I am about to seem like one big oxymoron, but we got iphones. What?
What happened to saving? What happened to simplicity? What happened to less time on Facebook? What happened to a life focused on people and love?
I know.
There are reasons like, our cell phone provider essentially asked us to leave since we were constantly “roaming” in our new state. There’s the employee discount at AT&T with my job. There’s the free iphone 4, so they can clean house on those things and get us hooked before we know what hit us. Hey, don’t think I didn’t go kicking and screaming into this new life of smartphones.
So we have these things. No more calling my mom to ask her to google directions for me when I get lost. Maybe I’ll have more photos on the blog or be more socially aware with all these new apps. Trying to focus on the positives here.
There are so many potential negatives though. Smartphones have their benefits, but I don’t want to give my life over to them. I don’t want to be on-call 24/7. I don’t want to rely on the thing to solve all my problems and provide for all of my needs. I don’t want to sit in a room with people/friends and barely see their faces behind my screen. Later in life, I don’t want to be that mom that’s so busy with her phone that she can’t find time to spend with her kids. I don’t want you to be able to track me down and know my exact location. I don’t want to see your never-ending updates either. I don’t want to have my phone within sight at all times “just in case.” Just in case what? Someone likes my status on facebook or posts a new photo on instagram? No, not okay.
Simply put, I’m determining some rules for my phone use. I don’t want this getting out of hand, and I know how easy it can be. So far, here’s where I’m at:
- No phones at the dinner table (not even just resting there)
- No connecting it to Facebook for instant updates
- Likewise, no automatic connection to work email – logging in separately only as needed
- No phones after 10:30 pm – this was a rule we first had right after we got married and I think it needs to be reinstated
- Call it like it is – if one of us is spending too much time on the dang thing, say so
