Last week I was late to my dance class due to a late meeting at work. As I was driving to my class, at a stop light, I tried to make a phone call. It made a wrong call and I quickly tried to hang up. I kept tapping on cancel button and nothing seemed to work!
Then all of sudden my phone switched to a different mode. It would not take in my passcode and keep repeating loud what I was typing in.
I felt panic in my body. I felt lost!
How can I go anywhere without GPS? How can I get hold of anyone?
I decided not to go dance. I was dealing with an emergency!!! I had to remedy this situation first. I had to find my way to an Apple store to get help. How can I go to store without my phone telling me where to go?
I drove toward direction of mall that had an Apple store. After getting lost for a while and with lots of help I found the store. I ran into store and told the technician that I really need his help!
My phone was switched to visually impaired mode, which literally made me feel lost and disoriented. It was fixed by the technician in few seconds.
I was really shocked at my dependency on something that ten years ago I could function without.
I realized that I have stopped using my memory and stopped paying attention to how I go to places. I was also surprised on my reaction of feeling lost when I realized I am disconnected from the internet. I realized that I had over delegated too many responsibilities to my phone.
How would you feel if you do not receive phone calls, texts, emails or any news for a day?
Do you feel anxious? Why?
What aspect of your life have you over-delegated and are overly dependent on other things?
Copyright .2019 by Shervin Hojat
Throughout my life, I've run into people who couldn't read a map, or follow directions and routinely got lost or relied on others to get them where they had to go. I both felt sorry and amused by them, wasting time getting lost and arriving late as a routine. Some of them even relying on public transportation like cabdrivers to drive them all over rather than directly to where they had to go and pay the extra fare without ever knowing it. My ex-wife used to enjoy getting lost with her friends on outings as though it were part of their enjoying being together--lost adventures. For these people, GPS is a necessity, and a tremendous timesaver. But the same people find that their electronic devices are huge mysteries in terms of operation!
Fifty-five years ago, I could no longer jot down simple little things like directions or phone numbers etc. So, I became very good at memorizing detailed verbal directions from others (if they were good) and having a way to find phone numbers of places I was going to call when I got close to the location. From a Rand McNally road atlas of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico, I learned to drive up to a thousand miles a day by looking at the map once in the morning before leaving. On the interstates today, I don't need a map at all because so many of those roads I've driven are in my mind.
Just this week, I went to see my hundred-year-old uncle and, in our rush, forgot to print the map and phone number. When we got to the assisted living place that I remembered how to get to, my uncle and his wife had moved without leaving a forwarding address or informing me! And, we were without the phone number that I hadn't memorized. But, I remembered the old 1-411 directory assistance number that my out of town AD friend, driving from my verbal instructions (he had an old flip phone with no GPS) called, and by reaching my uncle's daughter, reached my aunt at the number that I had lost, because the daughter purchased the phone in her name. I memorized the daughter's verbal directions she gave us over the phone and we quickly arrived at the right location.
Ron
symptom for many of our time!
enjoyed the read
never stop writing
m