Without phone or internet

[Zoe Girl]

I think about how scary it must have been for my parents to let us drive in the mountains without cell phones, or maybe I am just used to being able to be reached all the time. We had a deal where I would call when I left work in Denver and then they had an amount of time that I would probably be home in, if the weather was snowy and I wasn't home the neighbor with a jeep would drive out and look for me. He did that a few times.

I totally LOVE that our work got us simple i-phones. It is so much nicer and actually I work less. We are on call from early to late every day, I start checking my phone Sunday evening in case staff is out sick for Monday. Before these phones if I was expecting an important email I would have to stay at the office all day making for often a 12 hour day, or take breaks at starbucks to boot up my laptop and check for the email. Now I can flex my time the way I need to and check for the important email. I can even do a quick reply.

The last time I had a serious phone issue was at the women's march. The place was so packed and people were trying to reach each other so calls and texts were not going through for a long time. I didn't have an emergency but I did miss meeting people because the messages were not getting through.

[Williamsmith]

We plow through our days blissfully using the tools of the accelerating technology. Computing machines like this iPad I am typing on are a result of technology that has been doubling its capacity about every two years since 2007. That is a non linear change that has not been matched by society's slow ability to adapt. We are utterly reliant on these tools. And as with all technology, there is good and bad.

And living without for just one day can cause dramatic anxiety. Try taking an iPhone away from a high school teen.

Their is a fine line between responding to the threat of a technological breakdown by preparedness or in paranoia. One crosses over that line and back easily.

Realize that this technological reliance has propelled the world on a population explosion due to the lower mortality rates in concert with high fertility rates. This globalization of technology means that the comforts it has brought you are now being shared with more and more people. Those "more and more people are consuming more and more of everything". Power and control are in the hands of those who decide who gets what. As long as your government wields that power and control, you will only be inconvenienced once in a great while.

Imagine an instant and long term failure of the computer infrastructure. An attack that turns the clock back to pre industrial ages. A simple pulling of the plug. It adds a new layer to vulnerability.

Imagine doing without the computerized coffee pot. My God!!

[Tenngal]

I do not have a smart phone but I do have wi-fi for the tablets.........a day with no wi-fi is a BAD day. Cutoff from the world.......

[Alan]

I spent over half of my life without cell phones or internet. I wonder how I survived?

[herbgeek]

I spent over half of my life without cell phones or internet. I wonder how I survived?

There were pay phones back in the day, if you got into trouble some where. Good luck finding one of those antiquities now.

[CathyA]

There were pay phones back in the day, if you got into trouble some where. Good luck finding one of those antiquities now.

Yeah.....I wanted to find a pay phone when mine wasn't working.......but where? I guess you have to ask someone if you can make a call on theirs?

And when I didn't have a phone, much of my worry was more about a fire, medical emergency.....and especially if my kids were having some problem and they couldn't reach me.
I'm, unfortunately, not a social person.......so I felt uncomfortable going to a neighbor I hardly know.

[jp1]

There were pay phones back in the day, if you got into trouble some where. Good luck finding one of those antiquities now.

Indeed. I saw one yesterday and thought it noteworthy enough to take a picture.

[Alan]

There were pay phones back in the day, if you got into trouble some where. Good luck finding one of those antiquities now.

Yes, they are few and far between these days, but, they were when I was growing up too. There wasn't much call for them in the middle of cotton fields, it was still a 20 mile trek to find one.

[rosarugosa]

In Boston, there are pay phones at all the subway stations. I always figured they put them there just for me.

[creaker]

In Boston, there are pay phones at all the subway stations. I always figured they put them there just for me.

Much harder to find these days, though - not like the banks of phones that used to be there. Like in Back Bay (although the mounts might finally get removed, they are redoing that area of the station).

I don't know if they are still there, but in places in the financial district they had groups of phone stands outside with no phones in them any more.