Get Smart

It's been a while since either of us has posted. To be honest, we've been spending most of our free time Upstate. It's been a summer of gardening, cooking, reading, relaxing, and enjoying a pleasant life of disconnect. Without a television set, media exposure is based on our weekly Netflix movies, Hulu, and Wimbledon.org. However, the remaining weekends of the summer will likely be very different because this past week we bought iPhones.

This was a bold move for us because we resisted the pull of media technology and managed to survive, for the most part, without cell phones until they became absolutely necessary. (Working in television production in NYC without one just can't happen.) Even then we got by with the bare minimum: we bought clunky devices that allowed us to make and receive phone calls but weren't capable of much more.

Then a while back, I was forced to upgrade after my phone was stolen. My replacement wasn't a smart phone, but it was a step in a more useful direction. Suddenly I could take pictures, but I couldn't download or e-mail them, so my blurry images sat trapped in my phone by way of its limited memory. Though I rarely used text to communicate, the numbers and letters on my keypad were starting to fade. And more recently my battery began to show signs of wear, possibly terminal illness. My power button required a good two or three long pushes to execute the command. This, coupled with work demands that require prompt and frequent two-way communication, meant it was time for another upgrade. And this time it needed to be more adventurous.

As happy Mac users, we knew it was only a matter of time before we made the iPhone purchase. Our reluctance was a result of our not wanting to be connected all the time. Our antiquated phones gave us an excuse to disappear. To not have to answer right away. To not have to answer at all. So this purchase came with a condition: these phones will not change our lives.

But it's hard to deny the inevitable. It turns out they are as handy and fun to use as they are advertised. Their design is intuitive and effortless. Their applications are genius, making simple tasks like reading the New York Times online even simpler. It's clear that we're starting to show signs of healthy dependence.

The life change that we feared involved getting sucked into meaningless texting, downloading absurd applications (the virtual fart, the filled beer glass that clinks, etc.), and developing an inability to choose live company over an incoming message.

The life change we're experiencing so far has assuaged our doubts. Now we just need to buy our phones protective skins -- it could be a while before the next upgrade.

n.