DOES YOUR SMARTPHONE MAKE YOU FEEL DUMB?

I have no real excuse but let me try:  I live in a no cell tower zone.  Cell phones just don't work where I live.  I know, I know.  I'm planning on moving.

 So, I have been happily behind the times on cell phones for years.  I had a Motorola Krazr, what the heck.  Besides, this is Maine, right?

 I am on line more hours of the day than not.  I don't want a phone for email.  I just wanna phone!!!  But times have changed.  I would go to broker open's and instead of rushing the lunch, everyone's face was in their Blackberrys.  Hullo?  Anyone home?  I don't want to be the Realtor focused on technology, ignoring the people.

 So I looked at Blackberrys.  Tiny buttons with both letters and numbers which are hard for boomer eyes.  Ok for getting your email but really, I just want a phone. And the ability to occasionally pick up email when I am stranded for hours with no web access.  I planned on buying a Blackberry.  Picked out the one that looked like a regular phone, separate buttons for numbers and letters.  Tiny but separate.

 Then a friend with a smarty tech hubby walked in the office with a touch screen smartphone.  Bright, shiny and everything on it.  All kinds of apps.  So I went on line and bought one.  Touch screen, pull out Qwerty board.  A Samsung Rogue.  It even SOUNDS like me.  Weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Of course, it comes with no manual.  A little doll size book that tells you how to turn it on, in English and in Spanish.  After that, search the web and good luck.  The little devil is very touch sensitive.  I don't have the right size case for it and I'm not used to handling it.  So it falls out of the pouch, gets squished in the purse and then gets busy.  I mean, it phones people!!!

Now, I've known my dog to curl up on the remote and order up a movie.  But this is an inanimate (correct that, it's very animated) object that is more social than I am.  Apps keep trying to download themselves.  Voices appear and I have to check and see if they are automated or real. 

 My final conclusion:  I need an aircard for the notebook.  But in the meantime, I do love my smartphone.  I really wish it would stop phoning people, though...