I still remember the words of caution from the AT&T salesperson upon my first iPhone purchase: "Be careful with these things, after using this you won’t be able to use any other phone." Considering how excited I was to finally have an iPhone I was quick to agree with him. But at the time I don’t think I realized exactly what his warning meant. My name is Yara Zokaie, and I am an iPhoneaholic. While I believe my iPhone has more benefits than detriments, I will also admit that my addiction is pathetic. No, that doesn’t mean I plan on cutting back. After all, the first step to recovery is admitting it, right? Well here's why I had to confess to an addiction, and how you can tell if you will soon be doing the same.
1) I use the internet on my iPhone.. while sitting in front of my laptop
2) I check my email on my computer about once a week. I check the e-mail on my iPhone.. as soon as it notifies me I have a new one. (roughly every 10 minutes)
1) I use the internet on my iPhone.. while sitting in front of my laptop
2) I check my email on my computer about once a week. I check the e-mail on my iPhone.. as soon as it notifies me I have a new one. (roughly every 10 minutes)
3) I have about 30 "just in case I one day need them because who knows when you need to know who the 26th president is" apps.
4) I don't know my schedule. It's all in my calendar app.
5) I don’t own a camera.
6) I’m on Facebook all the time, but its not in my computer's internet history
7) I have my "to do" list, shopping list, notes to self, and online banking on my iPhone
8) Texting has become my preferred form of communication.
9) My phone is my alarm clock.
10) If my iPhone broke, I would spend a few days in bed eating ice cream and watching old movies.
If you're still wondering if iPhone addictions are real (after that list you're still wondering?), look no further than the Huffington Post. Only 6% of iPhone users claimed that they were not addicted, and 75% sleep with their phone next to them (guilty). My addiction was shoved in my face further when a simple glitch in my phone caused me to be late to work.. twice. An iPhone glitch on 1/1/11 caused iPhone alarms to stop working. Where was I during this crisis? Sleeping, along with the other 89% of iPhone users who don't own an alarm clock. One angry customer, Lindsay G, wrote to Steve Jobbs:
4) I don't know my schedule. It's all in my calendar app.
5) I don’t own a camera.
6) I’m on Facebook all the time, but its not in my computer's internet history
7) I have my "to do" list, shopping list, notes to self, and online banking on my iPhone
8) Texting has become my preferred form of communication.
9) My phone is my alarm clock.
10) If my iPhone broke, I would spend a few days in bed eating ice cream and watching old movies.
If you're still wondering if iPhone addictions are real (after that list you're still wondering?), look no further than the Huffington Post. Only 6% of iPhone users claimed that they were not addicted, and 75% sleep with their phone next to them (guilty). My addiction was shoved in my face further when a simple glitch in my phone caused me to be late to work.. twice. An iPhone glitch on 1/1/11 caused iPhone alarms to stop working. Where was I during this crisis? Sleeping, along with the other 89% of iPhone users who don't own an alarm clock. One angry customer, Lindsay G, wrote to Steve Jobbs:
"Mr. Jobs, I’d like to let you know that you have officially, directly
contributed to unemployment in 2011. If you had warned me about the glitch,
I could have at least picked up a $5 battery operated alarm clock that would
have saved my job. Now I’m unemployed in a time when jobs are not easily
had, and I am short on my rent. So, Happy New Year to you, Mr. Jobs, I hope
you remember to shoot me an email next time there is any chance of a glitch."
It's not my character to blame my problems on someone else, but Lindsay does set a nice example.
Dear Apple,
Thanks for the iPhone addictions. It makes our lives so much more efficient, and that much more dependent.
PS: Why didn't you warn Lindsay of the glitch you didn't see coming?
5 comments:
Yara, I feel your pain. I've had crappy non-Smartphone phones for years, and then as a "loyal AT&T customer," I was offered a free iphone 3GS because you know, AT&T loves me and wants to make the world a better place by giving out free iphones. So, I reluctantly added the $15.00 a month data plan and extended my hand willingly for my beautiful newborn iphone (which is about three weeks old, as of today). As soon as I held it, I knew that a bond had formed that nothing could break-unfortunately. So now, I'm a slave to technology, checking my iphone just to see the shiny and animated "slide to unlock" arrow. My iphone sleeps right next to Mama, like a good baby, and in the morning, just like a baby, it wakes me up. Luckily, I missed the whole glitch incident (which I think was only for iphone 4 anyway). No matter, I sleep with my MacBook Pro too, and I leave that alarm clock on along with my iphone alarm clock. Now if both Apple products go out, I guess I'm in trouble.
This is completely brilliant and almost 100% true for me as well. I can completely relate to the over abuse of checking e-mail and using the internet for anything and everything. I am many times guilty of procrastinating on my homework just because I know I can do it on my iPhone whenever I need to. I also slept in for the first to days of the new year.
However, having a smartphone is convenient in so many ways, it is equally a burden. Having constant internet access the ability to check e-mails at all hours makes me feel "tied" to my phone. I feel guilty not responding to e-mails immediately. Where a person without a smartphone may only check e-mails every other day, I check mine every ten minutes or so. In school I feel this is an expectation of us. An e-mail sent out at 6:00 p.m. the previous night, is expected to be read before your 10:00 a.m. class the next day.
Some days I wish I could pitch the phone all together and go back to no texting and playing snake.
Excellent post and great image. I chuckled to myself on several occasions.
I am one of the lucky/unlucky individuals who does not have a smartphone, and while I can see the advantages to having one, I feel almost too tied in as it is.
Several of my friends have iPhones, though, and I have witnessed their iPhone addictions. Trust me: if you feel like you're too tuned into your phone, just ask the person who you were just having an actual conversation with and they will confirm your suspicion.
I know that it's not their best or coolest feature, but I do believe iPhones come with an off switch, right?
And Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th President. Just FYI...
I really enjoyed reading your post and I am guilty of being addicted to my Black Berry. Sometimes I don't even realize how much I use my cell phone until someone points it out to me. It is really sad how these phones are so addicting and how much I use my cell phone throughout the day. I truly depend on my cell phone to get me through the day. It takes the place of trying to remember to do certain tasks on my "to do list."
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