Yesterday I wrote a post on how to write proactive, considerate emails. The very first sentence I wrote there was quickly edited as compared to my first draft. It had started out,
I consider myself a fan of electronic communications, ”
Then I changed it, much more accurately, to,
I consider myself a big fan of email communications, ”
for I’m actually not a fan of most electronic communications at all, just some of them: My laptop (i.e. emails and e-letters), my cell phone (within limits), and my blogs.
I realized that subconsciously (until now) I have had an electronic gadget and gizmo aversion ever since I liberated myself from my Palm Pilot. I’ve been freed from it for about six years now, and I’m not about to get reshackled again.
I have absolutely no desire for an iPod. No Treo, no Blackberry, and no intention of getting them. The only electronic communication tools I use are my laptop and my cell phone, and people have no problem reaching me when they need to.
My cell phone was purchased for me by someone else, and they wasted much too much money, for while it has nearly every bell and whistle designed for cell phones, I don’t use them. I make and answer calls, I retrieve and answer my voicemails, and I’ll program speed-dials into the address book, but that’s it. I know how to retrieve text messages, but I never, ever send them (I don’t consider the phone’s keypad a keyboard), and so eventually people just give up sending them to me and they’ll shoot me an email instead, or they call me.
Although my cell phone has the capability, I won’t read emails on it; the endless scrolling through broken sentences on the small screen annoys me no end, so I no longer even remember how to access them.
Can I learn more of the features on my phone? Sure, but I don’t want to. Am I stubborn? No, that’s not it at all. I just think the boundaries I’ve set make my life easier, less complicated, and less stressful. I really don’t feel I’m missing out. On the contrary, I feel much more in control of things this way. It suits me just fine.
The less gadgets and gizmos I have to carry around and deal with the better I like it.