Just use your phone
Smartphones have been on my mind lately. I used to love smartphones when the novelty of having an omnifeatures device that fits in your pocket still excited me. It was my phone, but even better — because who makes telephone calls any more? — it was my tv, radio, podcast receiver, camera, e-reader and general window into the world. But this was eons ago, before smartphones became more or less indistinguishable.
These days, I have little use for my phone other than for a few messaging apps, navigation, the occasional phonecall and quick internet searches. I have reverted to using specialised devices, like reading books in my e-reader. Recently, I discovered that half a day had gone by and I hadn't looked at my phone even once. Then it happened again several times. I wasn't trying to quit my phone, it happened naturally. I'm finding that there are fewer and fewer things I enjoy doing on my smartphone these days. Not quite to the point of making my device redundant, but close enough. For this reason, I stopped caring about keeping up with the latest flagship phone.
I was trying to work out whether I should, and how I might phase out my smartphone, when I had to interact with a Government service and to my horror discovered that my phone is too old to access the service digitally. The alternative route became a costly affair which involved taking several hours out of my day, to drive 25 miles, plus parking, in order to access the service. This annoyed me to no end, not least becuase of the incovenience, but also becuase I now found myself in the uneviable position of being digitally excluded, despite owning a phone and having access to the internet via a number of other up to date devices. I consider myself fairly techno-literate. As my other devices are almost brand new, this was a shock and a source of no small amount of frustration.
It seems absurd to me that in order to access Government services, I need to buy a new phone that I hate and don't want. Not to mention that e-waste is a perennial concern. With private services, I can take it or leave it, as choice is usually plentiful. But there is only one Government and if they dictate how you interact with them, you have no choice but to do so. Before you start explaining that there are Government efforts to tackle this, let me just say that when I was trying to complete my task, those efforts fell woefully short.
"Just use your phone," has got to be the most annoying statement I have had repeated to me this year. Listen. I would like to be able to access your service, but with the device of my choosing. Make it work.
Sadly, I have now revised my postion on phasing out my phone. Instead, I'm looking to find ways to manage this unhappy development which will probably involve dropping money I don't want to spend on a new smartphone I'd rather do without. Bleurgh.
⚘