
Ok, so if you didn’t know….I challenged myself to adopt a more Virtually Purposeful Living (or VPL) as it applied to all/most things of virtual world which tend to serve as unnecessary albeit fun distractions. To read that initial VPL post click the short link: http://wp.me/pP3jm-7J.
Well, I long since have thought about it and now I am being a little more diligent in assessment as I am rolling up on the end of my cellular contract as the close of the month rushes towards me…the dilemma you wonder?
Downgrading on the bells & whistles service …. you know, the “all-inclusive, got to have it” cellular service we just can’t live without as we go about our daily existence. Yes, that kind of dilemma.

It’s so very easy to become a creature of convenience where we have to have the latest & greatest or the newest & the best….funny thing about human nature that takes hold if you let it.
I took some time to ponder this past weekend back to when I only had a pager and even to the time before I had a pager. Remember when you used to vilify someone trying to floss on a cell phone? Now it’s commonplace but is its use really any more a necessity now than it was then?
Sure, there’s the obvious benefit to being connected. As a single woman travelling through daily life, no one is more aware than I of that. But, as I overhear totally ridiculous (not to mention LOUD) conversations, I am overwhelmingly convinced that this can easily go the route of folly.
Early one morning on commute, I listened to a young lady “attempt” to have one such conversation. I say “attempt” because she really couldn’t understand nor give her undivided attention to the person on the phone. Not only did she repeatedly grunt “Huh?” at least every other minute. She frequently said “What did you say?” or “I didn’t hear you”.
And in between those, at various times of the conversation she ignored the person on the phone by speaking to people around her or respond to comments made to her.
Clearly these wouldn’t really be classified as wholly necessary interaction and these are examples of how we’ve become slaves to our cells.
Oprah’s launched the No Phone Zone initiative and many states over the past couple of years have cracked down on use of phones with stringent talking and texting guidelines. Nothing like vehicular homicide to really bring a point home, is it?
As I said before: “the present challenge I am embarking on is to practically embrace modern technologies for the value they can and do add to my life while I give even greater attention to eliminating their detraction from my life.” So to this end….perhaps a little downgrade is what is need to get more balanced and centered by eliminating the urge to goof off online while sitting in traffic, at dinner, during church service or in line at the grocery store?
I’m right now at the 50-50 point of making this a forced choice rather than just relying on avoiding the temptation. We will see in the very near future and of course, I will drop the update.
~Peace & Blessings~