Dwindling Interludes and Intermissions

by Jeff Wozer

Liv Fun: Vol 2 – Issue 2

A would-be isolationist succumbs to the lure of high-tech … and is hooked.

Last January I finally buckled. I gave in to societal pressures and purchased a smartphone. Defiant, I waited three weeks to open it, deriving boundless gratification from looking at the dormant phone in its Apple packaging and saying, “Not so smart while in that box are we?”

I felt like detective Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs talking with Hannibal Lecter in his cell, keenly aware that if this iPhone ever got out it would have consummate control over me.

After three weeks I became complacent and removed the phone from its box, thinking no harm in turning it on and examining its features. And just like Hannibal Lecter in the movie, it recognized an opening and pounced. Turning on the iPhone automatically deactivated my flip-up cell phone, leaving me without mobile phone connection and without choice. I was forced to activate the iPhone. The monster had escaped.

Conscious of the iPhone’s power to dominate attention, I limited its use to calls, vowing not to become one of those people wedded to their hand-screens. Then last week, while cross-country skiing deep in Colorado’s backcountry, I grabbed the phone out of my blue fleece jacket’s pocket to check emails, violating the sanctity of my intent to “get away from it all.” I was hooked. The phone had me. “Hello, Clarice,” it seemed to whisper with its robotic tone.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Summer 2013
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Dwindling Interludes and Intermissions
by Jeff Wozer

Last January I finally buckled. I gave in to societal pressures and purchased a smartphone. Defiant, I waited three weeks to open it, deriving boundless gratification from looking at the dormant phone in its Apple packaging and saying, “Not so smart while in that box are we?”
Read More