Look Ma, no speed dial!
I’m hoping to say that soon when I call my mother as all good sons are supposed to.
Calling home took on a surreal tone for me this past weekend when I discovered I didn’t know my mother’s phone number. Now, before you judge me for not calling my mother enough, that’s not the case at all. The issue is that I’ve become too reliant on calling home via speed dial.
I grabbed my cell phone on Sunday to call her. But for some reason, her number was not in my cell phone’s speed dial anymore. So, I simply grabbed the next closest piece of technology: my PDA. Lo and behold, that last time it synced with the computer something went wrong. My mother’s entry was gone!
After a minute of guilt – and a touch of panic over possibly having to call my sister for our mother’s phone number – I discovered that I had Mom programmed into my cordless home phone.
All this panicked searching for a phone number got me thinking about technology and how over-reliant on it we’ve become. Before joining John Bailey & Associates, I worked for the state Senate, where I carried a fancier PDA that was a phone and scheduler and handled e-mail. When it died from overuse, I had a startling realization that I couldn’t remember the last time I looked up while walking to a meeting. I couldn’t remember when my brain had some down time to simply process all the minutia I’d been collecting all day long and needed to sort out. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually stayed focused in a meeting – on that meeting.
It’s amazing how much more focused I’ve become lately without a Blackberry buzzing on my hip, without a wireless laptop to drag around with me from meeting to meeting, and with the newfound strength to send a call to voicemail.
It’s startling how much more you can learn from people when you are actually willing to listen and focus on what they are saying. It’s a little thing called communicating – and we could all use a refresher course on why communicating isn’t the same thing as communication.
I’m proud to say I have fought the temptation to replace the Blackberry but I can’t pat myself on the back just yet. True rehabilitation will be achieved when I can call my mom without the safety net of speed dial.
So, wish me luck. I might be calling on some of you for support, assuming I can remember your number.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:01 am
The Today Show on NBC this week is doing a series called “Could You Do Without?” This link takes you to a video of Dennis Kneale of Forbes Magazine and his struggle to take on a week with no cell phone, Blackberry, or internet access. It’s pretty shocking! Could you do without?
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=23447109-302f-415c-b542-949dac9438f4&f=05&fg=email
February 21st, 2007 at 11:09 am
Simple things such as remembering your mother’s phone number are an excellent way of preventing yourself as being labelled as an ungrateful, wasteful gink. But it is sadly ironic that we have so many more ways to communicate, and yet in so many ways we are more disconnected from the greater world and each other. Next time, try writing your mom a real letter and see if you can remember the address. And then you can go to step 3 of whatever 12 step program is being created for electronic overuse.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 am
I wouldn’t even know my own phone number to call and harass myself without speed dial!
March 19th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Update: after yet another crash with my admittedly out of date PDA, I’ve finally reverted to keeping a paper calendar and address book — at least for now!