coxy's blog

I'm always on. I carry my smartphone in my pocket wherever I go and the instant information that I have easy access to at any moment can be a blessing. I can get everything I want to know in seconds; my location pin-pointed on an interactive map, when and where to catch the next bus, I can find out what my friends are doing between Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook - I can even find out where my friends are, and often find out what they're eating too.

Overkill? Maybe.

I frequently find myself teetering on the edge of the line that separates what I want to know with consuming whatever my phone wants to tell me. I'm forever hearing the blips and bleeps that ring out as I get updates from internet services - new mentions on Twitter, updates to a game I'm playing, someone liking a picture of mine of Facebook, a comment on a hilarious status update I've shared with my friends, or a Foursquare notification letting me know that a friend has just checked in at the gym. It's got to the point where my phone is a distraction from what I'm actually meant to be doing and what's happening around me.

The moments where I'm sat in a coffee shop with a friend and more attention is being paid to what's going on in the palm of their hand, than what's happening around them, are the moments I've had enough of. I sit wondering whether I am actually that boring for someone to have to sign onto Facebook to check what their other friends are doing, or whether the technology is simply an addiction — an addiction that literally chimes out to be heard when something is happening that it thinks you need to know about, when in reality, you couldn't care less.

"What are you reading?", I ask. "Oh, nothing. Just looking at Facebook," comes the reply. I press on, "Anything interesting?". "No. Just looking at people's pictures."

I know this because I have done this. I do this. I am one of the most social network orientated people I can think of; I use Facebook, I use Twitter, I use Foursquare, I use Tumblr, I have a blog on MyOpera, I'm signed up to so many other social networks that I couldn't even name all of them! And it's time for a little break.

Now, I'm not going to go all Paul Miller (see 'I'm leaving the internet for a year' on The Verge) - the internet is a massive part of my job and therefore I need to keep up-to-date with what's going on online. However, I'm taking the internet out of my pocket and out of the palm of my hand.

Starting from today, I'll be switching my lovely (and indeed it is) Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone device for a 12 year old Nokia 8210. It calls, it does SMS, it has Snake - what more could I need? And do you know what the saddest part about this is? It's that this is a big change for me.

I'll no longer be checking in, I'll no longer read emails or Facebook status updates on the bus, I won't be posting photos just seconds after I've taken them or reading news 'as it happens', I'll do all my 'internetting' when I get home - in front of a real computer.

Let's see how long this lasts.