I'm of a generation where making plans involved thinking days, even weeks in advance. Deciding on a time and location and sticking to it. Changes involved picking up a phone and hoping someone was in, and within earshot of the phone (on its special table in the hall, or screwed to a wall in the kitchen). Most of the time plans only changed because they had to, it was too much of a faff to be fickle.
We were unavailable.
We had to be patient.
The lack of immediacy in communication was in no way seen as a sign of rejection or a cause for argument.
Life went on.
It was fine.
If I wasn't self-employed, truth be told, I probably wouldn't bother with a smartphone.
My mobile really isn't a good way to contact me.
I don't do phones.
Most of the working week it's on silent as I'm in meetings, with a client, or don't want to be disturbed because I'm catching up between clients and meetings! And at weekends, it's not unusual for me to simply forget to switch it on.
I realise this confession makes me a freak of nature in this day and age!
I'd like to point out that I'm not in my 70's (half that age, actually, give or take).
I don't do phones, and here's a poem about it...
I Don't Do Phones
I don't do phones.
Halfway through speaking,
their phone begins beeping,
"I really must take this,"
I sit silently, and take it.
I don't do phones.
When someone decided
attention, divided;
is somehow connecting,
yet it feels like rejection.
I don't do phones.
There's an App for this,
there's an App for that
you can't make an App for happiness.
I don't do phones.
...I am being mildly facetious, of course, but still, there is an important message here.
Look up from your phone occasionally.
Life is better experienced through your senses than a screen.
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| (EPIC FAIL. Amazing view and you take a Selfie!) |
Live it, and live it with the people you are with in that moment!
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| (EPIC FAIL. With company and you're both looking at your phone!) |
Share my poem, let's spread the word!
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| (I don't do phones - a poem by Amy C Fitzjohn) |
