The Stupidity Of A Smartphone

I am relatively certain Stephen Stills never imagined a man would write a post about the stupidity of smartphones while listening to Love The One You’re With.

If he did, well I am certain at best he imagined that said man would be writing about a person and not about the conflict he felt about an impulse buy.

And I am sure that it never would have occurred to him that this mystery man would think about whether this song was used for commercial purposes before because he wondered if maybe he had stumbled onto an interesting marketing idea.

Goodbye Millions

Anyhoo, that is neither here nor there because I am not going to try to sell Apple or the Android manufacturers of the world upon using that song as the basis of an ad/marketing campaign.

Instead, I’ll say I got tired of my Droid’s failing me after 18 months and purchased an iPhone today.  It wasn’t exactly an impulse buy, but it wasn’t as well researched as many of my purchases are.

It was a ‘damn I’m sick of my ‘Droid not working I heard Target is offering a $250 gift card for people who buy the iPhone maybe I’ll take advantage of it.’

So I set out for the local store, asked if they had the 64GB version and when I heard no decided to buy the 16GB even though I was nervous it wasn’t enough.

You should know I called three other stores to ask if they had  any in stock and was told no, so I hitched up my pants and said ‘screw it.’

I am resourceful, I am good at making things work.

Figured there was no reason I couldn’t make decision work for me too, but that didn’t stop me from posting a question on Facebook just to see if anyone thought that 16GB was a good idea.

Almost everyone told me it was a mistake to go with 16GB, I did it anyway.

Nothing like a good challenge to whet my whistle.

Old Jack Steiner will swim upstream, pour gasoline over his head while dancing in fire and challenge Zeus, Apollo and Athena to fights without any concern about whether it is sensible

Do As Dad Says, Not As He Does

The kids have heard me tell them more than once to focus on working smarter and not harder.

They have heard me say sometimes it makes sense to take a deep breath before rushing into things and to take a moment to look around.

Hell, they have heard me tell them that when it comes to technology there is always something bright and shiny to chase after and that there are new deals daily.

Most of the time they have seen me follow those suggestions but today I had enough and I just went for it.

So why am I writing a post that sounds like I am second guessing myself?

Because I sort of am, I am a bit nervous about it. I am sort of wondering if I made a mistake in changing phones because that memory thing could be an issue.

But I am not always the biggest fan of change and this is one that has some impact upon me. I am a heavy user of cell phones and if this doesn’t work because of memory issues I’ll want to kick myself for not having handled it differently.

That being said I am also the guy that tells the kids to remember that sometimes anticipation is the worst part.

Sometimes you can’t know how something will be until you experience it.

It is not a life sentence, it is just a cellphone and I don’t have to limit my belief or expectations to those of the crowd because sometimes the wisdom of crowds isn’t always so wise.

Sometimes I Miss Simple

Sometimes I miss the simplicity of the old days when setting up a new phone meant plugging it in, checking the cables and listening for a busy signal or dial tone.

It didn’t require hours to make sure each app was downloaded and each screen was organized for maximum efficiency.

My middle schooler likes to try and tease me about having grown up during the olden days.

“Daddy, you were born in the sixties and that makes you old.”

I laugh and say it doesn’t faze me, doesn’t feel old or all that long ago.

“Daddy, you went to high school in the eighties.”

I laugh again, “dear daughter, I have spent my entire life teasing people about anything and everything. A rookie like you doesn’t ruffle my feathers, now pass the neon shirt I am going to the John Hughes marathon at the drive-in.”

****

“Daddy” used to dislike change quite a bit.

My girl’s ‘old man’ worked at trying to keep life fairly stable because I knew what I had and didn’t feel the need to try and improve it.

It was better and easier to maintain the status quo than to shake things up.

Well you all know that life doesn’t always cooperate and that mine was shaken and shook up. You know I had to learn how to roll with the punches and accept changes that once were irritating.

I maybe be a bit uncertain about the new phone, but I have perspective.

It is just a phone. Just another tool and the utility of a tool is always based upon the skill of its user.

All I need to do is figure out how be maximize its utility by doing my best to learn how to use it.

It may or may not become the best fun I ever had, but for now I am going to focus on loving the one I am with.

• Saved: Children, Technology