technology

My phone shatterd and all hell broke loose

/ christinaparisi / Leave a comment

Okay, I’m exaggerating. Kinda.

I would bet good money that I am among many people whose lives are attached to their phones. And when said phone gets broken or goes missing, life as we know it changes greatly.

I hate to admit it but I couldn’t even remember my husband’s phone number. When I dropped my phone, I was at my restaurant job and he was expecting me to pick up dinner. Only thing is, I always shoot him a text to confirm what he wants and what time I’m leaving.

I panicked. Crap. I couldn’t even call him from the main restaurant line because I didn’t flippin’ remember his number.

Ask me what my parent’s home number of yesteryear was and I can tell you in a minute. That was a number I had to memorize – 818-906-8651 – because there were no cell phones yet. I haven’t used that number in almost twenty years but there it was, on the tip of my tongue, which makes me wonder – do we retain much less these days with the ease of smart phones, the internet and AI?

Being away from my laptop, I couldn’t do simple things that most take for granted these days, like checking traffic or emails. Does anyone remember the days that when you left your house, you couldn’t be gotten ahold of? (Picture above is a throwback to that time period…) I reminisced for those days recently when a co-worker was trying to contact me and used several methods because I hadn’t answered within an hour. 

When did immediate response become so expected?

Not having my phone for twenty hours was not fun but it also made me realize how damn dependent I am on it, and others in my life for that matter, and I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Technology should aid us, but not hinder us, right? Are we using it correctly? I’m starting to wonder as I read about COMPUTERS talking to one another without human prompt….

Perhaps we are getting carried away with technology and need to start reigning ourselves in… what say you?

 

Make Healthy A Habit – Day Seventeen

/ christinaparisi / Leave a comment

As I was lying in bed this morning, a thought occurred to me about something my husband and I had talked about in the past.

Getting rid of technology in the bedroom.

The world we live in is fast-paced and practically run by technology.

Smartphones are everywhere and people are now attaching them to their wrists.

Tablets and laptops are third arms for a large part of this population.

And all the noise of technology is very difficult to shut off if you live in a major city. Hell, probably even in small cities.

So, where is our sanctuary? Our technology-free zone? Our place to cut ourselves off from the grid and be mindful in the present moment?

Sure, one could argue that’s what yoga studios and churches are good at but my husband and I came to the realization that we want a place like that in our home.

In an effort to get better sleep, be more mindful and present with each other and in the moment, we are no longer allowing phones, laptops or tablets in our bedroom. This is our place to disconnect, log out, sign off.

Because really, is it healthy to always be online?

Make healthy a habit. #makehealthyahabit

 

**For the original idea, please visit here.

 

I forgot my phone one day.

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I left the house feeling like something was off. I couldn’t place it. I just knew all was not right. I shrugged it off since I had to get to work though and carried on.

As I was waiting on a 405 off ramp, I glanced at my phone. Or where I thought my phone should be. Uh oh. I sunk my hand in my purse and swished around, hoping to feel that familiar rectangular piece of glass.

It wasn’t there. Damn.

It hadn’t even hit noon yet and I had a long workday ahead of me. I wouldn’t be home, or more notably at that moment, I wouldn’t see my phone, until nearly ten in the evening.

I panicked. A little. Not in the “HOLY SH*%, my finger’s just been sliced off” type way but in the “Crap, I have a two-hour break and without a phone, it will suck” type way.

I turned to the backseat. Damn.

I had forgotten my weekly Hollywood Reporter too (last week’s issue actually, which I was still trying to finish.)

I arrived at work. Oh well, I thought. I did my thing. Served some tables. Poured some drinks. Made some money.

I left for my break. I had a little over two hours before I needed to get back. I started to do the math in my head. I theoretically could have gone home to get my phone and still have time to grab a bite to eat and get some emails or phone calls done. I rationalized it in my head and got in my car.

The 10 was a parking lot, which I habitually got on since I normally work a double and leave around ten in the evening. I spent twenty minutes barely moving and berating myself for caring so much about my phone. I had other work I could do. In fact, I had a meeting with my writing partner the very next day and hadn’t written the scene we were to go over yet.

I went to a quaint little Chinese restaurant, ordered the beef fried rice and settled in for an hour or so at one of their red faux-leather booths.

I wrote the scene on the backs of two printed coupons I had in my car and three index-card-sized pages of paper I ripped out of a notepad I always keep with me.

Flash forward to the meeting with my writing partner.

I told her the story I just told you. Then I read her the scene (which took effort by the way because my writing was hastily scribbled and half the size it should be.) But I read it to her, to which afterward she replied,

“Thank God you forgot your phone.”

I was thrilled she liked the scene, which I wrote based on our notes from a prior session, but I kept wondering if I would have written this same scene had I not forgotten my phone? And what else do I not do because I have my little time-sucking machine attached to fingers should I find myself with an extra minute? I do not want to be a slave to this thing. Yes, I love the convenience of checking my email and not missing important calls but really, Facebook statuses and words with friends and random searches on the web should not be on my to-do list nearly as often as I do them. So readily on my phone.

Think about it. I say, forget your phone sometimes! Okay, just turn it off for a bit? Oh hell, at least put it on silent then…

How much more do you think you’d get done?