Thursday, July 10, 2014

Amish Style

Worn, yet serviceable..
So, that thing over there to the left is my phone.  I call it the dinosaur phone when I joke about it with other people, but really?  In my head, it's a Star Trek communicator.  I channel Captain Kirk each time I flip it open; what's more, I like the challenge of texting without a keyboard, and I don't mind that I don't get data.  When I try to use a newfangled smartphone, it feels like I am a little kid holding a wooden block to my head and pretending it's a phone.

In short, I LIKE my phone.  AND it costs only $30, so if I lose it, no biggie - I go get another one.  The time I dropped it between a wall and a Metro escalator?  I didn't even panic.  The one sitting at the bottom of a storm drain in our town center? I don't miss it.  Really, I am too careless to own an expensive phone.

So why then is it so embarrassing when I leave it somewhere - on a cash register counter, say (see above re too careless) - and the clerk calls after me, "Oh, hey, is this your phone?"  And I turn around to see her holding it aloft in front of all the other customers, half of whom are probably thinking, "What the heck is THAT?"

Just...embarrassing.  And I don't know why.  It's not as if I am one to bow to peer pressure and jump on the latest technological bandwagon.

Oh, and did I mention that, when I was buying Rachel's bicycle, the cashier at the bike store could not BELIEVE I was unable to take a legible picture of the receipt with my cellphone.  INCREDULOUS, he was. He probably thinks I'm Amish.

Then again, that's what the kids think, too.  They consider themselves lucky to have zippers, as they tote around their own Star Trek communicators and explain to their friends yet AGAIN that, no, we don't have cable.  Top that off with a family camping trip each summer, and they have resigned themselves to being forced to live in the previous century.

I tell them that it's like time travel, but they don't buy that.  At least they're not stupid, right?

11 comments:

  1. Well ... it's not like it has a dial or is attached to the wall by a cord. There's that. :-)

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  2. I'm with you. The LG lucid my cousin gave me would cost me $45 a month minimum to activate on Verizon's network and it won't work on any other network yet. I'm still investigating how to hack it so it will work on Page plus, the only other company I can find that uses Verizon's cell towers and technology.

    Even if I don't activate it, I can still use it on my home wireless to get on facebook, watch movies on netflix, etc. I could install the app that would allow me to make voice over internet protocol phone call with any wireless I can connect to? The kids are enjoying streaming netflix to it as they walk around the house. ;)

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  3. "When I try to use a newfangled smartphone, it feels like I am a little kid holding a wooden block to my head" --- EXACTLY.

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  4. Cell phones can take pictures? Jokes the woman whose cell phone still has a little antenna on it. My bedside phone still has a cord.

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  5. My phone is much like yours, and I haven't had any TV since 1999 (absent an occasional DVD). The Amish actually have a good point- we, like they, choose what technology we spend our resources on (and that's time as well as money).

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  6. Your flip phone is prettier than my flip phone (which is the exact same model that our 81-year-old pastor uses). It's almost like you are from Star Trek: The Next Generation while I'm still stuck back with the first series. Neither one is bad, but one has slightly better technology (and the bonus of a Captain who is a Shakespearean actor).

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    1. What, don't tell me you haven't seen Shatner's Shakespeare rap performance? Get thee to YouTube! It's hilarious.

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  7. Your phone is more super spiffy than mine! And I just put up a post about my daughter being excited about getting to use the rotary phone in her room, so I think we're further down the Amish continuum.

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  8. My new phone is a black clam-shell (flip), it makes and receives phone calls, tells me the time and occasionally wakes me up. And that's good enough for me! (until I run it through the washing machine with an extra rinse...boo ...which is why my phone is new.)
    OTOH, I have given up my land line and rely solely on my cell. Oh, yeah, this phone actually has a calendar where I can store appts and can remind me of same. That's good. And it does have a camera, but I don't know how I'd transfer pictures to my computer, so I haven't even tried it.

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    1. Probably depends on the phone- my husbands will transfer via Bluetooth, so I'm SOL with the desktop (no Bluetooth), but can transfer easily to the Bluetooth-equipped laptops.

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  9. Cable, worst thing I ever did.

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