A New Phone (or Dumb For 15 Years)

It might be an age-related dellusion but Bill felt that time was speeding up

since the pandemic. Without a new earth-shattering gizmo, an overseas vacation,

a family reunion, a job switch, or a foot race, two years were gone. A day still

consisted of 24 hours but didn't seem to pack as much life as it used to. Cheap

minutes must have been printed somewhere and diluted the worth of the hour. On

the flip side, would the average lifespan be accordingly inflated? He was not sure. 

 

In the midst of unrelenting change, Bill had tried to hold onto the past, which 

was like trying to dodge a bulldozer. He had resisted the smartphone, e.g., from

day one and it was not because he once worked for Nokia. In front of a laptop

all day, he never saw the need for intelligence in a phone. From his point of

view, all the smartness in the device worked to exploit human weaknesses for

profit at the cost of people's attention span and maybe even self-esteem. He had

stuck with dumb phones as if the smart ones were never invented.

 

Two years ago, he had to give up his $29 2G flip phone when he moved to this

city on the Peninsula as the old network had been demolished here long ago. His

solution was a $49 3G phone. The signals were sketchy at a few spots but he 

didn't mind: except for his wife and kid, almost no one called him and the

device was used mainly for receiving one-time access codes for work. Besides,

whoever did call could always leave a message. The phone had served him well

until lately T-Mobile announced plans to once again ditch older technology.

 

After a 20-minute research, Bill purchased online an $89 4G Easyfone which came

in three days. Without a moving part, it looked sturdy and felt snug in his

palm. With large buttons, a camera, a torch light, long battery life, and an LED

screen where one could see the time at the push of a button, the phone was

exactly what he needed. It took him a 15-minute walk to the nearby T-Mobile

store where he upgraded to a small-form SIM card for $10. He had to explain to

the guys there that this was for someone else. Other than that, business was

done in 10 minutes and, until they tear down 4G, he got a new lease on phone 

life. Phones had become smart around 2007 and therefore Bill had stayed dumb for

15 years.

 

 

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : No worries, my friend. Bill is a fiction figure and a tool which I use to lie, distort, or make unsustainable claims in my writings. :-) It's been fun.

Thanks again for T-Mobile info. I hope it's still there when I visit.

[暖冬cool夏]

回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 : Sorry that my second message confused Bill with you. I meant that Bill seeks for a simplest life. Life is all about habits. If we never started, say a smartphone, we would have detached ourselves better rather than being addicted.
T-mobile's data plan is free in China, meaning that we can use Wechat and go on Wenxuecity or Google.com without charges in China. But I believe we have to pay for the calls, both outgoing and incoming. (If I remember correctly, it is about 15 cents a minute.)

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Also, Bill says thank-you for the information that T-Mobile works in China.

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and your helpful insight that might save Bill from total ruin in the steamrolling progress of evolution. He would have argued that living is about setting limits instead of chasing freedom but he had already lost too many valuable things to still believe in that. Thank you for your benefit of the doubt and he would love to be thought as interesting as belonging to some ism. Have a great weekend!

[暖冬cool夏]

想了想，你其实是个极简主义者，把断、舍、离做到极致。

[暖冬cool夏]

Phones had become smart around 2007 and therefore Bill had stayed dumb for 15 years.
-- Haha, Bill was not dump, but had his own belief and principles:)) I believe that Bill spared no money (or time) on sports, attending classes like Jiu-jitsu:). The money spent may amount to several I-phones.
No doubt Bill outsmarts the smart phone:)).
But honestly the smart phone does bring people trendy convenience (it is said the smart phones are THE invention of the century). As far as one does not stick to it for hours, a smartphone is more handy in situations where you have no access to computer.
T-mobile is my carrier too. The good thing about T-mobile is that it works in China, Happy Easter!