Smart {phone}

I said I would never do it.

And then I forgot 2 of my girls' doctors appointments.  And a few-ish tutoring sessions for my son.  And a dinner date with some friends.  Ok fine, and an Art Center class for my daughter.

Then this showed up:

This is like my man's dream come true.  He is so techy, and I am so, well, not.

I bet you are thinking to yourself, "What the what!?!?  She just cut up her credit card only to spend an unreasonable amount of money on a phone!?!?  I don't get it!"

Well, neither do I sweet readers, but I do know that this gadget has a calendar app that I plan on wearing out.  This sweet little rectangle of wires is going to remind me, multiple times when I have an appointment that I am about it miss.  When I am on a bike ride with the kids at the lake, it will let me know that I am really supposed to be sitting in the doctors office with 2 of them.

Bless.

But from the minute this pretty white life-organizer showed up, I can feel it pulling me.

"Check for messages!"

"Take a selfie, because you can now without having to guess where to hold your phone all while smiling at nobody!"

"Make sure nobody has updated their Facebook status in the last 2 1/2 minutes."

"Text somebody.  ANYBODY!"

Ugh...and it beeps all the whole live long day about who knows what!?!?!

So my question today is this: Is a smart phone really that smart?

And my answer is: the verdict is still out.

iPhone's slogan is, "You're more powerful than you think.  With iPhone 5s you have the power to do everyday things in extraordinary ways, and extraordinary things every day."

I think cell phones are great for a multitude of reasons, one being that my kids can get ahold of me if they have an emergency.  But on the flip side, I have noticed that my son especially thinks that everything is an "emergency."

I also think they are great when it comes to communicating with people who are difficult/impossible to get ahold of, like a busy mother of 4.  However, they take that mother of 4 away from being a mother to those 4 when said mom is on the phone at the grocery store...and park...and in the bus truck.

It's fun that my kids can sit quietly through an entire dinner out while entertaining themselves with a game on my phone, yet I have just lost precious time that I could have been talking with them.

I love that I will have the ability to take video and/or pictures of my kids doing essentially everything all day everyday, but I have come to realize that sometimes the only lens we need to look through to capture the moment is the one God gave us.

Oh I could go on and on, but I will wrap it up by saying that I think as long as I am smart about using my phone, it will make me "smarter," but it can quickly turn even the smartest people into the dumbest...especially when they walk into a pole while looking down to check Facebook.  Apple, there isn't anything extraordinary about that.


Please note that this post was not intended to brag at all about what phone I have, but rather to warn myself especially of the dangers that come along with such a smarty pants.