Just a phone

Don’t get me wrong, technology is cool. I get caught up in gadget glory as much as the next geek. But lately, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve got my priorities straight.

While I was in Thailand, I saw the business class of Bangkok and the barefoot-and-dirty Muslim families in tiny villages. It was immediately noticeable that the happiest people seemed to be the ones furthest from the rat race and competitive edge of owning the coolest new junk.

I read a couple books while I was there — which I’ll be reviewing as soon as I get my rear in gear — that couldn’t have been timed better: they directly and indirectly pointed out the danger of giving in to consumer culture.

And then I read this article in Relevant Magazine that closes with this quote:

Do I want the “Internet in my pocket”? Am I troubled by my lack of immediate knowledge of world affairs? Am I troubled by my distance from email, and should this distance be closed? Will I be closer to my “friends” if Facebook is in my pocket? What kind of person do I want to become? And, finally, is an iPhone the shape of the distance between the current me and that better me?

Replace “iPhone” with any piece of technology we hold high and you get what I mean.

Two of the best things about being in Thailand were the fact that I had no cell phone or texting and that my Internet consumption was forced down to 15 or 20 minutes a day. The only downside was that I was in limited contact with people I love, of course, but that’s the nature of international travel no matter what. So why, then, do I come back home and immediately start checking out what phones are coming up in Verizon’s lineup?

Maybe, as much as I was glad to be home, landing in LAX and wading through the culture resulting from consumerism wasn’t the best method of re-entry. As if I could avoid it.