Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Technology Transitions

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After my unanticipated dunk in the lake with my smartphone (available here), the rice did not work as well as I had originally thought.  Thankfully all the data was restored and accessible, but the camera never worked again.  Selecting the camera icon resulted in a black screen that consequently caused other weird things to happen. Also the battery only lasted about 5 hours, max.  Even when turned off, the battery was still draining itself.  I figured it was just a matter of time before something disastrous happened.

I know some people are constantly upgrading and switching their devices for the latest and greatest.  However, I like to set everything up and then use it for as long as possible (basically until the device breaks or becomes too outdated).

The smartphone is newer so it has a few different capabilities from the previous model and some of the settings behave differently.  Some of the integration options are different, or no longer available, resulting in lots of Google searches. I’m still figuring out what it can do and where everything “lives”.  For example, if I want the timer to sound an alarm, the ringer must be turned on for everything in the phone.  Since I use the timer when I meditate, I don’t want the phone tweeting and chirping for anything except the end of the timer.  I’m also a little bit sad the new model doesn’t come with the same default seagull-ocean ring tone.

The transition was not as smooth as I had anticipated despite the fact that my phone hardly contained any unique content.  For example, most of my pictures were available in other places and my contacts were all in gmail.  Naturally I was quite surprised when I logged in and the contacts didn’t just appear.

Even worse, the manager at the shop attempted to move all my contacts from one phone to the other through a bluetooth connection.  The end result was hundreds of contacts appearing, full of duplicates (many of which had to be adjusted manually) and all kinds of weird email addresses that I had used maybe once a long time ago.  I’m still figuring out which settings control this kind of thing.

Obviously I need to invest more time learning how to backup everything, including the apps, so I don’t have to reinstall everything if something else happens.

Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Reinforcing Social Connections

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In late March I heard a story on CBC’s The Current about a scientist who studies a pod of sperm whales in the Caribbean.  One of his main areas of focus is how sperm whales communicate.  Through observation, the scientist noticed that the whales carve out time to reinforce social ties.  This involves them playing, talking to each other, and having physical contact.

I thought about how we reinforce social connections both before and after the influence of e-communications.  The first things that came to mind all involved being face to face with other people and spending time with them.  Activities like talking, sharing, checking in, and doing something fun, or painful, together.  Then I thought about ways I reinforce social ties with people I don’t live near, or whose schedules are different from mine making it difficult to meet up.  With these people I tend to communicate through calls and messaging, occasionally a sweet care package might get sent via snail mail.

Then I thought about all the ways in which technology has both enhanced and diluted our social ties.  On the one hand, I appreciate being able to stay in touch with people that live far away in ways that are reliable, easy, and free. On the other side, I feel like technology dilutes our social ties rather than reinforcing them.

Technology makes it easy to send messages or post updates, requiring little to no effort to hurriedly dash off a typo-filled message, or just “like” a whole bunch of somebody’s posts as a way to say “hi, I’ve noticed.”  It’s also easy to reach out and find other like-minded people across the vast digital landscape, to “connect” with people in other time zones and countries.  And there are so many options available about how we want to network with others.  New apps and platforms are constantly being developed all with the goal of connecting in mind.  This is in addition to thousands of online groups and forums already used by many to reach out to others.

But is this really reinforcing our social ties?  Or is it only serving to diffuse our social ties across a wide variety of interests and platforms consuming so much of our time and energy that it becomes difficult to create something meaningful.  Perhaps we can relearn from the whales to reinforce social ties the way we used to.

 

Digital Dilemma

Life Line

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Last week I blogged about my accidental time off from my smartphone.  Since I wasn’t distracted by it for two whole days, it gave me an opportunity to think about how many things I use it for such as messaging on three separate apps, checking email, taking & viewing pictures, using the calendar, storing contacts, navigating, researching, maintaining my to-do list, accessing information, jotting down notes/story ideas, and plain old phone calls.

Ironically enough, the most difficult challenge of being without my phone was for the least-used feature, making actual calls.  At some point during my two-day break I had a moment of panic about how I would contact somebody if there was an emergency.  I’m not sure the fire department is equipped to respond to tweets and 9-1-1 Skype calls.  I have an old-fashioned push-button phone plugged into the jack to access my building’s intercom system, but that’s all it’s connected too.

During our AGM the other week the Board mentioned they were looking into the option of having the intercom connected with a cell phone instead of the regular plug-in kind.  Many people cheered at this.  I would have been one of them before being phone-less for two days.  Even if we do get the cell phone hook up option, I’m still keeping my old-fashioned phone for backup, just in case.

This is one of the main problems we face when we rely on one device to do so many essential things.  When one part breaks, the whole organism fails.  Not very sturdy or reliable.  My smartphone does so many amazing things for me that I often forget at the core, it’s still a phone.  When it took the plunge last week, I only thought about the data losing sight of the most important, basic function, being able to call for help.

I wonder if this is what it will be like for “smart” homes that rely entirely on a hub to manage and control a household of things connected through the internet.  What if something happens to the hub (e.g. an accident, water damage, faulty wire, etc.) or the internet connection?  Will people be left with a house full of working items that can’t be used or controlled because the motherboard is down?  Will we lose sight and control of our most basic necessities because we’re so preoccupied with convenience and speed?

 

Deletion, Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Go Jump in a Lake

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Friday evening, while enjoying a pre-dinner glass of wine, I had the misfortune to tumble into a lake with my phone in my dress pocket.  erp.  To be fair, it wasn’t because I was tipsy.  The dock post on which I was supporting myself fell into the water taking me with it.

The faulty dock post is on the left with a piece of rope tied around it. It was pretty substantial and left me with three shin bruises in addition to taking me into the water!

The faulty dock post is on the left with a piece of rope tied around it. It was a pretty substantial post and left me with three shin bruises on the way down!

After the initial shock, I immediately handed my phone to my friend who ran to the restaurant for a bag of rice*.  She ran back with a towel.  By that time I was back on the dock wringing out my dress and giggling, definitely a by product of being tipsy.

I felt calm about the whole thing.  Most things on my phone are available somewhere else, albeit less convenient to access.  And in a nerdish, professional way, I was curious to evaluate the robustness of my backup system.  It also forced a couple of personal projects related to digital photos and calendar synchronization into high priority.

I often read articles, or see advertisements, about taking vacations without our devices.  Without a phone to access I had time to wonder, is it more stressful to have a smartphone or to be without it?  Occasionally I’ve forgotten my phone, or had the battery die, but not knowing if my phone would work was a different feeling.  After day one I did start to feel mildly stressed about the cost, time, and effort involved to replace it.  I rely heavily on my smartphone as both a convenience and a time saver.

By day two I started to appreciate what it meant to be phone-less.  I took a walk through the botanical gardens near my house.  This was both to take a restorative break and to distract me from constantly checking my phone every 20 minutes to see if any more water droplets had disappeared.  As I strolled through the gardens I could feel myself relaxing and spending more time looking, smelling, and experiencing.  Was this because my phone wasn’t in my purse as a silent and pervasive distraction?

I do think it’s healthy to power down and take breaks from our devices, but it inherently feels less stressful to do so when:

a) I’m in control of when I’m taking the break; and

b) I don’t have the stress of having to replace (or restore) anything.

My advice, leave your device at home before you go jump in a lake.

 

*It took 2 full days, but the rice worked.  Remove the battery and cards.

 

 

 

Digital Dilemma

Digital Decisions

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I often find people firmly taking a stance to either be completely digital, or to remain firmly rooted in paper.  Personally, I enjoy having options.  Recently my mother was interested in a few recipes in one of my magazines.  I told her to rip them out knowing that if I also wanted the recipes I could simply take a photo and retain my own digital copy.  Easy!

One of the best things about having so many things available in print and in electronic formats are the options.  For example, sometimes I prefer to use paper recipes when I’m going to be messy, or space is tight, so I don’t have to worry about propping up my tablet and keeping it clean.  Other times, I love being able to prop up my iPad to read the recipe, look things up, and access its entertainment options while I’m cooking.

I love my ereader and read almost exclusively on it, but I had a real pang for a paper book when I accidentally dropped my device on the floor last week. I was nearing the end of the book* and was trying to read a few more pages while getting ready for work when the ereader slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor.

No big deal, I thought picking it up for a closer inspection.  I knew it was bad when I couldn’t force a restart and then the screen went all funny.  *sigh*  This just doesn’t happen with paper books.  Now I’m making do with my iPad with its too bright screen, large size, and old fashioned books until I can get the ereader repaired or replaced.

For me, having grown up in the middle of the transition from analog to digital, I enjoy both formats for different things.  I still love taking notes on paper and scribbling things in notebooks.  I find that pen and paper is more flexible than any app or stylus I’ve used so far.  On the other hand, I also love the convenience of being able to type a few things in my smartphone when I’m on the go.  It’s all about having choices, convenience, and understanding preferences.

*Purity by Jonathan Franzen (Great read! I really enjoyed it.)

Digital Dilemma, Google

Google Home

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The latest development from Google is a new product/service called Google Home.  In essence, Google Home allows people to connect with services or products or information in a seamless way through talking.  With all the new advances in digital communication, it’s refreshing to see a product relying on the more old-fashioned method of talking.

Google Home uses a wifi speaker to connect people with products or services.  The person simply asks a question (e.g. how big is Snoopy’s doghouse?) or makes a request (e.g. turn on the light in the bedroom) around the speaker.  It’s supposed to be an all-purpose personal assistant ready to help anyone, located anywhere, in the home through voice-activated commands.  Improved technology combined with the latest efforts in artificial intelligence have generated a lot of interest.  Amazon Echo, a similar product, has been on the market for some months already with a lot of positive response.

I’ve been utilizing the voice-activated features more on my phone lately.  I do find it a nice alternative to using the tiny smartphone keyboard, but I’ve noticed that I have to check the transcribed messages carefully.  Sometimes words don’t get translated accurately and when I verbally command punctuation, the word “comma” gets written instead of the “,”.  As a result, I’ve had to slow down to check and see that each word gets transcribed properly which kind of defeats the purpose of using it.

While I can see where/how it would be beneficial to use my voice to request/ask things, mistakes aside, I have to wonder what it means to use a service like this.  How interconnected would Google Home be with my personal items?  For example, would it need access to my photos?  How connected would my information be through Google Home be to the rest of the world?  How much of my home would be connected through Google Home?

With this last question, I always have to wonder about silly things like power outages, spotty internet service, and maintenance. It happens and I would hate to think I couldn’t use anything in my house because it was all interconnected through a hub using wifi when internet service goes down, or because of a system malfunction.  Or what happens if Google decides to discontinue Google Home in the coming years?  What happens to customers who have become reliant on the service?