I’ve sent my smartphone in for repair. It turns out it wasn’t so smart when it came down to running the battery. It kept telling me the battery was disconnected. So now I am saddled with a little loan phone for a week or more and, I must say, it’s a real pain not having access to my regular phone.

Smartphone Evolution (Photo credit: Phil Roeder)

Aside from the fact that I don’t really want to spend a week learning how to properly use the loan phone, and the fact that it has nowhere near the functionality of the other, I don’t have email handy, texts are more difficult to access and track, my calendar is not on the phone, I don’t have my contact list, etc. etc. etc. Even though I could carry a diary around with me (and sometimes this is better for planning, anyway), carrying around a book with hundreds of contacts would be awkward. It would also be awkward carrying a laptop to all of my meetings, simply to check a fact quickly on the internet, or search for a location, or book an appointment, or easily look up a company or client’s details.The smartphone has become such a ubiquitous tool in our business and personal lives. And I mean ubiquitous. In Pakistan, there has been an explosion of mobile phones in the last couple of years. You’re more likely to find someone with a mobile phone in Pakistan than you are to find scheme water, household electricity or sewerage treatment.There are so many features on smartphones that are useful. Of course, there are so many that waste our time and can decrease our effectiveness. The fact that people access so much information so readily means that their memory capacity actually diminishes over time (it’s been demonstrated in Japan), we can fool ourselves into thinking that we can multitask (MIT and Stanford have conducted some great experiments including using fMRis to demonstrate that we can’t), we think things are quicker on the phone than on paper or in our head (my 7 year old will easily recall facts while adults around them are scrolling through their iPad trying to find a reference), we think we’re planning well with technology when using paper would be vastly more efficient, more and more people avoid face to face communication when a meeting with people who can actually talk would be far more productive, and the list goes on …

I don’t have nomophobia (an irrational fear of having no mobile phone). And really, we should not become reliant on them.

But, I am really annoyed at not having my phone. I want it back.