The digital culture has made phone technology an integral part of people’s lives. Driving on a busy street, you’ll often see people abandoning common sense and laws just to check out the latest messages on their phones. People in dense zones where space is a premium and walking is the norm, you’ll often time see people ignorant about their surroundings, occasionally bumping into others or occasionally slipping on cracks. It’s a way of life these days and something I don’t participate actively in.
I suppose I’m one of those “goody-two-shoes” type of people who abides by (most) laws and lives a straight and narrow life for the most part. That and I’m a bit of a maverick when it comes to life trends. So despite having a mobile device (and an iPad that I hardly use), I am not a heavy consumer. Outside of the occasional business phone calls or friends reaching out once a month, I simply do not employ my mobile device all that much.
The only times I really use my phone are when I’m away from my computer and have some down time. So maybe if I’m at the gym, I’ll write out a few tweets or I’m waiting for a meal at a restaurant. Despite all this, I never have felt compelled to use my phone. There’s only a few applications on my phone that I actively employ such as Facebook and Twitter. But the rest don’t have much use for me.
Part of the issue is that I’m using an older Android model and it’s utter crap. The interface never worked all that well, it’s difficult to update the base software, typing is a pain and the applications never enticed me. Prior to my Android, I had an iPhone which I probably was slightly more active in using. Perhaps the primary difference for me was the iTunes integration aspect. Also, my iPhone at the time just felt far smoother.
Nevertheless, I still wasn’t a huge mobile consumer. I think most people just constantly text each other all day and night or talk themselves to death. Even before the smart phones became popularized, people were chattering all the time on cell phones. Not me. Maybe I’m anti-social but compared to other people that I’ve seen, I’m not a huge consumer. At this moment, I’m considering lowering my data usage plan just because I barely do anything on my phone. Previously, I thought I would be a heavier consumer of media like YouTube, Google Maps, etc. Instead, I almost never use any of that.
It could simply be that my phone really sucks and I never feel motivated in using it. Whatever I can do on my phone, I can do on a laptop better. That might make me a little “old school” in some ways, but I think I’m just a power user overall when it comes to technology and the way my needs may differ than say a pock faced teen.