Mobile phones
28/02/14 05:29
Less than 20 years ago, when I was moving to South Dakota, I was still resisting getting a cell phone. Part of my argument against the devices was that I needed to have places in my life where the phone didn’t intrude. I found times of driving with members of my family to be good times for conversation and was hesitant to have the conversations interrupted. I knew that I needed times when I was away from work for recreation and refreshment. I knew that trying to be constantly connected was exhausting.
It wasn’t very long before I had a cell phone. Being a person whose job often takes me out of the office, it made it easier for the office administrator to get in touch with me when there were emergencies. It provided a safety feature when driving on the highway. I had a way to call for help in the event of a breakdown. I had a way to inform my family when I was delayed.
But there was a delicious time when I continued to go many places where the cell phone simply didn’t work. The hills provided shelter from cell phone signals. Cell phones didn’t use to work at our church camp. There were long stretches of highway in rural and isolated locations where there was no signal.
Once I got my hands on the device, however, I became a bit enamored with the technology. My first cell phones weren’t very reliable and it was a while before I found a model that would last more than a couple of years. I was already using a hand held digital assistant device and so I was eager to find one that had cell phone capacity so that I could have one mobile device instead of two. The early smart phones weren’t all that smart. They had poor battery performance and were prone to failing at moments when you had started to rely on them. It took a few generations of technology before I had a device like the phone I carry today, which I use for everything from reading books to surfing the web to sending and receiving e-mail to tracking all of my contacts to taking pictures and movies.
A lot has changed in less than 20 years. That makes me wonder what the future will hold.
I suppose that one possibility is that the rate of change in our mobile devices will slow down. It is hard to think of needing a device that will do more that the current generation of smart phones. I don’t think that I will need much more processor speed or capacity from my device. My battery life is good enough to power the device through all of my waking hours except on the days when I download or upload a great deal of data and on those days a quick plug in while driving my car or a connection to my computer while I work keeps the device charged. For the most part the device is plugged in while I sleep and I don’t think about battery life at all. My last phone lasted 4 years and it isn’t hard for me to imagine using this one for ten. After all other items we use in our lives once went through rapid changes and then design settled down. “New every two” used to be a car sales slogan. I’m completely happy driving a 15-year-old car and it really isn’t that much different from the previous one or a new one should I replace it.
Some people think that the future of mobile devices is wearable phones. That future doesn’t seem all that exciting to me. After all, how hard is it for me to lift my phone to my ear when I want to talk or to my eye when I want to take a picture? I don’t find that to be much of a problem. I already have a hands-free connection to my car’s radio for talking while I am driving. And you have to admit that Google Glass looks too geeky for anyone to wear. No wonder social media consultant Sarah Slocum warns against wearing Google Glass into a bar. Other patrons jeer and wonder what is being photographed. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m pretty sure it will take some adjustment for me to have people wearing glasses-mounted displays to church.
I still believe that there are sacred times and places. Even though I am “on call” 24 hours a day for about two weeks out of every month, I do not take my cell phone into the sanctuary when I am leading worship. I keep my phone on vibrate much of the day. And I don’t answer my phone if it signals me when I am visiting with another person or making a call. And I still regularly go to at least one place - visiting in the jail - where phone are still prohibited.
What I do expect over the next few years is for my phone to become connected to more and more devices. We already have wireless connections between our phones and our computers. I ended up replacing the radio in my car so that I would have one that instantly connects to my phone to play my podcasts and allow me to talk on my phone while driving without having to hold the phone in my hand. It doesn’t take too much imagination to think that my phone might be connected to my refrigerator to synchronize the shopping list, or that I might be able to connect with the alarm system at the church to monitor the building when I am not physically present. I have no need of such a device, but I have a niece who has a connection between her shoes and her phone to monitor her exercise and to offer her words of encouragement through the ear buds she wears to listen to music while she is jogging.
Some folks might be really excited about the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. I’m not all that enthused. I’ll let someone else be the first to get the new technology.
It wasn’t very long before I had a cell phone. Being a person whose job often takes me out of the office, it made it easier for the office administrator to get in touch with me when there were emergencies. It provided a safety feature when driving on the highway. I had a way to call for help in the event of a breakdown. I had a way to inform my family when I was delayed.
But there was a delicious time when I continued to go many places where the cell phone simply didn’t work. The hills provided shelter from cell phone signals. Cell phones didn’t use to work at our church camp. There were long stretches of highway in rural and isolated locations where there was no signal.
Once I got my hands on the device, however, I became a bit enamored with the technology. My first cell phones weren’t very reliable and it was a while before I found a model that would last more than a couple of years. I was already using a hand held digital assistant device and so I was eager to find one that had cell phone capacity so that I could have one mobile device instead of two. The early smart phones weren’t all that smart. They had poor battery performance and were prone to failing at moments when you had started to rely on them. It took a few generations of technology before I had a device like the phone I carry today, which I use for everything from reading books to surfing the web to sending and receiving e-mail to tracking all of my contacts to taking pictures and movies.
A lot has changed in less than 20 years. That makes me wonder what the future will hold.
I suppose that one possibility is that the rate of change in our mobile devices will slow down. It is hard to think of needing a device that will do more that the current generation of smart phones. I don’t think that I will need much more processor speed or capacity from my device. My battery life is good enough to power the device through all of my waking hours except on the days when I download or upload a great deal of data and on those days a quick plug in while driving my car or a connection to my computer while I work keeps the device charged. For the most part the device is plugged in while I sleep and I don’t think about battery life at all. My last phone lasted 4 years and it isn’t hard for me to imagine using this one for ten. After all other items we use in our lives once went through rapid changes and then design settled down. “New every two” used to be a car sales slogan. I’m completely happy driving a 15-year-old car and it really isn’t that much different from the previous one or a new one should I replace it.
Some people think that the future of mobile devices is wearable phones. That future doesn’t seem all that exciting to me. After all, how hard is it for me to lift my phone to my ear when I want to talk or to my eye when I want to take a picture? I don’t find that to be much of a problem. I already have a hands-free connection to my car’s radio for talking while I am driving. And you have to admit that Google Glass looks too geeky for anyone to wear. No wonder social media consultant Sarah Slocum warns against wearing Google Glass into a bar. Other patrons jeer and wonder what is being photographed. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m pretty sure it will take some adjustment for me to have people wearing glasses-mounted displays to church.
I still believe that there are sacred times and places. Even though I am “on call” 24 hours a day for about two weeks out of every month, I do not take my cell phone into the sanctuary when I am leading worship. I keep my phone on vibrate much of the day. And I don’t answer my phone if it signals me when I am visiting with another person or making a call. And I still regularly go to at least one place - visiting in the jail - where phone are still prohibited.
What I do expect over the next few years is for my phone to become connected to more and more devices. We already have wireless connections between our phones and our computers. I ended up replacing the radio in my car so that I would have one that instantly connects to my phone to play my podcasts and allow me to talk on my phone while driving without having to hold the phone in my hand. It doesn’t take too much imagination to think that my phone might be connected to my refrigerator to synchronize the shopping list, or that I might be able to connect with the alarm system at the church to monitor the building when I am not physically present. I have no need of such a device, but I have a niece who has a connection between her shoes and her phone to monitor her exercise and to offer her words of encouragement through the ear buds she wears to listen to music while she is jogging.
Some folks might be really excited about the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. I’m not all that enthused. I’ll let someone else be the first to get the new technology.