The trip was really offline, literally. It started off on the wrong foot: I somehow blocked my stupid phone Nokia 2330 on the first day in Italy. The PUK code was required for unlocking. But I didn’t have it at hand so I dumped it in my backpack. What’s worse, none of the hostels I stayed at served a public computer, only wifi. As a typical Diao Si (a buzzword in China refered to losers) without smartphone, I struggled at the beginning but finally survived a wonderful vacation. The days in Italy, however, showed me the convenience of smartphones, at least on a trip. Thus a question lingered on even after my return from Italy: ‘Is it time to join the ‘smart’ tribe?’ For the answer, I went into the jungle of the phone shops in Hoogstraat. Although taking a fancy to a Samsung smartphone, I didn’t buy it immediately. I preferred to go home and dig up more info online. But when I was home and switched on my laptop, I first logged in Facebook and then rambled on it. I almost forgot what I surfed for until I came across a friend online, who spoke of smartphones. And that was an ‘aha!’ moment. It enlightened me to give up the impulse of the smartphone purchase. I realized I would just end up misusing the phone as a time-killing toy, if I had one. Now it’s been a week since my return to the freaking icy low land. Besides the lovely weather, I also miss the no-internet life in Italy somewhat. There I had abundant time then to make new friends and read good books, and managed to survive with an unusable stupid phone. Maybe it’s not bad to stay stupid, at least according to Steve Jobs.
Time to be smart?
To buy a smartphone? I had never thought about it seriously until after my offline trip in Italy.
