, really need it? Is this lovely gadget a tool for something I need, or just an overpriced toy?
The answer for a smartphone is the same as the answer for a tablet: it’s shiny, it’s cute, it’s cool, I love it — but I don’t need it.
And I don’t see myself needing it in the foreseeable future.
How about you? Do you own a smartphone? Do you find it necessary?
P.S. A bit of news about EzineArticles: I got the diamond status (the highest quality-based status they have). I’ve also posted two new articles, one about minimalist lifestyle (is it obvious I’m a minimalist myself? 🙂 ), and one about learning new languages.
A Kitty Dreaming About Wings 