(Temporairily) Phoneless.

To be honest its about time I detoxed from information overload by surrending my phone. But while my mobiles life hangs by a thread in a nokia service center, I have to find a way to live without having google at my fingertips 24-7, without being able to spend my hours at work reading blogs and following up on news and commentary, text my every second inconsequential thoughts or send/share pictures of the wierd and wacky things that are encountered during my day.

Suddenly I have whole epochs of time to fill. That's a whole lot more talking to myself and watching dust fall.

Even now I've organised my back up phone I have discovered that it's 'like sooo old' and is incapable of doing about 90% of the things I require it to do. Such as find me the lyrics of that damn song! Hence I feel a little disabled, a little isolated. It's hard to participate in the information technology age without the appropriate gadgetry and know-how. This got me thinking about people who actively avoid mobiles, internet and/or social media. Like for instance a good friend of mine who I talk to rarely because they aren't involved in the convenient mechanism of Facebook. This is both good and bad I think. It's like a kid growing up without TV, they probably benefit manifestly from that (assuming they aren't in some cult anyway) but they will unfortunately miss out on chunks of contemporary culture and general knowledge that their peers will be privy to.

People are empowered by technology. Take for example the recent Egyptian revolution that found its spark through online social networking. Revolutionary ideas that are making a difference in the lives of the worlds poorest are those that provide the means to access education, ie. technology. Thus the 'One Laptop per Child' scheme distributes small, robust laptops to countries throughout Africa and the Middle East, while in slums in South America and India philanthropists fund community computers.

But are we also enslaved and dumbed by technology? When we spend hours taking pictures of ourselves and watching the stream of facebook feeds ebb and flow (or perhaps I'm talking for myself) and otherwise loose hours upon decades to one addictive square box or another, a world such as that of the blubbery, totally technology dependent humans floating in outer space represented in the animated movie Walle springs scarily to mind... Just ask any old folk, they’ll be quick to inform you the world is going to hell because of us texting, headphone wearing internet users.

then again, old people always have reserved the right to scorn the future and bemoan the loss of the past.

All I know is that I am remarkably uncomfortable without the safety blanket of my mobile at hand, without it I feel a though I am inhibited, mournfully missing my connection to the rest of the world.