Over on my personal site, I wrote a pretty long piece talking about me giving away the Nokia N97 that I’ve had for the past two years. I’m quite at peace with giving it away, but not for the reasons I used to give away mobiles. Here’s a snippet:
…Then the N97 leaves my possession. I’ll have only two mobiles, the X6 and my N8. The X6 might stick with me since it has a crack in the screen – unless someone comes along that needs it more than I need to keep it as a backup. I’m not wedded to keeping so many mobiles anymore (as I said in an earlier post). But, I’m also not content in people just getting a mobile for the sake of having it. These devices should enable something more than simply calling or texting someone. It should be more than saying “I’ve got screen, after, screen, after screen of applications that I rarely use.” No. These mobiles should connect us to the things that matter. Educating one another, preventing disease, sharing our spiritual travels. These are the things that matter, and what mobile should foster.
For me, I’m clearly in a phase of life where if it doesn’t improve someone else’s life in those kinds of ways, then mobile doesn’t matter. If all it does is sit as a trinket, then I might as well give it away to someone who can change the world with it much more than I.
Read the rest at Blog.AntoineRJWright.
It has been a good while since we’ve talked about giving devices away and contentment. What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you think that the way we view mobile and technology lends to grow into these kinds of decisions? Or, does some aspect of consumerism or security override those moments?