Dumb Phone

My "New" Motorola Razr (matte black) all charged up and ready to go. It's Monday morning and I was ready to start my adventure. My adventure; to go without a smart phone for two weeks. To avoid being completely unreachable I decided I would sport a non-smart phone or "Dumb Phone". It didn't take long for me to decided which phone I would use. The Motorola Razr, particularly the v3. The coolest phone before the iphone was released. When I say coolest, I mean this phone was a big deal. The all matte black one that I bought was first release when it was given to participants as a gift at the 77th Academy Awards.

Into the modern world I flung myself unequipped with the normal smart device, and unprepared for the consequences it may bring; the first of which I realized as soon as I got in my car to go to work. Normally I would start my car, select a podcast from my phone (which has already connected to my stereo over Bluetooth) and I'm on my way. As you can imagine this process was halted immediately. So "how am I going to listen to podcast?" I think for a few minutes. Maybe an old ipod? Well I guess its going to be NPR today, ill have to tackle this one when I get home tonight.

Once at work I didn't run into much trouble; I can do everything I would normally do on my phone on my computer, which I'm in front of 90% of the time. Although I do feel it cut down on my distraction level. Notifications weren't streaming in like usual and I was only checking twitter when I had more logical gaps in what I was working on.

After the first two day's the normal constant ADD swirl of news, social media, email, online shopping, and texting that is normally going though my head seemed to subside. I was already no longer constantly reaching for my phone to check "something" and it actually felt good. Good is unexpected, I always assumed it would make me anxious, at least at first.

To fulfill my need for podcasts I dug out my old ipod nano. After a quick charge I was almost surprised to find it still worked. I quickly confirmed that itunes is still a terrible garbage fire of a piece of software. It's slow and confusing but I finally found my way around. On the flip side itunes is the holy land for podcasts, everything is available, every podcast comes to itunes first, and hopefully discovery will be pretty good because i'm looking for some new shows to listen to. I have found the ipod approach to listening to podcasts fairly nice. The interface on my ipod nano from 2007 is easy to navigate and the single use device has excellent battery life. I just have to bring it into work with me everyone once in a while to re-sync new podcasts.

Another pain point was not having my calendar with me at all time and not getting meeting and event reminders. I overcome this hurtle using office 365's text messaging feature. It only took a couple minutes to setup and was able to send me text messages reminders before calendar events start as well as a daily list of all my calendar items when I wake up.

Battery life is fantastic by today's terms (about a full three day's without charging). This is unheard of with modern day phones which consume considerable amounts of power just keeping your apps updated, tracking your location, and powering your high resolution display (all things the Razr doesn't have to do). Not having to charge every day is kind of cool but truthfully the battery life on my Pixel XL gets me through a full day 95% of the time and that is about all I need.

I ended my adventure after a week. I feel like I got to experience everything I set out to. It changed my understand of what my smartphone was and what it wasn't to me. My biggest realization being that I was okay without a smart phone, its not that bad, my world will not come to a crashing halt. Yes, some features are very convenient and they definitely enable you to stay more connected; I also missed a couple of really nice picture opportunities. However no matter how much you believe your smart phone is essential to your continued existence, its not. So I challenge you, take a break and dig out that old dumb phone. You will be okay, I promise; and you may actually in enjoy it.