| Jun192008 | Why I like mobile internet |
A few of my friends read my post about wanting an iPhone and they couldn’t understand why I would even think about paying so much for mobile internet. I don’t blame them. I feel exactly the same way about the ability to phone someone whenever you want to.
I mean, it made sense back in the day when everything was done over the phone because internet was still new and scary. You could call people and co-ordinate meetings, disseminate little bits of timely information or just bitch about your day. Those are all great things that are done so much better by SMS and the internet. My want to be online, have email and write short little pieces of text is so much bigger than my want to hear someone’s voice.
There are very few people on this planet that could tell me, “Hey Jack, carry around this cancer box with you in your pants. When it rings, drop whatever you are doing and hold it up to your ear so I can beam my voice directly into your brain.” If my mother asked me to do that, I would decline. My boss? No way. My friend? I’d tell them to email or IM instead. Barack Obama? Yes. He could read me the Illinois phone book and I’d just sigh and tell him he has a dreamy voice. (Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, Obama-phone!)
Carry around the internet in my pocket? Yes. I find it so darn useful. I can check for directions and never be afraid of getting lost anywhere that has decent Google Maps coverage. I can search for restaurants and check out reviews. I can entertain myself on bus rides, coffee lines or waiting rooms. I can find answers to those stupid questions that come up during everyday intellectual curiosity.
At the end of the day, having mobile internet is not super important. I love having directions all the time though because I get lost a lot. Otherwise, I can do without. I can almost do without the phone part too. So in reality, my lifestyle is such that I could be one of those people that lives without a mobile phone and it would be a small-ish inconvenience, like, not having a credit card but I would not die. Being the gadget freak and Apple fanboy that I am though, I lust after the iPhone. It is my current obsession in the way that you obsessed about the Sex and the City movie, the way you think it’s important to buy extended warranty, the way you think a Collector’s Edition is somehow more valuable or perhaps why you spend so much time being anxious about petrol prices. It’s irrational, it’s crazy, it’s expensive but I must have it.
| More? |
|
