Things I learned while living in Thailand- Part Two

I do not want to become addicted to my telephone, but I do want an iPhone.

I spent the past two years with the simplest of telephones.  Every time I left Thailand, I didn’t have a working telephone at all.  And, last time I checked, I was alive, and my friends and family knew that.  Somehow, I have been able to survive without the newest appendage the majority of humans seem to have sprouted- an iPhone.

In my handful of trips back to the States I have seen human interaction shift dramatically.  Face to face conversation is now a lost art.  Cellular telephones are never in purses or pockets.  They are in hands, thumbs in motion and an epidemic of carpal tunnel becoming inevitable.  I was unable to be with friends without being “tagged” or “checked- in.”  I was unable to question something for more than thirty seconds before it was googled, and the answer was found.  I was required to repeat myself with frequency as friends held simultaneous text conversations and couldn’t multi- task well enough to listen.

When I visited Bri in San Francisco this spring she had an iPhone.  We sat on the lawn of the University of San Francisco campus.  As we were talking, something came up that neither of us knew the answer to.  I held my breath, knowing that she would pull out her phone, google it, and then check her email, facebook notifications and Words with Friends while she was at it.  But she didn’t.  We continued talking.  The conversation flowed, as it should.  Bri even said, “we can look it up later, if we remember.”  She didn’t even type herself a note as a reminder!  I am so happy we are friends. 

Part of the reason, I have realized, that I love traveling so much is the authentic human interactions.  Most people don’t have working cell phones, or simply choose to leave them at home.  The people that are traveling have to, and want to, have conversations.  All of the people I met in my “It’s a small world” post were met through conversations.  And I hope to meet many more people for another small world post.

But here is where I have potential to come off as a hypocrite- I want an iPhone.  First of all, they are awesome.  GPS, camera, iPod, and Siri in a telephone with a built in speaker?  That’s pretty cool.  And secondly, they are quite practical, as all smartphones are.  In this era of instant gratification, being able to respond to emails, without being at home with my laptop, will definitely be helpful.  Will I check facebook?  Yes.  Will I play Words with Friends?  Yes (if it works).  Will I tweet?  Yes.  Will I check in?  No, probably not.  It creeps me out.

I won’t pretend for a second that I won’t use my iPhone a lot, I just don’t want to become obsessed.  I want to make eye contact with people.  I want to talk to the people in my here and now.  I want to look at the world that is happening right in front of me.  I want my iPhone to know what the inside of my purse looks like.  I want to know that if I forget my phone at home, or in the car, or the battery dies, I won’t have a panic attack.  I want to people watch. 

Wish me luck!  

And please, tell me if I become crazy.  I don’t want to be that girl.