I got married late in the third quarter of 2006, but this isn't about anniversaries, family, lazing about in a tropical paradise, no; it's about technology. Again.
I gave away a phone; I don't recall whether it was before or after my wedding, I just know when I got married I no longer had it as a daily driver, and I know what I replaced the phone with.
The chronology of all this isn't particularly important.
What is, is the fact that around 9 or 10 years after I stopped using the device, the lucky recipient sent his first SMS. Not first on that phone, but first ever.
Last week.
I'm someone who believes it's an absolute necessity to be always connected to the Internet, or at least a mobile network. Always able to communicate with family, friends, people who can do jobs for me, my girls' school, etc.; so it's not an overstatement mentioning it was quite the revelation.
A life without convenience.
I don't intend to change the way I approach my current state-of-the-art portable computing device on the strength of this new understanding of our modern life, but it's an interesting concept. A life without alerts, without beeps and blurps and bloops; it sounds relaxing.
But could I cope?
I'll probably never find out, not unless the power and phone grid fails.