I know someone who absolutely, positively, unwaveringly refuses to own or condone a smart phone. And I get the point.
To a degree. The argument goes that the smart phone is just another way for already overburdened and harried individuals
to be forced to carry more workload and stress themselves out even further. I mean, how can you go on vacation when your
email follows you everywhere and you can research any project at any time and edit that Google doc that the team needs and
schedule a meeting and attend a web conference and EVERYBODY KNOWS IT?
So, okay, I get that part. And the temptation is always truly there
to take care of these things in the middle of the night,
and sometimes I secretly do just that. But other times, especially
when the mountain is just getting so tall, I remember Nancy
Reagan and I just say NO! As in Not Online. Not going online, not
acknowledging online just keep me away from it and it from
me. And you know what, it works. The alerts turned off, the phone
silenced, nothing coming through (unless I am really online
but *GASP* not working??).
The temptation is still there just to peek at the email, keep the
pile from piling, the stacks from stacking, and the docs from
docking, but why? Somebody else is just gonna come along and pile
and stack and doc me again, so really, what IS done? Clue:
It's the yeti's cousin who lives up in the mountains and howls
elusively down at us as we struggle to emerge from our smart phoned
world and taunts us that we are down here buried and he's running
around free. Nobody has ever seen him and lived to tell, the
only ones that can accurately identify him are those that have been "done in" and they don't tell tales. Or "done for" but they
really haven't seen him yet, they just think he's on the way.
In other words, the phone is a tool like everything else. But now, I
can if I choose get some things done while I am out doing fun
stuff that otherwise I wouldn't be getting to do because I really
should be in front of the computer monitor but I don't wanna right
now. Like those Colorado commercials for the bank where they say
they get us? Call in to work because of 6 inches of snow and
drive through 12 to ski? Yeah, you know who you are. So smart
phones are more like that, the office we don't really have to sit in.
For the rest of you, one word. Really?
