I am now a member of the smartphone cult. Or rather, a recent inductee/ fringe member. After an incident where I ended up driving thirty minutes down the wrong highway (I was supposed to be taking a side road), my mother decided it was time I got a phone with GPS capabilities. So after three years of having a reliable, able-to-fall-on-the-ground-without-breaking-flip phone, I got an Android phone.
From the start, I knew it wasn’t meant to be. No sooner had the sales rep put the phone in my hand, I nearly dropped it onto the hard countertop.
“You might want to check out the two-year warranty for $150. You have a month to sign up for it at this price, but it goes up after that. Protects you from day one,” he said, nodding at the nearly-dropped phone in my hands. Insult to my dexterity aside, this salesman was clearly avoiding the real issue at hand. I mean, who designs a phone that needs a case? Shouldn’t a phone be durable enough to survive life’s slip-ups? I exited the store with a phone, case, and screen cover, sans warranty.
A few minutes later, my dad called me to ask when my mom and I would be getting home. The screen lit up with two puzzle pieces, one red and one green. I pressed the green one to answer the call, but nothing happened. The phone would not stop blaring. I tapped the button, and tapped it again, next trying the red one, until I noticed a tiny line of instruction telling me to “fit puzzle piece” to answer the call. Great. Now I have to solve a puzzle to take my calls and messages?
Soon I decided to check out what the “Applications” tab contained. Among the gems: Maps, for all of your mapping needs; Latitude, for your other mapping needs; Let’s Play Golf 2, for those virtual business meetings when you can’t to the fairway; Guided Tour, to teach the inept smartphone user (aka me), and Books, to guilt you into reading classic literature. Of all the apps, this was my favorite. Preloaded on the phone were Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So this is what all of you smartphone people do on your phone to look busy! In the airports, coffee places, and other random wifi hotspots, you’re reading. Good for you! I can’t believe I thought you were playing angry birds all this time. I must say, I felt really cool reading about the White Rabbit’s tardiness on my palm-sized device. Now I too can go out in public and pretend to be engaged in more important things while in the company of others! Who needs real-life friends when you have a list full of Contacts you can text?
In short: I have no idea how to use my phone. Technically I’m part of the “digital native” generation, but help a girl out and teach me your smartphone tricks! And please don’t make fun of me for my inability to answer phone calls. I was never the puzzling type.
Any advice for a new smartphone user? Leave comments below!
Zivling 