Connectedness

And yes, there we called it a hand phone or hp. (pronounced ha pay) It was this basic Nokia that cost me $50 up front and about $5 a month to use. I could send an sms (text), make a phone call…and that was about it.

By the end of my five years, the phone had definitely seen better days, and we sold it for $5.

I definitely got my money’s worth.

When I returned to the States last April, my head was spinning with all the phones I could choose from. I went with a Samsung that was free with my contract.

I can make a phone call, send a TEXT :), take pictures…and that’s really all I need it for. It felt like such an indulgence to buy a phone that nice after what I had been using for five years.

And then…I saw what had happened in the world of phones since our departure to Indonesia five years before.

Is there anything you can’t do with a cell phone

?

And reading this post today only reiterated the thoughts I have had about phones and the need to be constantly connected.

I just don’t understand people who are always on their phones…browsing the internet, sending texts, making phone calls…24/7…well, maybe not quite that often. I mean, they do need to sleep so they have some energy for all that texting and web surfing.  (And perhaps now would be a good time for me to go off on people who update their Facebook and Twitter while driving. But I’ll save that for another day.

;))

I? Have a whopping 500 minutes a month (which I share with my hubby) and 250 texts. I have no data plan…and even if I had one, I’m not sure I’d know how to use it.

You won’t see me update my Facebook status or Twitter from my ph one, c

onstantly texting or even talking on it often. And you definitely won’t see me attempting to multitask playing with my daughter and browsing the web.

(I’m not that coordinated anyway.

Seriously.)

But before you start thinking that I’m perfect and have a halo floating above my head all the time (no, just sometimes :D), I’ll be honest and tell you that after reading that post, I felt a little guilty about the time I spend staring at a computer screen every day. I really try to keep boundaries, and I don’t blog unless Mae is sleeping. But I am guilty of browsing the internet sometimes while she entertains herself in her pack and play or jumper.

And that needs to change.

I don’t want the people in my life to ever feel that they are overshadowed by my need to be connected.

So I guess I will never own a smart phone. (Or at least be able to effectively use one.)

And my laptop might just need to spend a little more time alone.

And that’s just fine with me.