Connections

Ok for my first post about how the Nexus one is changing my life I want to talk about connections. A smart phone really allows you to make (and cultivate) connections with people and places. I’ll be the first to admit that smart phones promote many unnecessary and/or excessive connections.

For instance.. on my phone I can get email, text messages, google talk chats, facebook messages, phone calls and AIM messages. WHAT? That’s 6 different ways someone could get in contact with me. WOW! While it seems like it is terribly excessive, each form of communication tends to fit a different genre of message.

Texts are easy to send to a bunch of people at once, the “what’s up for tonight” type of thing.

Email for me is almost mainly for subscriptions about job postings, mailers from my alma mater, facebook notifications, coupons and deals, stuff like that. Email tends to very seldom be for actual communication (not too different from snail mail, right?). Though one feature of the nexus one that I really love is that I can turn off the sync with email. So when I go to bed at night, I turn off the sync so I don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to learn about the ACM tech news. Also, I make it a point to turn off the sync when I’m doing something where I want to be only available to direct communications like a phone call or text message. The most important difference when the sync is turned off is I don’t get updates from facebook – which doesn’t sound like a big deal but it makes me feel a lot less involved with the greater world and more occupied with the conversation at hand/the people I’m with.

For anyone who uses these forms of communication what I’ve just said is a bit of a given. Now let’s talk about connections that are 100% new to the smart phone era.

On my phone I have all these creepy apps (that I can’t get enough of). The first is foursquare which allows me to “check in” to places that I go and tell my friends that I’m there. So when I go to a restaurant I “check in” and have the option to either tell just the friends I’m connected with on foursquare (about 5 people) and/or to post it on my facebook wall (which will reach about 900 people). Foursquare postings end up being half “hey guys, come meet me here” half “look what I’m doing, look what I’m doing – you jealous?”. To make this whole process more legitimate foursquare is pawned off as a game. Points are awarded for checking into places, you get trophies for different things but MOST IMPORTANTLY if you check into a place enough then you get to be the mayor. Whenever anyone checks into the place where you’re the mayor, your face shows up as the spokesperson for that venue, giving off another “man I’m awesome” message. So far I’m only the mayor of my office building. I’m hoping to become the mayor of my street soon too. Also, sometimes a venue will give you a deal or treat for checking into their place like a free drink or something like that. I wish more places would do that, it’s great advertising and I like free stuff – win win win.

Another creepy app (that isn’t widely used for obvious reasons) is google latitude. Latitude allows you to see where your friends are using GPS. I’m only connected with 2 other people, I rarely check it and it’s rarely right. It always says I’m about 5 blocks west of where I actually am. It also has said that one of my friends has been on the ben franklin bridge for about 2 months (highly unlikely). This app has no real purpose other than for stalking and therefore not too popular.

Sooooo in the end I feel very connected to the world with my smart phone, more than I ever did with my regular phone. Perhaps I’m at the age where this almost insane level of connection doesn’t feel uncomfortable, it’s quite nice. I like to know what’s going on, who’s doing what, the buzz of the world around me. I like having up to the minute updates and updating people about what I’m doing. Being able to check my email at every moment makes me feel powerful, it eases my mind a bit. I don’t need to worry about going home and checking my email or if I’m missing something, it’s just part of my day.