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Legacy holdovers.
Close to twenty years ago, my family got a cell phone plan. It's an unfairly, unbelievably cheap plan because we signed up for it nearly twenty years ago and haven't changed it since, and given how good it is, probably won't ever get a new one. Of course the phone company doesn't like this; of course we don't care and keep making the regular monthly payments.
Because of the terms and conditions and general cultural attitude, pretty much everybody in my family gets unlimited data. Wireless, wifi, roaming, whatever it is, there's no limits to it, and accessing the internet from just about anywhere is a breeze.
I say "pretty much" because twenty years ago, I turned that option down. I'm the only one who isn't covered by that particular clause. I knew it wouldn't end well if I always had the internet in my pocket, so unless my phone is connected to a wifi network, it doesn't have any internet access. It can't use apps or make use of a lot of messaging features. This baffles a lot of people, especially businesses that rely on apps instead of webpages or, on one memorable occasion, letting me make a purchase with cash.
If you can't let someone buy something in your store with cash, you're doing business wrong.
There's times it's genuinely inconvenient. There's times it's been a problem because I have to navigate through phone trees instead of tapping a couple of icons.
However.
More and more I see people complaining about the restructuring of apps in general and social media apps in particular. I read their legitimate grievances with the changing features, and the way it forces them into specific patterns of usage determined by the companies instead of letting them decide for themselves how they want to go about things. I get asked how I can have a good time on social media in 2024, and I have to answer them: I don't have it on my phone. For all practical purposes, I can't have any of it on my phone. It lives on my computer, in my apartment, and if I'm not there, I'm not on it. Any of it.
These aren't people who do social media for a living. It's not their job, they don't get paid, and the delight of keeping up with people is usually outweighed by the all the frustrations. And if social media's part of their job, they're not often tasked to do it outside of a certain set of hours or particular and well-defined roles.
A little while ago, I was hanging out with a couple of people, and as we were waiting for something, they kept bringing out their phones to scroll through various apps. Just to scroll. I don't know what their days had been like, so maybe they were trying to forcibly unwind and not engage with people for a moment. But I know that at one point I had to tell one of them I actually wanted to talk and have a conversation, in about as many words. I said I didn't have the internet on my phone and while I didn't say it'd seem rude for me to pull out a paperback book and start reading, I worry it'd have been taken as even more of a sign of social standoffishness than using the phones.
It's not the apps. It's not the easy internet access. It's using social media as a reflex because it's always there. It's not having a good sense for how to set boundaries for social media. I also say I enjoy it because I work hard to have an easy time, and as hard as you can work those apps, those apps work you even harder.
The more I think about it, the more I think I made the right call those many years ago.
Because of the terms and conditions and general cultural attitude, pretty much everybody in my family gets unlimited data. Wireless, wifi, roaming, whatever it is, there's no limits to it, and accessing the internet from just about anywhere is a breeze.
I say "pretty much" because twenty years ago, I turned that option down. I'm the only one who isn't covered by that particular clause. I knew it wouldn't end well if I always had the internet in my pocket, so unless my phone is connected to a wifi network, it doesn't have any internet access. It can't use apps or make use of a lot of messaging features. This baffles a lot of people, especially businesses that rely on apps instead of webpages or, on one memorable occasion, letting me make a purchase with cash.
If you can't let someone buy something in your store with cash, you're doing business wrong.
There's times it's genuinely inconvenient. There's times it's been a problem because I have to navigate through phone trees instead of tapping a couple of icons.
However.
More and more I see people complaining about the restructuring of apps in general and social media apps in particular. I read their legitimate grievances with the changing features, and the way it forces them into specific patterns of usage determined by the companies instead of letting them decide for themselves how they want to go about things. I get asked how I can have a good time on social media in 2024, and I have to answer them: I don't have it on my phone. For all practical purposes, I can't have any of it on my phone. It lives on my computer, in my apartment, and if I'm not there, I'm not on it. Any of it.
These aren't people who do social media for a living. It's not their job, they don't get paid, and the delight of keeping up with people is usually outweighed by the all the frustrations. And if social media's part of their job, they're not often tasked to do it outside of a certain set of hours or particular and well-defined roles.
A little while ago, I was hanging out with a couple of people, and as we were waiting for something, they kept bringing out their phones to scroll through various apps. Just to scroll. I don't know what their days had been like, so maybe they were trying to forcibly unwind and not engage with people for a moment. But I know that at one point I had to tell one of them I actually wanted to talk and have a conversation, in about as many words. I said I didn't have the internet on my phone and while I didn't say it'd seem rude for me to pull out a paperback book and start reading, I worry it'd have been taken as even more of a sign of social standoffishness than using the phones.
It's not the apps. It's not the easy internet access. It's using social media as a reflex because it's always there. It's not having a good sense for how to set boundaries for social media. I also say I enjoy it because I work hard to have an easy time, and as hard as you can work those apps, those apps work you even harder.
The more I think about it, the more I think I made the right call those many years ago.
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