Smart Phones

So, a few months back we switched to Ting Wireless using a pair of HTC Evo smart phones I bought used on swappa.com for $45 a piece. Our joint bill has never exceeded $50 since we switched, we used to each pay closer to $60 a piece so our household savings is in the $70 a month range. Nice.
Anyhow, a few things I have noticed since having a smart phone.
1) I tend to forget about emails. I will read them while driving, working, etc. with intentions of reading them later and never doing so. I notice that many of my friends with smart phones now suck ass at responding to emails.
2) I tend to forget to respond to texts. Pretty much requires two hands and a higher level of awareness than dumb phones did to make sure the words are right. So I often read it, then respond much later, if at all.
3) I don't send text messages nearly as much. See above, it's a pain in the ass.
4) I am using the talk feature much more often. In fact, our joint bill was $9 more this month as we moved up to next level of talk minutes.

Anyhow, there are lots of other things I could observe, but was curious if anyone else notices these particular ones. We play indoor soccer, wife manages her women's team on monday and was complaining about people that fail to respond to team emails. We realized all those people have smart phones so I've been encouraging her to call them direct.

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Grant Hughes

Since I got a smart phone, my talking has dropped severely. My texting went through the roof. Same with all my friends around here. I tend to respond to emails in a more reasonable fashion then before (when they send to my not-at-work-email).


Though, lately i do find myself reading texts then creating a response in my head, which then never makes it to the fingers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2013 12:01PM by Racinkid13.

Grant,

I understand the email issue... I use gmail, and have it set to leave all unread messages at the top. Then when I am done reading the email on my phone, if I need to respond later at a real keyboard, I simply hit "mark as unread" Then it's there, the the top next time I open a real machine.

I have found that a smart phone has actually made me respond to people haha. Although, since I am in a tech field, I have the policy of not looking at emails unless I plan to respond to them, because if I do look at them, but dont respond, I never will.

It's why I love the new blackberry where you can switch between work mode and home mode. Then I dont have to be bothered by that damn red asterisk and not making it go away .

I've had the same problem with opening emails, reading them and forgetting to respond...
I have also found I leave fewer voice messages, something I think will become a thing of the past.

Something that happened to me recently:

I plugged in my iPhone to my computer to charge it (something I really hadn't done in the past but I was desperate for a re-charge). When I plugged in and it asked if I wanted the new software update so doing like I would normally do with these requests I clicked yes and then walked away to a meeting.

When I returned my phone had gone into full recovery mode for some reason and the only way to get it to function again was to wipe it clean completely. I had never created a backup for phone numbers, pics etc. but said "Oh well" not much I can do, clean and restart....live and learn.

Anyhow....I'm not quite sure how it happened but magically all of my information was restored, everything. I'm pretty sure it was stored out on a cloud somewhere that I had sync'd with and never knew about. I don't think I ever even sync'd with iTunes so I'm not sure how it happened.

While I was happy it was a bit scary, just something to remember with smart phones....they're pretty smart!

I found having a smart phone actually adds to your work load during the week. 2 years ago I retired my smart phone in favor of a simple messenger phone, I sit in front of a computer for 9 hours a day and have 2,3,4,5 ways to connect when at home. Why bother with having a computer in my pocket? Personally i have not noticed an uptick of those with smart phones not responding to emails. i do notice how those who do have one tend to spend a lot of time checking out porn and facebook when they could be working. It goes well beyond that, i cant count how many teen moms i have seen at the playground paying more attention to their Iphone then their child who is saying " mom, look at me, mom! is that my daddy? mom, im thirsty"

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BJosephD
i cant count how many teen moms i have seen at the playground paying more attention to their Iphone then their child who is saying " mom, look at me, mom! is that my daddy? mom, im thirsty"

Ha. Sounds like my mom. If she's not at work then she has her face buried in the latest iPhone or the iPad I got her. Won't even talk to her kids. Just sends me and the sister a text instead of going to the next room.
Yeah, I fuckin' deleted my Facebook account because that's all I did when I was bored. It makes it weird and awkward making new friends since me and everyone else is used to just saying "Yeah, add me on Facebook and we can kick it." Now we have to exchange PHONE NUMBERS?! But yeah, after spending approximately ALL the time on Facebook not doing shit, it feels good to not have it around. I mean, I don't have a rally team or local business to promote so there's really no point. I forgot what we were talking about. Something about Grant and cell phones?

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Why do you even need brakes? Are you some sort of pansy or something?

I'm terrible at responding to emails without my smartphone...

My smartphone is the glue that holds my reality together. Don't know how I could live without it anymore.

Well I do; I'd either work more managing and organizing (and getting less work done), or not as much work would get done period. For people who are in a business/industry that demands instantaneous resolution of problems, it makes life a million times easier, especially when you are removed from other means of communications.

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HiTempguy
My smartphone is the glue that holds my reality together. Don't know how I could live without it anymore.

Well I do; I'd either work more managing and organizing (and getting less work done), or not as much work would get done period. For people who are in a business/industry that demands instantaneous resolution of problems, it makes life a million times easier, especially when you are removed from other means of communications.

Just what sort of work do you do exactly?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

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