Gadgetespair!

This post can be thought of as a homage to the familiar rant on how we have become a slave to technology and all that! The cell phones, the GPS and what not! I am a self confessed addict to all the above.

Today, we are faced with a fresh question! We have been thrown into a world where we have to choose! Choose between the Iphone and the Google Android! My first impulse was very predictable! Resistance! But I am fighting a losing war! The despair led me to conduct an experiment! What if instead of going with the flow and getting myself a T Mobile G1 (I have already decided that the day I succumb to this, it is going to have to be either the G1 or one of its successors), I took a step backward and got rid of my cell phone altogether?

That was slightly drastic! So step 1 was to keep my phone switched off. I sent an email out to all people who may have a tendency to call me at times and informed them that the best way to get in touch with me is email. Although, I would also periodically check my messages and voicemail!

Today is day 5 of that resolution! To say the least, it is not working out for me at all! For multiple reasons:

1) I spent more time waiting for my phone to switch on and off (every 2 or 3 hours) to check if I had any new voicemail. I got two new voicemail messages in the five days since I started the experiment.

2) Coordinating schedules with people has become almost impossible without the cell phones. I know people used to do it before we had cell phones. But just because one person was adamant enough to not want to use his, doesn't give him an excuse to inconvenience others.

3) It seems like a very selfish thing to do because you can call people whenever YOU want but people can't talk to you whenever THEY want! Ultimately you risk becoming "dispensable" from being "dependable"! Eventually you are a social outcast!

In the five days I have kept my phone switched off, the frequency of me wanting to check my voicemail has gone down. Considering that my phone still runs low on battery, I am going to continue pretending that I can do without the cell phone.......