My Granny Phone

Today I read The Lumberjack's Wife's blog post about Twitter:

Which got me thinking.

When we went in to have our phones "upgraded" at the Verizon store last month, I had to laugh because we didn't even upgrade. Jesse kept his phone and I got a phone with fewer features than my previous phone which had broken. The young guy with bleached hair and a snazzy suit at the counter asked us what we were looking for in our upgrade, and since we are a little poor and we didn't want to pay a bunch of money for something we didn't want or wouldn't use, I quietly said,

"I just want a phone I can talk on. No internet. No keyboard. No plan upgrade."

"Well," he said, "your plan is a pretty old one. It's going to be hard to find a phone that will still work with that plan." (In other words, "You guys are still using that outdated sucker of a plan?? What is WRONG with you!! Old equals BAD! OLD EQUALS BAD!!!!!")

Just a second. WHY don't all the plans work on all the phones?! What is so difficult about keeping a 500 minute plan with no internet available no matter what phone you have? I don't understand these things.

Also the Verizon store intimidates me. It's full of tiny little computers that you can hold in the palm of your hand that cost hundreds of dollars. And you have to take a number so they can help you. And I never know if we're allowed to just browse among the phones alone because it's more like a scary museum than a store to me. And there are always people next to us at the counter making demands full of technological lingo I know nothing about.

So the guy who took our number is looking at me like I'm a cavewoman and leads us to the verrrryyyy back of the store next to the tin can telephones strung together with string. And there's my phone. Simple. And I love it. Although I wish it was a pretty color like pink or blue.

He looked a little disgusted.

I guess I'm an old woman when it comes to technology. I don't understand why it's such a common assumption that advances in technology are essentially good. While they might (and I really mean MIGHT) make your life easier in some ways, they usually make your life more complicated or wrong in others.

Like cell phones. I greatly enjoy the ability to be in touch with people when I'm out and about. But I also sometimes get irritated that people can reach me whenever they want, so I often turn my phone down and just check messages later. I don't need to be in verbal contact with another human being every second of every day. And I DEFINITELY do not want or need internet on my phone to be in text contact with another human being every second of every day. I have yet to imagine a scenario where adding this option into my life would ever justify the increased cost. We have a basic 500 minute plan, never go over on our minutes and have decreased our texting because it's so often used as a cop-out when you don't want to take the effort and actually TALK with someone about something. I still use it on occasion because it is included in our plan, but I make sure I use it only occasionally so that we don't go over and get charged extra.

"Yes, sonny... I only want a phone so I can talk with my granddaughter. No new-fangled equipment on it for me..."