Man spends a day without a cell phone in NYC
Could you go a full day without touching your cell or smartphone?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/26/opinio...html?hpt=hp_c1 There are millions of cell phone users in the United States. But one day last week, there was one less: Me. My CNN editors asked me to participate in an experiment where I won't use my cell phone for one whole day. I thought: How hard could it be? I know many of you, like myself, are old enough to remember America B.C., as in "Before Cell phones." We made it through just fine. So off I went into the streets of New York City sans a cell phone. At first, I felt liberated, like Neo in "The Matrix" when he took the red pill and could finally see the "real world." Instead of texting or checking my e-mail, I began to actually look at the people I was sharing the streets with. It truly resembled a movie set filled with extras from all walks of life. A beautiful woman walked quickly past me while fixing her make up. Asian tourists were busy snapping photos. A businessman looked busy talking on his phone. A group of Hasidic men were kibitzing while an Arab man sold falafel from a cart. It was truly exhilarating. For about 14 or 15 minutes or so. After that, I began to worry: What if someone needs to reach me? What if there is an important message waiting for me? Being a stand up comedian, I run a unique small business. I'm not only president of my company; I'm also the only product. While I have an agent, I still need to be able to respond quickly to certain booking offers or just move on to the next comic opportunity. I soon began to feel phantom cell phone vibrations in the front left pocket of my jeans where my phone usually resides. My stress level started to escalate. I had to check my voice mail. But doing so would require me to engage in an activity I had not done for many years: Use a payphone. While there's no short supply of pay phones in the Big Apple, there's apparently no one charged with cleaning them. The pay phones I saw looked and smelled like homeless people had confused them for bathrooms or had used them to clean certain parts of their anatomy. Despite the stench, I held my breath and made my call to retrieve my messages. How many did I have? Zero. This instantly took me back to memories of life in B.C. America when I would call my answering machine to retrieve messages and often be met with the (gleeful) robotic voice stating, "You have no new messages." While relieved, my anxiety over my unchecked emails began to ratchet up. Please keep in mind I'm a NYC comedian. I'm hyper neurotic by nature. I needed to find an Internet café. Sounds simple enough. But it's not. While establishments offering free Wi-Fi are everywhere, venues with computer terminals to use are not. I began walking the streets asking people if they had seen an Internet café, like I was searching for my lost dog. The responses ranged from "no," to odd looks like I was a time traveler from the 1990s, to offers of stories on unrelated topics. (One man had no idea where an Internet café was located but enthusiastically suggested a great Turkish restaurant that I should check out.) Fourteen blocks, two avenues and 45 minutes later, I finally observed a sign outside a slightly run-down deli that read, "Internet." And there I saw three computer terminals, whose best days were clearly behind them, available for rent at the reasonable rate of $2 for 12 minutes. So what e-mails had I missed? Nothing pressing, to be honest. They all could have waited until I returned home. As my cell phoneless day continued, I began to wonder: Would we actually talk to each other more if we weren't so attached to our gadgets? Would we be better people without our cell phones distracting us so often? Better spouses? Better sons or daughters? But I also realized that without my cell phone, I felt unconnected to my friends, my business, and the world. I began to feel lonely in the most crowded city in America. Riding the subway home later that day, and without my beloved baseball game to play on my phone, I had time to really look around the subway car. And there I made a startling discovery: I had never read the emergency evacuation sign posted in each subway car. That knowledge could very well save my life one day. My experiment without a cell phone taught me two valuable lessons. One, my cell phone is not just a piece of technology; it is like Linus' security blanket in the "Peanuts" comic strip. Without it, I felt less comfortable. Less confident. I felt alone. And two, in case of fire in the subway, don't panic. Wait for instructions from the train conductor. Help is on the way. |
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Walk into an Apple store and you can call out from any of their demo models
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Must be a shitty comedian. I didn't laugh once while reading that.
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Yes. Easily. |
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Oh FFS...
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In my city on a non-work day? Easily. |
I bet Jay Leno and Conan were trying to reach him all day.
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One of the "pots of gold" at the end of the retirement rainbow, is stomping on my cell phone and throwing it in the trash.
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Not a problem.
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If I didn't need it for a living it would be at the bottom of the San Juan right now.
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I feel naked without my cell phone but I think I could ditch it for one lousy day.
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I could spend the day without the cell phone easily enough, but I ain't going to NYC for ANY damn reason. I'd prefer to do without it right here.
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If it weren't for work I doubt I'd have a cell phone. A month ago I went 4-wheeling up in the Beartooths (no service) and didn't once miss it. |
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Or looking up insignificant trivia at 3:00 a.m. while sitting out having a few with the wife. Or taking impromptu pictures or video. Or putting Soundhound up to see what the name of the song is or who sings it. Or changing my fantasy football lineup on the golf course. Or using the Amazon shopper app to scan a bar code at the mall to see if I can get it cheaper. Or Yelping to find a bar or restaurant in this part of town. And on and on and on. |
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You old sea captain, you! You motorboatin' sonofabitch! |
Could I go without it? Sure.
I wouldn't prefer that though. |
Easily could go without a cellphone for a day
Would be pretty relaxing actually |
Realizing that you left home without your phone is such a terrible feeling.
So yeah, I have went without my phone, but it ****ing sucked. |
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Do any of you still have land lines?
That is our issue, we got rid of ours about three years ago. |
I never realized how attached I was to my phone until it was stolen.
You would've thought someone died. I mourned for three days. Still, I think I could go a day without it. As long as I still had access to a computer. |
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Understand the whole family thing but you learn to not like your cell phone. Actually you learn to hate it. :D |
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I'm 27 years old, don't use a Cell Phone, Twitter or Facebook.
Gasp.... |
Lesson 3, based on 0 new vm and no pressing emails: We're not as important as we think.
I recently completely disconnected from work for 12 days, which was the longest I had gone in probably 5 years... and I was also without internet/phone/text for most of that time (excluding a couple of hours on free wifi the first and last day). Granted, I was pretty excited to have access at the end of my vacation, I didn't miss it at all, which kind of surprised me. Of course, it's different when it's planned... I hate not having my cell on me during a normal day, and if you don't respond to something right away you have to deal with those who think you should be available all the time. |
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Bad reception? Two phones, two carriers... nope. Emergencies and your cell phone is dead? Again, two phones, not a problem. Kids at home? wut |
If I am with the fiance I go without looking at mine on many days. Although with football, that doesn't really happen as much anymore due to having to check scores and fantasy lineups.
So basically, I can go without using it pretty easily, but I think not having it would cause some anxiety. It is one of those things that you only really want it if you don't have it, so having it is a comforting feeling. |
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Crazy!! |
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Do it all the time. I need a phone but i can live without it.
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I share a bit of similarity to the author in that I need to be ready to take on opportunities as someone that is self employed. |
I have to push myself to even use my cell.
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I never had a smart phone till I started working for my current employer. They provided it for me and I have to say that if I had to buy my own phone again I would probably have to get a smart phone. Too freaking convenient for a multitude of things. I keep in touch with my wife daily while we both work and my son loves to play games on it while in waiting room to get his allergy shots. I don't know I think as a whole our world has become dependent on such things.
If you started watching Revolution TV series for the past couple of weeks... Everything electrical comes to a stop. A woman carries her uncharged iphone around with her because it is the ONLY thing she has with pictures of her kids on it. I can see where this could happen to A LOT of people. Makes you think. |
He doesn't run a unique small business; he runs an unusual small business. Vocabulary fail.
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You're missing out on all the chicks that text nude pics. |
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As for the smartphone thing, I already go some days without looking at it. Sometimes I leave it in my car for days. |
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I lived in Colo for 4 years. Used to camp in Rifle for days on end and emerge to hit the bucksnort for a couple day long reign of terror. Loved Pine too. Been all over the high country. Was in that beautiful little tourist trap (kidding) you live in last summer to take my boys on the train. |
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Recently, I replaced the phone system in our home with a new Panasonic offering from Coscto. It features Blue Tooth that when enabled, allows you to receive a cell call using the Panasonic system. It's great because you're not stuck with carrying around a cell phone everywhere. It's pretty cool. |
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$23 with unlimited long distance in the lower 48. |
I have a cell phone, but I can go through it without 3 days, easy.
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Done it plenty of times. Just went on vacation in the mountains in Tennessee for a week and there's absolutely no cell phone service anywhere up there, at least not with AT&T. Done it a few times on 4-5 day cruises as well.
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I'd love nothing more than to smash mine into little ****ing pieces.
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I don't own one so yeah, I think I might be able to handle it.
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I always need mine... to make sure I don't miss any booty calls.
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Only time I've been without mine is if I take a cruise, I know there are ways around using them on a cruise but I do the better safe then sorry philosophy.
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I can go a full day without it, no problem. The people trying to get a hold of me my might have an issue but i wouldn't miss it.
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absolutely and it would be easy.
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yawn...been there and done it. Where's my article?
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no problem.
it would be a relief |
Never owned a cell phone - never will.
I wouldn't have a home phone if work didn't require it... |
Just spent five days without a cell phone OR internet last week.
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Got back from Trout Fishing Wyoming last week. Didn't have service for a week, and the only thing I missed was making sure everyone back home was ok.
Other then that I didn't miss it a bit |
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I have a few phones but they are all connected by a wire to the phone jacks in my house. Some have rotary dials.
I get along just fine. Don't miss what I never had. |
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Man, I love free. |
We only have a land line because our ISP/phone company requires it to have their DSL. Otherwise, I'd be saving the $25/month.
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I have days where I don't use my phone at all.
While I do have online access with it, it's not that great. I once thought about upgrading and getting a smart phone but then realized why? So I can check work emails anytime? Awesome. Can't wait to do that. ;) So I can browse the web on a 4 inch screen? Nah I think In can wait until I get home or at work. If I'm out and about and need to look up a location or phone # to a place I can do that but other then that? Not really needed IMO. In short, completing this experiment would be all to easy for me. |
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"Supposedly", Sprint is aware that their network sucks and plan to upgrade it soon in Los Angeles. We'll see... |
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We have 4 4G phones and 1 LTE phone but no 4G/LTE service. Still, I like Sprint and haven't changed. Best all-in-one data plan out there. |
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If you have issues with signal inside the house then you might want to call Sprint Customer Support and ask for a Airvanna that hooks through your home network and boosts signal to your cell phone. I works pretty good. My wife and I went back to Sprint for our Cell phones and inside the house we got no signal and is was so weak it kept dropping calls. After an hour with customer support I told them I wanted out of my contract if they couldn't give me better support inside my home. They agreed to send me this free of charge... setting it up is a whole other story about how crappy tier1 support is for Sprint. Tier 2 will at least listen to you. :) |
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I'll ask for Tier 2 support when I get a chance. :thumb: |
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I told tier 1 till I was blue in the face that my home network was fine till I hooked up their box the way it was in the instructions. I twas NOT a Cox problem but their units problem. It won't pass traffic to your home network. Well long story short... If you didn't try to hook this thing up DIRECTLY to your router or home network interface and turn it on.....that is what I would try if I were you. Once it came up (took like an hour for the GPS pinpoint it's location) it works great and my home network is unaffected by the booster. Hope this helps. |
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