FALLING OUT OF FAVOR

Last night my smart phone died, or at least it’s playing dead. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a luddite. Remember the Luddites, workers back in England during the industrial revolution, (early 1800’s) who lost their jobs to machines. They organized, marched, protesting in the streets. It took roots in London, in the textile factories but it spread like a disease through the manufacturing industry. Since then, the trend has been for more efficient, more reliable machines and fewer temperamental, unreliable people. Since 1811 the name Luddite has referred to anyone who pushes back against loss of hands-on jobs to machines. Two hundred years up the line (2019), anyone who dislikes, fears or avoids advanced technology (technophobes), they are yesteryear’s Luddites with 21st Century updates. I’m not one of them.  

So my I-Phone is dead. Last night I made a call and left a message. Shortly, my ringer setting (ahuuuga) snapped me back to the reason for my call but when I went to tap the button, there was no button to tap. It was ringing but the wrong screen was up, the one to enter a pass code. As it continued, ‘ahuuuga’ after ‘ahuuuga’ I kept pushing buttons and tapping the screen to no avail. Nothing worked so I resorted to curse words I reserve for frustrating situations. The phone defaulted to its recorded message and the screen went dark, all was silent.

I’ve been in conversations where smart phones have been scorned and maligned but those critics haven’t abandoned their Twitter or FaceBook feed yet. By now the smart phone is literally a pocket computer. You can do anything on the phone you can do on a tablet or laptop. I haven’t succumbed to smart phone addiction but I use several of its apps more than I thought I would. I check doppler radar to see where rain clouds are and I use the calculator in the grocery store to compare prices per ounce or pound, use the calendar and clock functions. In a pinch, I take pictures and send text messages not to mention several other apps that I fall back on. But I can go to town without it and shut it off when I don’t want to deal with it. I know people who can’t wait until they implant computer chips in their foreheads. Then they can up and download data by just thinking about it. I’m not one of them either.

This kind of internal dialogue, if you let it keep unfolding results in big, loaded questions. How would we fare without our smart phones? I leapfrog that scenario to an even bigger dilemma; what if electricity goes away? A year on the planet without electricity, how about that? There would be a myriad of short range solutions but in the end (1 year) no transportation, no batteries, no ATMs, no fresh water;I don’t even want to think about it. 

This kind of navel gazing is good mental exercise but it doesn’t fix my I-Phone. I have an appointment with my Apple mechanic in a few hours and I go there with great expectations. I understand that my device is just a short lived machine. Whether it became obsolete or died of a hacked motherboard, I will be reaching for my check book. But the check book is outdated, or nearly so. Even my credit card is falling out of favor. Yesterday I was in a carry out restaurant, waiting for my lentil soup and falafel. A dude at the register passed his smart phone over the scanner and transacted business. I can’t do that, don’t know if I want to. I may have to cough up a ton of money this afternoon for a new smart phone. How about a phone app that gives you 20/20 vision. Being able to read text on a 4” screen would be so cool.