Jerry posted here asking if you could do without your cellphone.

CNN has a similar article today but regarding smartphones. Could you do without it for a week, using it only for phone calls and texting. I don't mean doing without it for a week because you happen to be on vacation or something in a remote area that has no service so you have to, but actually be able to resist all the bells and whistles for a week and absorb life going on around you instead of having your face buried in it?

They link to a pic that is pretty good.

I could do it.. I just wouldn't want to.. which begs the question... why ask this question?
Is someone going to complain that i use my phone too much? As opposed to what?
I can use the GPS and find my way much quicker in the metropolitan area...o r i could pull over, spend money on a map, unfold the 3-acre map in my truck and find my way... w/o step by step instructions mind you.
I could carry a notepad and pencil for those things I need to remember...or just make a voice memo and help save a tree.
Those people who have their face buried in the phone and are ignoring you and me... they are communicating on FB with loved ones on the other side of the world.
ETC.

From NPR:

Digital Overload: Your Brain On Gadgets

Because I wanted to. Actually drjohn's link answers that best.Like we used to do? All this reasoning and using sense of direction makes my head hurt.Some kind of resources had to be used to make the phone, that offsets the paper.Some are, most are just BS'ing and just after the instant gratification, and like the article says, it's not asking you to go off the grid, just relegate the FB etc communications to the computer when you can get in front of one. If it's an emergency regarding a family member or something you would get a call probably, not a FB message.

You're addicted.

Some great dramatic writing though. 3 acre map, save a tree.

Truth be told... most of the time I'm using it as a phone. 90-95%.

The truth will set you free.

Truth is after all a moving target
Hairs to split,
And pieces that don't fit
How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit.

Neil Peart
Turn the Page

S'truth.

Guy Nextdoor
Pour the Beer

Here's why I like my iPhone:
I can take pictures/video with it
I can access my email all the time, work email too
I can text my friends/family much quicker than call them


I wish I could give up my iPhone and I would in a heartbeat if I could do those 3 things on an iPad. I don't need 3G, I just need wifi, which I have access to a LOT.

Really what it comes down to is are you using your smartphone smartly? A smartphone can be very liberating or imprisoning. All is what you do with it.

But it all depends on your business. If you are in sales and marketing you can't turn it off. Can your job live turning your smartphone off?

We're all different. End of story. We're all different. What seems to be happening with the dude who is driving me off the road is that he wants to prove that he is smart phoning so much that I do not count.

Go ahead. Just don't kill me. Or my kids.

Its a Yes for me.
Mainly because I don't have a smart phone

If I did have one, I would not bury my face in it, however I sure could use the GPS and whatever construction type apps.

If I'm meeting someone, I turn the ringer off - because I find it impolite to be interrupted by someone else's phone when I'm with them. I mean, that's what voicemail is for, surely. Unless they're expecting an urgent call, in which case fine. When I forget to turn my ringer off, I'm always amused at people's downright shock when my phone rings and I don't bother to answer it - we're such slaves :~).

Can't vote, because I don't have a smart phone. As I stated before, I could do without my cell phone quite easily.

And never, ever stop to ask for directions!

There's a great New Yorker cartoon from the (I have no idea, at least 50 years ago I guess) with a fat rich dude in an open sedan pulled up in a country lane next to a hayseed farmer with a cow on a string, saying to him: "Is this the right road for xxxx? Answer yes or no."

Don't have a smart phone. I could very easily live without a cell phone, and in fact wouldn't have a cell phone except that on the whole it's cheaper than having a land line on top of cells for the rest of the family (and I do want my wife and son to have cell phones so I can harass them whenever I feel like it).

Are you kiddin? It's the right side of my brain... I have tons of data on it...I don't use the phone as much as I do the PDA functions. Checking mail is also important.

I'd say my phone / text use is 5-10% of total use.

Serves as my watch too !

My job can live if I turn it off. I only check work email so that when someone emails me I can respond quickly. It can wait, but this way the people that are total slackers can't say that they can't get ahold of me.

But I can do that with an iPad.

I downgraded to the $15/month plan because I was tired of paying so much per month. Now I watch my data usage like a hawk.

Re-evaluating that... forgot how much I use it for other things.
Phone/text usage=65-70%

But this is exactly why smartphones are great. My phone saves me hours of time at night. Instead of coming home, and getting on the computer for hours to catch up on personal emails and correspondence I can do it throughout the day.

i just lived without mine for a spell in the Canadian wilderness, but you said that doesn't count.

i don't think i could manage around here. heck, i can't even grocery shop without making 1 or 2 calls home to verify this or that. and when i don't call then i almost always make the wrong decisions and buy too many or the wrong brand or whatever.

i have turned off my voicemail on my work phone. all the caller gets is my Google Voice number, which rings to my iPhone and home phone. i typically let the Google Voice voicemail take it and transcribe it and send it to me via email so i can choose when to have work conversations from home. but it's nice to get that email if i am out and about so i can call on my way home (bluetooth headset in car) and save time.

other apps . . . i play Words with Friends quite a bit and i don't want to give it up, but now that i have an iPad i can still use the iPhone apps and that sort of defeats the "smart phone" aspect of my cell phone -- at least defeats the necessity of it. though, i still want email on my phone.

once i upgrade to the Samsung EPIC this week or so, i will use that for GPS in the car (see above). yeah, i need my phone mostly. ;~)