I do not like talking on the telephone very much. To me, it feels like a very artificial, inefficient means of communication. Talking face to face is a much richer experience and any inefficiency is offset by the benefits of the non-verbal communication and its subtle nuances. Written communication can be much clearer [even though it often is not] and more efficient. Each of these media has its place and the phone comes in the middle as a compromise.<\/p>\n
However, I am very happy to have a mobile phone and use it extensively, but very little of my use is talking, and I wonder how common my experience is nowadays. I have always been a somewhat early adopter of technology – I usually wait for version 1.1, but not hang on for 2.0. My phone usage can be understood by looking at my personal history …<\/p>\n
I had my first mobile phone back in the early 1990s – it was built into my car, which was common practice then. Truly “mobile” units weighed several kilograms, which had the advantage that people very rarely mislaid them! I got my first “real” mobile handset in about 1995. At around that time, PDAs began to appear and the one that made the market take off was the Palm Pilot. I had one of the original devices. Actually, I still have it – maybe a museum out there would like to give it a home? I loved the way I could keep so much information on hand, easily synch with my computer and add more applications to do other jobs and make the device even more valuable.<\/p>\n
As years went by, I gradually got more sophisticated Palm devices and got updated phone handsets. Email became more and more critical, so I got a Blackberry as well.<\/p>\n
I reached a point where I was carrying three separate devices around in order to manage my life. I told myself that this was good, as I did not “have all my eggs in one basket”. But the reality was that it was a burden carrying them and all their accessories and the likelihood of losing one was very high. And that is what happened. I left my Palm on a plane. And, a while later, being a slow learner, I did it again. I did not lose any data, but it was very inconvenient. As I was due to replace my unreliable phone, I had a rethink and decided to rationalize. I got a Palm Treo, which provided the functionality of all three devices.<\/p>\n
I have not looked back. Although I migrated from Palm to Google’s Android some months ago [and that was quite a culture shock after so many years], I continue to enjoy having what I regard as a PDA which can make calls and do email. Out of interest, I thought I might list all the things that I routinely use my “phone” for:<\/p>\n
That is enough to be going on with, but, by the time you read this, I will probably have found something else to use it for. On the other hand, maybe what I need is one of these iPad things …<\/p>\n