HOOKED ON MOBILE

There is a massive proliferation of smartphones and app-phones flooding the market. With such speed that the general public is almost overwhelmed by it. There is so much you can do with a Smartphone nowadays, that is easy to forget you can still make phone calls with them. Recently I find more and more people who are going back to the basics and only want to use their phones to make phone calls. No GPS, no emails, no apps, no nothing… Simple.

I was talking to a girl (Oh my god was she beautiful) last night, who finds the Smartphones a waste of time. She did have some very interesting points to share:
- Smartphones consume a lot of battery power. With a regular phone you are good for at least two or three days on a full charge.
- You use it less. If you only use your phone for phone calls and SMS, you are more likely to use it only when is necessary and have more intimate conversations with people.
- You have less technology dependence. Having GPS systems, maps, store locators…etc makes you self sufficient, but at the same time it cuts you out from a human interaction. Something so basic like: “Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find an ATM around here?”
- Keeps it more personal. Forget about intrusive advertising, twittering, facebook… this is 1 to 1 interaction in most cases with a human being. The many to many approach flies out the window.
- You only care about the SIM card. If your phone gets lost or damaged, you only care about getting the SIM card back and plugging it into another similar device. Zero hassle and headaches. The cost of these phones are so cheap that you can have a new device every month.

I do have to admit without sounding like a neo luddite, that maybe technology (as usual) is going too fast. People still need some time to digest the concept that you can do pretty much anything with your phone. Technology should make us more human and less dependent. Then again… Different strokes for different folks.