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March 10, 2013

Being the master of a new cell phone is not as easy as it looks

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I know my way around a computer.

I can email. I can print. And, now I’m just bragging, I can download things. Now, and I’m sure the IT guy we have here at the Transcript would back me up on this, if anything goes wrong with the actual computer, I’m left scratching my head and calling for assistance.

All of my tech toys I’ve mastered enough to get by. It wasn’t easy. The new iPod I got for Christmas was quite a doozy to figure out. Thankfully though, I figured it all out before the next Christmas.

But now there is the situation of a phone. I’m kind of a Frugal Fran when it comes to cell phones. I personally don’t want to carry around a $200 phone and pay an arm and a leg each month for service. I can hear just fine on my cheap phone. I’m not a big texter either. I’ll either call you or drop you an email. So I don’t really need all the bells and whistles.

I had been putting off upgrading our phones for about a year. I finally bit the bullet and when the new phones arrived on my doorstep, it was pretty exciting. I just love having things brought to my house in brown boxes waiting for me to open them. I remember the new phones arrived early one Friday morning. I couldn’t wait to bust them out of the box and start reading the owner’s manual. I figured since it was a Friday, I’d dedicate the entire weekend to learning the ends and the outs of this little device that quite truly is one of my favorite inventions.

You can only imagine my surprise when I realized the phone came with instructions that resembled a pamphlet more than a book. I was expecting at least a few pages of guidance on what is what and where is where. But, nothing. Apparently, this phone manufacturer thought that whoever purchased this phone would be smart enough to figure it out on their own. Boy howdy, were they wrong.

Since that Friday those phones showed up on my doorstep, I’ve made about 100 calls that I had no intention of making. I’ve hung up on about 200 calls that I had every intention of accepting. And, this is my favorite part, I’ve no idea how to control the camera on that thing. If anyone were to find my phone, say because it was thrown off a bridge — by accident of course — they’d wonder why there were random photos of noses, legs and ears. I’d delete them, but I’m not quite sure how to do that either.

Shana Adkisson

366-3544

sadkisson@normantranscript.com

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