I forgot to mention this in the last post, but one of the reasons I am going with a simpler device is also because I don’t need to talk to people all the time. I tried that for years, and got burnt out every few weeks. Then I turned off all the notifications that weren’t SMS or calls, and my life got a lot better.
Sure, there are times when I really wish I had a full mobile computing device that had screaming access to the net so I could bug someone through a dozen different networks. But I doubt I will ever need to contact someone with such urgency without knowing their phone number. When I travel I listen to music or read or play games or stare out the BART window or take detours and find myself in adventures. When I sort my life in a way that isn’t dependent on constant access to the internet, I end up spending more time with my tribe, and enjoy the time I am alone.
I am hesitant to publish all this, because I don’t want it to be read as advocacy (though I do believe folks should not distract themselves with alerts and notifications constantly). I don’t think I’ve figured it out, and I strongly suspect that my brain works drastically differently than most folks (guess who tells “me” that?). I don’t like the idea that I am slowing down because I am doing so as an organism, an aging techie preaching to another generation to wear headphones in the dance club. Life is an experiment, and this is part of mine.
Also, most people write like idiots in SMS.