What’s Up With That?

I love technology and often am an early adapter. Some things I have owned include:

• VIC 20 computer (1980)
• Sinclair 1000 computer (1982)
• Commodore 64 computer (1982)
• Apple IIc (1985)
• IBM XT computer (1986)
• a $1,000 Sony single speed CD-ROM (1987)
• Mac SE computer (1989)
• Toshiba KT-S2 portable cassette player/FM radio (1981)
• Sony Walkman CD Player (1987)
• Sharp Wizard PDA (1988)
• Sharp Zarus PDA (1993)
• Apple Newton PDA (1994)

I have owned several Palm Pilots, the first two Palm phones, a couple Blackberrys, an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and other miscellaneous goodies. I was using CompuServe before there was an Internet. Most of this stuff was purchased to make my life more efficient and productive, so I would have more free time for camping and backpacking. I rarely go shopping in a brick and mortar building; I purchase online. Huge time savings and usually cheaper too. I bank online. I can’t remember the last time I actually went to a bank. More time saved. 

When I was a kid we did not have a telephone. And when I started college I did not know how to use one. Life without a phone was good.  If I needed to communicate with someone I wrote a letter, which was an infrequent occurrence. To be honest, I was too busy having fun to be wasting time communicating with other people on a phone. If I wanted to talk to someone I simply visited them. If a visit wasn’t important enough to take the time to do it, then I figured it wasn’t important enough to communicate with that person.

Today I use my cell phone to call people — it is a phone, you know.

My phone syncs with my computer to keep track of appointments and tasks, but only to make my life simpler. I rarely answer my phone except for business calls. All other calls go to voice mail, most of which I ignore. I have email for business, and I rarely use email for personal communication.

I mean, except for my kids and my wife, I don’t really want to stay in touch with anyone anyway. That kind of communication sucks up valuable time. I do occasionally do talk to my brothers. So compared to most people I know, I save 1,000s of hours each year by not talking or communicating with others outside of work, which equates to several backpacking or camping trips each year.

Consider this: each of us has a limited inventory of minutes in our life before we croak. Each minute we waste is one minute we cannot recover. It is gone forever.   Why on earth do people waste their valuable inventory on frivolous texts? I sure can’t answer that.

I often use my phone to shop or pay bills. That saves time and adds minutes to my inventory.

Several years ago people started texting me.

Each of those texts cost me money.  So I would call them back (a free call for me) and tell them to never text me again. If they needed to contact me immediately they should call… I mean they are texting on a phone!  If their need wasn’t urgent, an email would be sufficient. Keeping track of email and voice mail was enough aggravation, a third medium was unacceptable.  I quickly quenched the “I didn’t want to interrupt you if you were in a meeting”  lame excuse. If I don’t want to be interrupted, I turn off my phone. I know how to retrieve a voice mail.

I turn my phone off when in meetings. I also turn the phone off at night and on weekends. When I am camping or backpacking the phone doesn’t work because I purposely go places where there is no cell coverage. My kids can text if they wish, but they like the old fashioned method of communication — talking. Eventually phone plans got cheaper and included free texts, so I saved time by no longer calling the “texters” back to chew them out, because by locating the delete button I can simply and quickly dispatch text messages to their rightful place; the trash can on the phone.

Have you noticed that texters have twitching eyes and thumbs? I mean, they look really weird.

Now I can see some value in texting. I’ll admit it. I have sent text messages — a few. I text my wife when I am traveling and it is late at night, so I don’t wake her. These messages are usually, “arrived safely.”

My first text was a little over a year ago. I was leading a backpacking trip, something I rarely do — not leading a trip, but hiking with others.  Since I organized the trip, I felt responsible for the others and brought a phone. Well we were hit by freak storm and the rangers told us to get off the mountain. When we got down near civilization, I called Joyce to give us a ride but there were not enough “bars” on the phone to work. One of the guys told me to text her, because often texting works when calling doesn’t.

Hmm… My answer was, “How would one go about sending a text?” He showed me how and I sent the text, but Joyce had gone to a movie. So much for that.

Another time I sent a text to my son. So much for that too. He said I don’t know how to text, it looked an email — aha! Should have done that in the first place. Plus I can send and receive email on my phone… Texting is redundant.

Now I don’t want to get into good manners or etiquette, but I think the next time someone whips out their phone and starts typing in the middle of a conversation, I am going to take it away and shove it up a place where the sun never shines.

 And for such nonsense as, “LOL how R U  IM gr8t kk”

No comment.

Oh and if you hate what I have just written, I don’t care. You see, you can’t leave a comment here, email me, phone me, or God forbid — text me.

🙂