A Smartphone With No Battery is a Brick!
Technology is Great When the Battery is Full
Technology is great when it works. When it doesn’t work, then have a backup plan, or ensure you can accomplish the task without it. Technology should complement, and not supplement, interactions that we perform every day.
One time, my wife and I are heading to the movies. We are at the house and I wanted to get tickets. Usually, I print out the tickets but we had to race to the movies. Why? Even with the best intentions, things sometimes go very wrong, and you need another way to deliver the information you need. Following the rule of technology, that technology should complement what you are doing and not supplement it. Always have a backup plan. So, knowingly and willingly, I broke the rule. Instead of getting a printed ticket, I relied on my cellphone (which has an app for the movie theatre chain), supplementing the need for the printed ticket.
We raced to the theatre, darting through yellow lights, maneuvering through traffic, and getting to the theatre in several minutes. Well, that didn’t happen. We hit about every red light on the way to the theatre. Traffic was the main impediment to our timely arrival at the theatre.
As we pulled into the parking lot, running towards the lobby, taking the cell phone out of my pocket: I could see the error of my plan: I only had a 1% charge left on my smartphone. Darn! Double darn!
My wife noticed the cursing and said, “What is the matter?”
I reply, “My phone is about to die! If we don’t pull up the app soon, the QR code can't be scanned. If we can’t scan the code, there is no movie today!”
My wife says, “Darn! Double darn!”
We ran to the ticket stand to get the QR code scanned. I had the app up, sliding my finger over the screen to pull up the QR code.
Smiling, I was thinking, everything was going to be OK! I move my hand with the smartphone forward to the person at the ticket booth with the QR scanner.
That smile quickly faded because, as I moved my smartphone under the scanner, the phone died!
NOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!
I keep pressing the power button on the phone and it didn’t turn on. We will miss the movie!
My wife takes out her smartphone saying, “Excuse me as I whip this out!” (Yes, I did borrow that line from Blazing Saddles).
We have the same account for the movie theatre, this is the same information in the app. So they scanned her fully charged smartphone and we went in.
Bottom line: Charge your smartphone every chance to get. Also, marry someone who also has a smartphone and can be the backup plan when you need help. Also, always follow the first rule of using technology: technology should complement, and not supplement, interactions that we perform every day.
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