It started when I received my first Nokia 3110 as a teenage - TopicsExpress

It started when I received my first Nokia 3110 as a teenage ski-teacher, so that the ski-school supervisor could beep me away from whatever it was I was doing whenever I was needed on the pistes. Now as a professional alpinist, every time I pull out my iphone I see 7 new alerts on my mailbox, 4 watsapps, a bunch of phone-calls, a handful of facebook notifications and innumerable blinking reminders. Sport students asking for interviews, journalists requiring my expert opinion about recent gory accidents on summits I know nothing about, climbing partners canceling projects, climbing partners proposing exciting new projects, PR secretaries, event organizers, sponsor product developers, my manager, mother, friends, girlfriend, sisters and wrong numbers. To try and keep up, to stay afloat on this avalanche of messages during my trips Im always scrutinizing bars for the magic here free wifi sign (which usually means deafening backdrop and infuriatingly slow connexions) and between climbs and meetings I use every available--but not necessarily appropriate--moment of the day to read and answer these messages. Waiting in a queue (not noticing the people slipping in in front of me), sitting at a belay anchor (one hand is enough to bring up the rope, isnt it), behind the wheel during my frequent long drives on the highway--where its a near miracle I have still not rear-ended a car in front of me. Not to mention that my honey Im almost dones have earned me a number of cold suppers and even colder shoulders. This multitasking nightmare cant go on, I will change my ways, I promised every time. Two weeks ago I was in the midst of a wonderful multi pitch above the sea in Southern France, and had stopped in a chimney to take a picture of the view. Naturally I couldnt miss the occasion to take a quick look and see if I had not perhaps missed a call from a climbing partner about an upcoming expedition, and while I was at it why not have a glance at the weather report in Patagonia, since I was considering jumping on the plane and quickly flying down for a couple of summits if there was a good high pressure window. As is doomed to happen sooner or later when awkwardly pulling a telephone out of a pocket while jammed in a chimney far from the ground, the precious object slipped, and my phone, my friend, my soulmate, my life, fell out of my fingers. I groped desperately at the air as it escaped from my hands and began its inexorable plunge down four pitches of vertical limestone, bouncing off a terrace before disappearing from my view. Shocked, shaken by this calamity I held on to the meagre hope that if we abseiled back down the next day and scoured the base of the wall we might at least chance upon the remnants of the precious machine from which could perhaps be salvaged the SIM card. The next day, covered in dust and scratches, after hours of hunting through thorny man-eating mediterranean bushes on steep scree terrain, phoneless and depressed, we climbed back out the route by moonlight. It was to be the first day of my new life severed from my iPhone. After the initial panic (what about all the highly urgent emails I had to send, on the road for three months, how was I going to contact the students, journalists, climbing partners, PR secretaries, event organizers, sponsor product developers, my manager, mother, friends, sisters and wrong numbers?! And how would I check the weather in Patagonia?), I was surprised to observe that the world was still turning. And turning in a somewhat more peaceful, natural way. I began to wonder; is the skin on my fingertips not more toughened by tapping my phone screen than by climbing on rock, and how much of the real life have I missed with my eyes riveted to my iphone screen? I should take this misadventure as an opportunity to change my unhealthy phone habits. Thats it, I swore, I will change my ways, turn over a new leaf, losing my iPhone has allowed me to become aware of my dependance and my dangerous multitasking habits, I explained with great intensity to my girlfriend, before asking her to lend me her phone for a minute. And thats how the day I turned over a new leaf was the day I accidentally left my credit card in a highway péage machine shortly after Marseille because I was trying to get the *ç% ticket out of the *ç%& ticket machine with my girlfriends phone wedged between my chin and shoulder while mumbling to my manager about having a new iphone shipped over asap. Now I have been informed that Swisscom doesnt have any available phones to send me for the moment. Although Im experiencing some guilt and would like to apologize for not being easily reachable, I admit that I feel a great relief, that Im relaxed and available to the present moment as I havent been for a long time, and so much more receptive to the magical little details of daily life that pass us by when our first reflex in every unoccupied moment is to flip out our phone and cut ourselves off from the real world around us.