I knew my iPhone was going into the shop on Thursday, for some (hopefully minor) repairs. So I’d bought a temporary replacement phone to tide me over until my iPhone got fixed.
Above is a photo of my replacement phone, which was very reasonably priced.
My replacement phone, however, didn’t include a lot of the features that I’ve become accustomed to. I couldn’t check the weather, for example. It didn’t allow me to send or receive text messages, or check my email, or take photos and video. I couldn’t check the stock market on an hourly basis — or at all, for that matter.
And the audio quality wasn’t that great. When I called my mom yesterday, she said it sounded like I was talking into a tin can.
Which was understandable, considering.
Also, my replacement phone didn’t remind me of my dentist appointment on Friday. Not that I really wanted to get that cavity filled. Be thankful for small favors, I always say.
And as far as checking the weather, what good does that really do? It happens regardless.
It was a bit frustrating, though, when I got in a debate with a friend about whether Taylor Swift had actually endorsed Kamala Harris, and I couldn’t ask Siri to support my side of the argument.
My friend still uses a land line, so I normally have the “Siri advantage” when he and I get into a disagreement. (I’ve been cultivating friendships with people who don’t own a smartphone, for that reason.)
But now that I’ve been using my “not-smart-phone” for the past few days, I’ve realized how much time I was wasting doing things that no one bothered doing 20 year ago. Playing Wordle, for example. During 2023, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times. If every player spent 10 minutes playing each game, then my fellow players and I wasted a total of 91,000 years.
Last year, Florida passed a law requiring public schools statewide to ban student cellphone use during class time, and the Los Angeles Unified School District just banned mobile devices on all its school campuses.
That’s a lot of campuses.
The British government has issued guidelines recommending that student cellphone use be prohibited in schools nationwide. That followed Italy, which banned cellphones during lessons in 2022, and China, which three years ago barred children from taking phones to school.
Of course, students have always been banned from bringing guns, alcohol, and drugs to school, and all those things are less dangerous than a smartphone, when you really think about it. I offer up Wordle, as evidence.
I’m thinking that China is now three years ahead of the U.S. in protecting its children.
How about adults? Don’t we deserve protection as well? Before I can lawfully buy a firearm in Colorado, I must pass a Colorado Bureau of Investigations background check, which includes filling out an application and waiting about twenty minutes for approval (or a rejection?) As of October 1, 2023, there is a three-day waiting period (the so-called “cooling off” period) before the seller can transfer the firearm to the purchaser.
Where’s the cooling off period for smartphones?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.