The Dumbphone Rebellion

@pexels  Vacations, festivals, parties, friends, fancy dinners, great family time. Life seems so perfect for the people that I follow on the social media. Seems like nothing could go wrong. I explore the reels and try watch some comedic shorts, but they are not about fun and games anymore. They're about work, grind and discipline and how nothing is enough until you earn enough and are successful.  This summer hasn't been a huge success for me. Actually it's probably the worst summer so far. I had to move to another town away from my spouse and my friends, and I have nobody to be with on my spare time. Luckily I get the weekends off, but they go by too fast. I got scammed when I was searching for a flat and I had to pay for two apartments for the whole summer. The job I got doesn't match quite my expectations after all. I just hope this summer would end already.  Scrolling through my feed had made my misfortune to feel that much bigger. I have felt empty inside, like I w...

I was at the city center the other day and I was sitting on a bench minding my own business when I saw a small kid running on the pedestrian street. This approximately 4 year old was laughing and screaming, jumping and bursting to every possible direction, just like little kids do. Then I heard a calm voice calling the kid's name and telling him to stop. I looked up to a man who was walking forward barely raising his eyes of his smartphone. The kid slowed down a bit, but soon kept messing around with the same energy.  There were traffic lights nearby and the kid was approaching them much faster than his dad, who was slowed by his other interests. Was it social media, email, or breaking news, I don't know. Whatever it was, It must have been super important as his screen was drawing his attention like a magnet. The father fidgeted his phone a couple of times more, and then he repeated his gentle command. His son, who was now maybe 10 meters ahead didn't listen and the he was ...

"I don't need to have a smartphone, I think it's bizarre to combine a laptop and a phone." I remember saying that back in summer 2012. At the time I was using a normal phone, or what today is called a "dumbphone". Keeping the laptop and a phone separated was not a big deal for me, I had always been a bit rebellious towards rising trends and smartphones were no exception. I really thought I could easily keep having them apart. Little did I know as I would get my first ever smartphone a couple months later. The phone I got from my aunt was Samsung I5700, or Galaxy Spica as I new it. Even though the phone wasn't new and the model was already dated, it still got me hyped real good. I was finally having a similar device that my friends were already having and I felt like I was finally part of the group. My previous thought about smartphones; forgotten. The Spica was rather unpleasant to use as it had already been used by my aunt for several years by then. A c...