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Old 03-25-2012, 07:00 PM   #1
frahse
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Be a "real" writer. Toss the Smartphone!

I have a notebook computer for work. It has an Verizon Air Card because I travel and work as a contract engineer, and sometimes want to send and receive files or look up specifications on line. Of course the notebook will do anything you want on the internet, but it, by its nature and design, looks like and is used for a productivity machine.

I also use the notebook to write my own personal stuff when I have spare time while on a road trip. If I am at a motel at night I pull out a wireless mouse, a wireless keyboard and a folding stand, and I quickly have a "desktop workstation."

I have several other devices, a Kindle 3G with its very minimal Internet capability that is loaded with reference materials and classics, a Garmin GPS that I carry everywhere (in the backpack with the notebook) because the rental car might not have one that is up to date and that I like. I did use the Archos 43 WiFi on vacation when I wasn't carrying my work notebook. I also had an old laptop (no air card, but with WiFi) on vacation for night time. Something that I didn't have to worry about being stolen or broken.

But, No Smartphone! I have only a prepaid phone account with a refurbished LG clam shell feature phone in a holster pack on my belt, which was purchased in particular because it has a full-duplex speaker phone. I find that full duplex incredibly important for conducting business or tests over the speaker phone. I do not miss any words or sentences because they are talked over. (The other person, if on their Smartphone speaker might, but not me.) The LG does have a 1.3MP camera which at times is useful. It will play music, but has none loaded on it. It has a 8GB micro SD card but that is loaded with technical stuff for backup.
My email will wait until I am back on the notebook, unless someone calls me and says "Hey we just emailed the update, and also dropped it into your vault on the site."

With that in mind, it was refreshing to see other like minded writers thinking along the same lines

A Smartphone Future? But Not Yet
By TEDDY WAYNE
Published: March 23, 2012


excerpts -
"Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” argues in the book that because of the brain’s neuroplasticity, Web surfing rewires people to be more adept at perfunctory multitasking, but diminishes the ability to sustain focus and think interpretatively.

He has found an acolyte in the writer Jonathan Safran Foer, who jettisoned his smartphone after reading “The Shallows” and “finding myself checking my phone while giving my kids a bath,” he wrote in an e-mail from his computer. “It can be nice to stay in touch, but smartphones necessarily redefine ‘being in touch’ to mean something that has almost no value. (What was I checking for? Tossed-off e-mails from people I barely know.)”

Has Mr. Foer noticed a change in his attentiveness when writing? “Without a doubt and dramatically,” he wrote."

more-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/fa....html?_r=1&hpw
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Old 03-25-2012, 08:05 PM   #2
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Isn't this more of an argument for ditching your internet connection?

You accept the utility of a laptop with an internet connection - but you could just as easily be spending all your time on it checking Facebook. There's nothing inherently worthy about the laptop, and evil about a smartphone - the difference lies in how you use them. You have one example of a writer whose weak will and obvious desire to be distracted led him to focusing on his phone.

I could say guns are bad because they destroy, but hammers are good because they help to make things, then club a womble to death with one. Guns and hammers are neither good nor bad, they are both tools. But if driving in nails with a handgun, ensure the safety is on.
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Old 03-25-2012, 08:19 PM   #3
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My smartphone is part of my essential tools for researching my stories, building characters and story outlines, and even being able to write whenever I'm inspired, even when that doesn't happen to be in front of my laptop.

It never distracts me. I'm of stronger stuff than that. But it does inform and enable me. Just like my PDA before it.

Ditch it? Don't think so.

Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 03-26-2012 at 11:45 AM.
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Old 03-26-2012, 11:12 AM   #4
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I want to know what's wrong with checking your phone while the munchkins bathe. When they're drawing on the tiles with those bathtub crayons, there's nothing wrong with catching up on email or whatever.

Can the meme that EVERY CHILDHOOD MOMENT MUST BE TREASURED go off to die? It just makes parents feel inadequate if they aren't in constant raptures while they clean up poop.
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Old 03-26-2012, 11:58 AM   #5
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Rare that I agree with Frahse, but I do about the same thing he does. I keep older laptops (my relatively new tablet-laptop is waiting on some patches from upstream), use a 3G dongle, and have a bare bones smartphone. I have enough problems with taking long wiki walks as it is.
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Old 03-26-2012, 01:32 PM   #6
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Christ you guys are so spoilt aren't you? My ancestors had to carve it in stone.
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Old 03-26-2012, 02:51 PM   #7
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If there isn't quick agreement to the basic idea of the thread, you are wasting your time here. I am not going to try to convince anyone of anything, but rather am commiserating with those that see and recognize a problem with their own habits, and have taken steps or at least thought about how they can loosen the golden chains of too much info too much of the time.

Addictions come in many forms and they can channel too much energy down the wrong path. The ever present Smartphone can become an addiction and like any addict the Smartphone user feels very strongly that life is close to impossible without it.

dadioflex, it is partially, but it is similar to the particular baby and bathwater example where you wish to rid yourself of the dirty water while keeping the nice clean baby. I use the internet, but I make a deliberate effort to keep it to the minimum so I can concentrate on what is important. That is what I and the writers referred to are saying.
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Old 03-26-2012, 03:48 PM   #8
teh603
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Christ you guys are so spoilt aren't you? My ancestors had to carve it in stone.
You're just begging for me to pull out my mechanical typewriter. Its ribbon is a little worn and it has two skips in the middle, but it still works.
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Old 03-26-2012, 04:14 PM   #9
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You're just begging for me to pull out my mechanical typewriter. Its ribbon is a little worn and it has two skips in the middle, but it still works.
I do have a spare ribbon if you would like it.
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Old 03-26-2012, 04:24 PM   #10
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Funny thing is, I often use my smartphone for writing. Instead of carrying notebooks and having to transcribe what I write, or taking my laptop everywhere, I often write using raw text editors and my phone's keyboard, then email the results to myself so that I can continue working at home.

If I'm actively writing, why would I suddenly have the urge to make calls or surf the web unless I lacked discipline? And if I lacked discipline, then why would I want to be a writer in the first place?
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Old 03-27-2012, 10:50 AM   #11
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And if I lacked discipline, then why would I want to be a writer in the first place?
And if you lack discipline forget trying to make it as a dominatrix.
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Old 03-27-2012, 10:53 AM   #12
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Bah,I carry a smart phone so that I dont have to carry a music player, a camera, a gps, a pda, etc. It makes things easier.... dealing with everything you listed would make it worse I think.

I do close twitter/facebook/im when I am sitting down to write for a period of time. Twitter is the worst. I guess cause I am a bit of an info junkie...okay a lot of one.
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Old 03-27-2012, 12:52 PM   #13
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And if you lack discipline forget trying to make it as a dominatrix.
In order to be a dominatrix, wouldn't you have to undergo surgery? Then again, I've known gay women who might call themselves "dadioflex" (and put most straight men like me to shame in playing that role, too).
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Old 03-27-2012, 02:56 PM   #14
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If there isn't quick agreement to the basic idea of the thread, you are wasting your time here.
Never stopped anyone at MR before...
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