Resistance is (not) futile.

Spoiler Alert: against convention, I’ve stated my conclusion up front. Read on if you wish.

I had been thinking about writing this article for a while, and the following questions were with me, simmering slowly inside:

1. Is resistance futile?

2. If resistance is futile, why resist?

These questions had been dogging me for a few days, nipping at my heels and otherwise making a nuisance of themselves. I’ll provide some context for them.

First, a confession:

I don’t have a smart phone. Or a cell phone. No mobile phone at all.

I do have a pretty good laptop computer though — and I have a Facebook account which includes a page for my bespoke upholstery business, multiple web email accounts, this Medium blog, a Wordpress blog, a dusty Myspace page. I even have a couple of twitter accounts, though I don’t really use them.

So it’s not like I’m completely cut off from ‘social media’ or the associated lifestyle. (An inventory of the effects of being a social media user would make a good topic for another post… maybe next time). In fact, I spend a fair bit of time tending them.

Still — I don’t have a smart phone. And I’ve been meaning to put down a few words on why that is so.

For some people, it’s suspicious. Tin foil hat suspicious. It’s not like that.

For some, not having a smart phone makes me unqualified, given the fact that I’m interested in technology and media and the critical study of them. People object, and say that I can’t possibly have anything relevant to say about these things, about devices I do not have.

Obviously, I don’t agree. Do I need to have or be able to drive a car in order to consider its effect on society? Not really. I could argue that further, but I’m not that interested in arguing. I’m all for discussion, but I have found that not many people are. They’d rather argue, and are not much interested in discussing anything.

Fact is, I am able to consider things like culture and technology despite not having every gadget under consideration. What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a long period of study and thought. Skills that make me able to consider things from a bit of a remove… I’m stretching the reference.

Not having a smart phone gives me a slight advantage of remove, distance, which balances the disadvantage of not having one — if one considers that a disadvantage. After all, it’s so easy to be blinded to the structure by being caught up in the contents. Forest for the trees and all that.

Which is not to say that I’m not interested in the trees - content and uses. I am.

I’m trying to hold off the changes in my life which will happen when I get a smart phone, though it’s becoming harder, and it can be inconvenient not having one.

For example:

There are no payphones on MaRS

Recently, I was invited to attend an Android app developer’s conference in Toronto. I think I can say with a strong degree of certainty that I was the only person there without a smart phone. It was a really interesting experience, and I will write more on it soon. At one point, I had to make a phone call. I had to pick up a book for my dad from a friend, and so I needed to call the person to make sure it would be convenient to stop in.

The conference was at the MaRS discovery district, a new high-tech hub in Toronto. So I went in search of a pay phone. None was obvious, so I stopped by the security desk to see if they could tell me where to find one, or if they had a ‘courtesy phone’ I could use. Neither. And they treated me with suspicion.

I ended up borrowing the conference organizer’s phone to make the call. (Thanks again, Mark.)

On the other hand, I am grateful to not have one in my pocket wherever I go, obligating me to answer its bleating and buzzing, urging me to even more social media engagement. To take advantage of it, to be taken advantage of.

Never mind the financial cost.

I know from studying media, that the big effects of media are society-wide.

From a structural, big-picture perspective, it doesn’t matter very much whether or not I personally have a smart phone. I can’t reasonably pretend to avoid or mitigate the societal effects.

But I can avoid certain personal effects.

Use of technologies have an effect on the way our senses operate. By not using a smart phone I am, to an extent, avoiding the full effect on my senses, and the balance among them.

For example, I’ve heard that phantom vibration syndrome is a thing, and I have not experienced that.

And technologies also have a formative effect on our very brains.

In recent years, the field of neuroplasticity has changed not only the way we think about our brains, but changed our ideas of what the brain can and can’t do, what it can and cannot overcome and adapt to. Norman Doige’s book is fascinating on that topic.

Indispensability:

We develop technologies to help us do things better — faster, more efficiently, et cetera. Before very long, we can’t imagine how to do things without them. Literally. They become indispensable, that is, we can’t do without them. Never mind that we managed to get by before, now we can’t get by without.

Indispensability is something which concerns me. Indispensability is a point of no return.

A few years ago, it was the 25th anniversary of the internet.

I remember journalists, and countless other professionals, saying how they couldn’t do their jobs without the internet, without fast computers. Of course, journalism is much older than the internet, and journalists made a good and a bad job of it before the internet made both much easier.

I’ve had the pleasure, a few times now, of being welcomed into classrooms with children in grades 5 and 6 (around 10 years of age) to teach them a little bit. We’ve discussed the complex network of things (the medium, or ground) which are involved in a technology like the smart phone, how technologies become indispensable. When, after helping them see that overlooked environment, I suggest they imagine that tomorrow morning they woke up and their smart phones didn’t exist — that there was no network, no internet… well, I’ve had audible gasps. It’s unthinkable.

Who cares? Why do I?

I don’t think that many people do care. I’m sure most people don’t give it so much as a first thought.

There was a time when my objection (to having a smart phone) was based on … I don’t know — fear, maybe. Ignorance, maybe. An intoxicating mix of the two, maybe. I hope I’ve grown up a bit, learned a bit, and now make more rational decisions. (Note to self: revisit this in five years and laugh at your naiveté).

Change happens, I know that. Is it for the net better or net worse? Time will tell. I’m not resisting change for the sake of resisting change; for the sake of that fantasy trap, nostalgia. Change is a given, and I’m glad to be here, now.

I have a good imagination, and I can imagine what my life would be like if I had a smart phone, but I don’t really need much of an imagination — I can simply look at the world around me. At other people’s lives, people whose daily lives and very beings have been so shaped by their devices that they can’t imagine their lives without them — the very idea can cause panic. They fall asleep clutching them. They experience FOMO — fear of missing out. They experience phantom vibration syndrome. The meanings of connection and disconnection, the feeling of it, changes. And so on.

The zombie metaphor is a little overused and frankly a stretch. Why the comparison of zombies to smart phone users is so popular might be worth consideration. I am quite content enjoying my surroundings without having to find distraction (solace? reassurance?) with a smart phone. I like to ride transit and take in the whole experience (okay, sometimes I read a book). I like to go for walks. I know that most people don’t, but I actually really enjoy paying attention to my environment. I love seeing unexpected things. I delight in it. Hearing unexpected things. Observing. It could be I’m easily entertained (actually, it’s true — I’m very easily entertained. I have a rich interior life). It could be that if I had a smart phone, I wouldn’t pay attention to that stuff very often — and I’d be the poorer for it. That’s my own fear of missing out.

Futile: adjective — having no result or effect : pointless or useless

Contrary to what the Borg would have you believe, at least in my opinion, resistance is not futile.

At least for the moment, in my personal and professional life, I am able to get by without a mobile phone. It’s getting harder — all kinds of pressures.

Yes, I’m delaying the inevitable.

But does that mean resistance is futile — that is, pointless? I’m not sure about that. I think, personally, it’s worth holding out a while longer.

Thank you for your time. As always I welcome your comments or thoughts. Comment here or reach me via andrew@umeom.com