Dumb Phone?

I don’t have a smart phone.  My phone handles calls and texts pretty well, and that’s about it.  It has a camera, but I don’t really use it.  When people ask why I don’t have an iPhone, I usually have two answers: it’s kind of expensive for the extra services, and I’m next to a computer most of the time anyway.  Lately I’ve added a third reason – if I’m out in the world and urgently need to look something up, the person next to me probably has a smart phone.

But as I was writing this post on creativity, I realized that one of the things that keeps me creative is observing the world.  Watching people, digging the vibe of different environments, taking mental snapshots of reality, becoming inspired by those random moments when the sights, sounds, smells, etc, come together to create this feeling that I can only express through music.

But when I sit in a public space taking in what’s going on, I notice that nearly everyone is engrossed in their phone.  A couple at a table are fidgeting with apps instead of talking, the bass player sitting next to me is playing scrabble, a dude at the bar is checking a baseball score every two minutes.  No one seems involved anymore.

And I know that I would be the same way if I had a smart phone.  I have no idea why things that happen on a screen seem so much more interesting than reality, but they definitely pull at you.  I suppose the world can seem boring if you let it.  But I don’t want to spend my time fidgeting, I want to leave myself open to inspiration.