Or, How I Went for Almost Two Straight Weeks Without a Cell Phone
I recently took a rather unplanned hiatus from having a cell phone, which was, to my surprise, not that painful. It’s something I had been meaning to do, oh, forever, but never quite got around to because I love my phone and Twitter and the internet in general and could never quite work up the nerve to give it all up for an extended period of time. How, exactly, does someone take an unplanned two-week hiatus? Well, let me tell you.
First of all, go abroad. Realize at the last minute that your phone won’t work while you’re away and then, instead of freaking out about it, just turn it off, toss it in your bag, and forget it. That part was pretty easy. Vacation! Going with the flow! Who cares what’s going on with Twitter, I’m hiking on a volcano!
Second of all, have a very confusing series of miscommunications with several people, the result of which is getting your phone shut off for six days. See, my birthday present from my parents was a brand new iPhone. I was so excited to get that phone in my hot little hands on May 1, until I realized that my current contract with my carrier (that doesn’t support iPhones) wasn’t up until June 12 and that if I left early to go to another carrier I’d have to pay them $65. Oh. June 12 would work just fine after all. When we got back from Nicaragua but before we left for New York (in those 1.5 days we had in Pittsburgh), we called Verizon and ordered my new phone. It would be waiting for us when we got back from the big apple six days late, like a reward for coming back from vacation, which I think is something we could all use upon re-entry, right? Great!
I flew to New York on Tuesday, and D was set to arrive on Thursday morning. I had shared with him minimal information because we both figured he could just call me when he arrived! HA. Hahahahaha. By Wednesday afternoon I could no longer send or receive text messages. My coworker tried to call me and got a message that my phone was disconnected. Hmm. She couldn’t reach me to tell me this, though, so I had no idea. When D got to New York on Thursday morning, I hadn’t heard from him since Wednesday and didn’t know if he’d even left Pittsburgh. I also had no idea my phone wasn’t working. I just thought that people maybe didn’t want to talk to me, and also that my boyfriend was really bad at returning my calls. When the internet on my phone stopped working on Thursday morning, though, then I figured out something was wrong. Obviously I have my priorities straight.
I tracked down a phone and called D, who had indeed arrived in New York and was wandering around the Times Square area with no idea what hotel we were staying at, and managed to meet up and let him into our room. Crisis averted. Good thing his number is one of the two I still have memorized. For the rest of the weekend we either made concrete meetup plans (I will be standing at the elevators at 11:25 when my session ends; be here!) or stayed nearby. This meant no wandering off in museums (me) or disappearing while I’m taking pictures (him). Although not having a phone while traveling in a strange city had the potential for disaster, we did a pretty good job of keeping track of each other by making plans and paying more attention. I guess this is what people did before cell phones, right?
I did have access to Twitter and my email through D’s phone, but I only checked in a few times over the course of my 6 days in New York. When you have to ask someone to use their phone, jumping on Twitter at every spare moment isn’t as easy. Instead, I tried to forget about the internet. If someone really needed to get ahold of me, they could call D. Not surprisingly, no one did. D is much better about staying off his phone than I am (he isn’t on Twitter or blogs and hardly gets any email) so we were able to have a really good, low-tech weekend where we could enjoy the city and each other without much added distraction. It was actually pretty nice, not having the constant noise of the internet swirling around in my head. When we were sitting or waiting (for the train, in a museum, in the park) I found my mind was much more quiet and content. We had more conversations and silly, non sequitur comments about what we were thinking. Overall I felt a lot more calm (and in New York City!).
Now, does this mean I’m suddenly going to stop using the internet? Um, no. Not even close. I love the connection that reading blogs and chatting via Twitter bring me. I like having my email on hand and being reachable. I like to feel connected. But it does mean that when it’s just me and D, especially on the weekends and when we’re doing something together just the two of us, I’m going to make more of an effort to put the phone away or leave it at home. Although now that I have an iPhone and Instagram (find me! I’m Thisris) I can imagine it will be that much harder.
I recently took a rather unplanned hiatus from having a cell phone, which was, to my surprise, not that painful. It’s something I had been meaning to do, oh, forever, but never quite got around to because I love my phone and Twitter and the internet in general and could never quite work up the nerve to give it all up for an extended period of time. How, exactly, does someone take an unplanned two-week hiatus? Well, let me tell you.
First of all, go abroad. Realize at the last minute that your phone won’t work while you’re away and then, instead of freaking out about it, just turn it off, toss it in your bag, and forget it. That part was pretty easy. Vacation! Going with the flow! Who cares what’s going on with Twitter, I’m hiking on a volcano!
Second of all, have a very confusing series of miscommunications with several people, the result of which is getting your phone shut off for six days. See, my birthday present from my parents was a brand new iPhone. I was so excited to get that phone in my hot little hands on May 1, until I realized that my current contract with my carrier (that doesn’t support iPhones) wasn’t up until June 12 and that if I left early to go to another carrier I’d have to pay them $65. Oh. June 12 would work just fine after all. When we got back from Nicaragua but before we left for New York (in those 1.5 days we had in Pittsburgh), we called Verizon and ordered my new phone. It would be waiting for us when we got back from the big apple six days late, like a reward for coming back from vacation, which I think is something we could all use upon re-entry, right? Great!
I flew to New York on Tuesday, and D was set to arrive on Thursday morning. I had shared with him minimal information because we both figured he could just call me when he arrived! HA. Hahahahaha. By Wednesday afternoon I could no longer send or receive text messages. My coworker tried to call me and got a message that my phone was disconnected. Hmm. She couldn’t reach me to tell me this, though, so I had no idea. When D got to New York on Thursday morning, I hadn’t heard from him since Wednesday and didn’t know if he’d even left Pittsburgh. I also had no idea my phone wasn’t working. I just thought that people maybe didn’t want to talk to me, and also that my boyfriend was really bad at returning my calls. When the internet on my phone stopped working on Thursday morning, though, then I figured out something was wrong. Obviously I have my priorities straight.
I tracked down a phone and called D, who had indeed arrived in New York and was wandering around the Times Square area with no idea what hotel we were staying at, and managed to meet up and let him into our room. Crisis averted. Good thing his number is one of the two I still have memorized. For the rest of the weekend we either made concrete meetup plans (I will be standing at the elevators at 11:25 when my session ends; be here!) or stayed nearby. This meant no wandering off in museums (me) or disappearing while I’m taking pictures (him). Although not having a phone while traveling in a strange city had the potential for disaster, we did a pretty good job of keeping track of each other by making plans and paying more attention. I guess this is what people did before cell phones, right?
I did have access to Twitter and my email through D’s phone, but I only checked in a few times over the course of my 6 days in New York. When you have to ask someone to use their phone, jumping on Twitter at every spare moment isn’t as easy. Instead, I tried to forget about the internet. If someone really needed to get ahold of me, they could call D. Not surprisingly, no one did. D is much better about staying off his phone than I am (he isn’t on Twitter or blogs and hardly gets any email) so we were able to have a really good, low-tech weekend where we could enjoy the city and each other without much added distraction. It was actually pretty nice, not having the constant noise of the internet swirling around in my head. When we were sitting or waiting (for the train, in a museum, in the park) I found my mind was much more quiet and content. We had more conversations and silly, non sequitur comments about what we were thinking. Overall I felt a lot more calm (and in New York City!).
Now, does this mean I’m suddenly going to stop using the internet? Um, no. Not even close. I love the connection that reading blogs and chatting via Twitter bring me. I like having my email on hand and being reachable. I like to feel connected. But it does mean that when it’s just me and D, especially on the weekends and when we’re doing something together just the two of us, I’m going to make more of an effort to put the phone away or leave it at home. Although now that I have an iPhone and Instagram (find me! I’m Thisris) I can imagine it will be that much harder.
7 comments:
I always think it's so funny that people (not necessarily you, but the general public) flips the eff out when their phone will be out of service for a few days. We're all old enough to remember when no one had cell phones and yet, it's practically impossible to remember how we functioned during those times. hahaha. Glad to hear you had a fun weekend in NY despite the lack of a phone!
I was going to comment about how I turned off a lot of my phone's notifications because I really hated how I'd respond to the buzz of a notification like one of Pavlov's dogs, but then I got all excited to learn that you are on Instagram tooooo...
It might have been a bit of a blessing in disguise to not have your phone service... it really forces you to live in the moment! I like traveling abroad because I never use my phone, besides maybe accessing free wifi to check my email. But besides that, no one can call me and I don't really respond to emails. It's really nice to unplug like that once in awhile!
Wow, I had no idea you were such a smartphone junkie! I accidentally leave my phone at home all the time and think nothing of it. When I really freak out is when SOMEONE ELSE is unplugged (my boyfriend, ahem) and I can't reach them when I need to (why do boys NEVER charge their phones??). But I could totally live my life without the plug, and I think be happier for it.
When we went to Mexico we both turned off our phones and it was great. We could just experience things and enjoy it together without being distracted. Always nice to do once in a while. Now if only I could avoid facebook/twitter for a few weeks...
It's nice to not have the phone attached to your hip all the time, isn't it? I traveled abroad a few times and every time have had to rely on internet cafes for the little communication I had. It was nice to not be on everyone else's beck and call all the time!
In related news, I lost my cell phone on my way to Greece ~2 weeks ago and am just now learning how difficult it is to coordinate picking up your luggage from someone else's house without a phone.
FUN TIMES.
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