By Matt Schoenman
Follow Matt on Twitter
It’s about time. It has been an event a long time in the making, but I have finally taken the jump from traditional cell phone to a technological monstrosity: the smart phone. And what a huge leap it was. Here’s my grand tale:
First let me start by telling you that I was the very last one of my friends to make the change, so you can imagine how left out I felt when people were checking their Twitter and Facebook pages or looking up stuff on Wikipedia, all on their cell phones. This group includes all of my home friends (all BlackBerry people, if I may add) as well as all of my friends from college. I would literally sit in a room full of people who were all silent because they had their faces buried in their mobile devices. I was, sadly, limited to calling, texting, and…well, nothing else. Just calling and texting. So I was the one person who wanted to have an actual conversation. Most of the time I just ended up talking to myself.
But there were some factors that came to play in the game of my life that brought about a huge change. Firstly, I got a position here, at The Campus Socialite. Along with the responsibility came the undeniable need for me to be able to check my e-mail on the run. Secondly, there was my mom. Before a few days ago, we had the same phone: an LG Voyager. Most people hate on it, but I’ve always been an expert at taking care of my phone (with the exception of this one time I threw my phone off of a boat…long story, don’t ask). On the other hand, my mother was not so good at it. Her keyboard was starting to stick, and there were strobing striations of brilliant color running up and down her touch screen. She called up Verizon only to find that she was eligible for a free upgrade. She knew that I needed a smart phone, so we struck a deal: I would pass down my mint-condition Voyager to her and use her upgrade to get a smart phone, as long as I agree to pay the $30 a month for internet. Sure ma, it’s a deal.
So we go to the store and in a matter of five minutes this guy had me sold on the Samsung Fascinate: the Verizon Galaxy S. You know, the one in all the commercials with the movie Avatar on the screen (if you ask me, it’s kind of stupid to watch Avatar anywhere but on a massive screen, and in 3D). The salesman had one himself, so he was able to show me some basic stuff. I actually don’t think he knew much about the phone, because in the three days since I’ve discovered how complex this baby really is, and it goes far deeper than any of the stupid Borat soundboards or silly apps he showed me. So my mom paid the difference that that upgrade didn’t cover as an early birthday present, and I had a new phone…unfortunately it took the guy a hundred times longer to set the phone up as it did for him to convince me to get it. Drove me up the wall. But when it was all said and done, I walked out of the store with the power of modern technology at my fingertips.
Let me just tell you how overwhelmed I was when I finally sat down and tried to figure out this phone: I was with all my friends, who were attempting to converse with me, but I was completely absorbed into this mechanical masterpiece’s four-inch screen. All of their words fell on deaf ears. I needed to figure out everything I possibly could, regardless of what was going on around me. I definitely didn’t want to end up as one of those people who buy a smart phone just because it looks so cool. I was obsessed. The more I played around, the more I figured out: There are endless amounts of customization to be discovered. I found that the default web browser was no better than Internet Explorer, so I upgraded to Dolphin. I had already put gigabytes of music on my microSD card, so I snatched a sweet music app that organized everything. Then I found that I could take said music player and drag it onto my main screen. It could play music even if I was busy using the phone for something else. Not only that, but I could put any app or widget that I had downloaded onto the screen. I guess some people may not be so amazed because they already have smart phones, but try to remember when you had your first experience with yours. I’m sure it blew your mind, at least a little bit.
I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve come a long way in a few short days. Now, looking back on it, I don’t know how I ever lived without all the modern pleasures that a smart phone provides. So if your still stuck with your old-school traditional cellular phone, I suggest you hustle and negotiate a little bit to come up with the monies necessary to upgrade. Not excited about having to pay the $30 a month for Internet, but I guess everything has its price.
