The Smartphone Experience
While I’m not the (some would say) extreme technophile that some others may be on this site, I do have my needs. One of those needs was a device that would compensate for my serious lack of adequate brain power. So about a month ago I leapt boldly into 2007 and got myself a smart phone, namely a Sony Ericsson x10a. Don’t run away; I’m not here to give a late-adopter’s review of the device – although I’m thoroughly enjoying it despite its quirks and Sony’s continued lack of a[n official] 2.1 Android upgrade. (Rooting? What’s rooting?)
I do want to talk about the Smartphone Experience, however. I feel like I’m now connected to another level of social communication that falls somewhere in between texting and Second Life (note: I just had to add ‘texting’ to my Word dictionary– see how far behind I am?). I already had a Twitter account, but that did nothing but fill up my text inbox on my cheaper phone far too quickly and I usually just had the feed turned off. But now I have Tweetcaster, so I can rummage through the follies of Wil Wheaton and Patton Oswalt, catch up on the doings of my connected friends, and pick up some words of wisdom from people I’ve stumbled upon along the way whose words do, I think, seem wise. But mainly, for me it was a passing fancy.
That was, until #jan25 happened.
Suddenly, I was getting tweets from a number of people that I followed that we in or near Tahrir Square during the uprising, brute squad attacks and the subsequent dictatorial liberation of Egypt. Suddenly, I was a kid again, in my room with a transistor radio, listening in on the weekends to late-night talk shows and gleaning bits of knowledge and information that I wasn’t going to hear anywhere that an advertiser had any say as to the content. Suddenly, I was part of a noetic experiment involving global group will akin to mass prayer for a people who were all done with being held down under foot by a dictator.
It was the first time in a long time that I was actually excited by a bit of technology other than in a selfish, Bigger-Better-More sense. I have my own little crystal ball that opens a tiny window onto the entire world, as long as I point it in the right direction. Sure, Twitter’s not perfect; I’ve got to keep track of whom I’m following, dump ramblers (yes, I’m talking to you, John Cusack), and ban the occasional spambot. But it’s worth the effort, because you never know what the Next Big Thing is going to be, especially with all the dominoes falling across the Middle East.
On to subject number two – Foursquare.
I admit to being on approach to the level of Foursquare Junkie, but I think that’s mainly due to its newness. My wife and I are competing for mayorships in the various places we both frequent, and currently I own both our house and our church (I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I made both of the check-ins for those, but I don’t know enough about the point system to know if it makes a difference, and, frankly, I don’t care enough to find out).
What I keep hearing about, though, is all the privacy worries. How can I possibly want to advertise where I’m at to the world? Aren’t I afraid that someone’s going to use the information to rob my house, knowing we’re not home? Aren’t I worried that the government is going to track me down?
Um, no. If someone wanted to rob us, they’d find a way. Frankly, I’d rather not be home when they attempted it, lest there be gunfire. And really, if anyone can glean anything of value from us, go for it. We leave the house unlocked, so don’t break the glass, please.
I have no issue with anyone knowing where I am. Really, my life is not interesting enough to have this be a secret at any given time. Then again, it’s not interesting enough for anyone to care, either, but that’s another problem. But I like using Foursquare to advertise for our favorite places, like the new Middle Eastern restaurant that just opened a couple towns over. If I boost their presence, I might just contribute to keeping them open, and then FALAFEL OM NOMZ FOREVER. And as a side note, the evening after my wife and I posted our Foursquare presence at the restaurant, we got Follow notices on Twitter from them. Go @AladdinsEatery!
As far as being hunted down like a dog, there are much better ways than Foursquare to make that happen. If anything, it could be used as a diversionary tactic, faking ones location somewhere else. Come to think of it, that might be a good way to find some private time for myself. “Of course I’m at the grocery store, honey – didn’t you see my check-in? The lines are just SO long…” *sips tea at Panera*
[ACTIVATE READER INTERACTION MODULE]
So do you have a problem with Foursquare broadcasting your whereabouts? Is Twitter changing your life, or just annoying the crap out of you? Do you even give a flying frak about smart phones? Discuss.
Tags: Tech
I think that smartphones are just the greasiest!
Got an Android phone myself this past fall, and I love it. I’ve been hard at work trying to make the most out of everything the phone can do, from managing my home network to reading pdf files of RPG books (I bought John Wick’s Shotgun Diaries in PDF form) to watching episodes of Chuck at lunchtime. There’s supposedly a Netflix app coming for Android soon.
I wrote up an article a while back about everything I’m doing with the phone:
http://www.greghowley.com/827
My phone cannot brain; it has the dumb.
I roll with a Samsung SGH-A237. Yeah, that means nothing. It’s not smart enough for FourSquare (and, quite frankly, FourSquare’s SMS implementation leaves much to be desired, particularly in the realm of documentation) but I do occasionally tweet from it, which takes all day. I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter that I don’t think a phone, regardless of its IQ, could fix. I think I can sum it up with a line from Brokeback Mountain: I wish I knew how to quit you.