A Smart Phone

The title is not a clever play on words. No, it is a simple statement of an object...one I now own. Yes, I have finally joined most of my peers (and seniors and juniors) and obtained a smart phone. This little phone could easily become an addiction for me. This came as a surprise to me (and maybe to some of you, if you know anything about me) because I have never been the gal who needs to have the latest and greatest phone. If I'm due for an upgrade on my plan, I always opt for the free phone and up to this point, the free options have not been fancy-dancy smart phone options. I'm cool with that, though. We are a family on a tight budget and buying a smart phone has not really been an option. How did I come by this phone, then? you may ask. Well, any fancy-dancy phone I've ever had (relative to the culture) has been given to me by my mother. She usually gives me them because she has just purchased the latest and greatest version. Works out well for someone like myself with low cellular expectations. This is the case with my new-to-me phone -- the Samsung Intercept. My sister came to visit me this past weekend (we had a FABULOUS time, by the way, as is ALWAYS the case...) and my mother sent it with her. I only just had the opportunity to go have it set up as my phone yesterday in a Sprint store. I have used the term "smart phone" up to this point. Here is Mandi's definition of a smart phone:

1. It has a touch screen that twirls when you turn the phone.
2. You can access your email, Facebook, YouTube and the internet in general on it.
3. You can get apps for it.

Mine is an Android phone....which probably means more to some of you at this point than it does to me...but I'll get there. I am most certainly aware that there is more to a smart phone than the above, hence the name, but I am determined to become smarter than my smart phone. The question is, how do I do that? Well, the users guide would probably be the best place to start (downloading it as we speak) but, I also imagine that I can gain some good ground simply by spending some good ol' fashioned quality time with it. This is a problem. I am a mother with a part-time job outside the home and pretty darn busy (most of us are.) This is where things are going to start getting transparently and brutally honest (as in, you may not want to be my friend anymore once I share with you the thoughts that have not only run through my head, recently, but have been seriously entertained.) Most of you know there is always something to be done, especially for a neat freak like myself -- always a load of laundry that needs to be folded and put away, always a dishwasher that needs to be emptied and refilled (particularly if you have a camper-sized one as is our case...), always a child that needs to be fed, bathed, disciplined, played with, read to, engaged, always groceries to buy...the list goes on and on and on. Because of this, I rarely, if ever, find myself sitting down during the daytime hours to just do something fun. All my fun-time stuff (ie. crocheting, blogging, movie-watching) is done after Ezra is in bed. This is the deal I have made with myself. I am allowed to sit down and take it easy after 8:30 at night. Some of you may think I have a problem while others of you may be saying, "What's wrong with that?" For me, right now, this pattern is cool. What's not cool, though, is the guilt that I feel when I do decide to do something fun just for Mandi in the middle of a day. It's at this point when visions of field-workers toiling under a hot sun or factory workers standing at a machine-press performing the same mindless task over and over a million times in a dimly lit factory or nurses in OB units working the graveyard shift or customer service specialists surrounded by the gray walls of cubicles in a windowless office talking with irate customers for 10 hours a day start popping into my head. It's the thought of those people that keeps me going when I normally decide to sit and have a moment for myself. This phone, though, has thrown a wrench into that whole line of thinking. Confession time: I spent nearly two hours laying in my bed today playing--I MEAN trying to figure out how my new phone works! TWO HOURS! Now, lest you begin to fear and tremble, I had just finished cleaning our entire home in the morning top to bottom -- floors, toilets, dusting, everything, laundry -- had fed Ezra and during my phone time, he was occupied with toys of his own in his room while listening to Paddington Bear on his CD player. Well, that's not so bad, you may be saying to yourself. Well, my confessing isn't over with....here are some secret and not so secret thoughts and actions I have had or done:

• Yes! I'm driving alone to the Clark county YMCA (this one is the further of the two YMCA's that I work at...about a 15 to 20 minute drive) to teach a Zumba class. I can play with my phone while driving out there! Gasp!
• When can I play with my phone next....?
• What's something I could do with my phone now....?
• Ezra: Hey, Mom! Watch this! Me (while playing with my phone): Uh huh....
• (Upon hearing any small sound) Was that my phone?!
• Just sitting and moving things around on the screen
• Sleeping with it

While these are not exaggerations, I am happy to say that they are not patterns of behavior yet, just big-time red flags! The first step out of addiction is recognizing and naming a problem for what it is, right? So, I've already fought the hardest battle....I believe it's safe to say that the smartness of a smart phone lies not in its ability to manage your life down to the tiniest of details, but to make you dependent on it--to suck you into yourself and then spit you and your dull vacant expression back out onto a playground in the glaring sun with your child or a lunch date with a senior citizen.... So, back to my earlier question...how do I become smarter than my smart phone? Oh, I can figure out how best to use it, how to get the most out of it but I will totally dominate it by not becoming a slave to it or treating it like my precious....by not getting sucked into myself....

P.S. the app Out of Milk is fantastic! right up this list-makers alley....