Moving away from your Mobile phone is not easy. There is instant messaging and constant syncing that makes smart phones incredibly powerful as a tool. The media that is received on the Mobile however is not equal to the version of the media that can be found on other devices. The desktop version of apps lends users a completely different experience.
For this assignment I decided to rewire my habit of using my smartphone for instant messaging and emails. There is a built in battery saver that is able to completely eradicate the functionality of a smart phone, reducing its capabilities to using 8 apps altogether, which doesn’t include Facebook messenger nor Instagram. Turning this setting on forced me to reduce the interactions with my phone and in order to check my messages I had to open my laptop.
Boy, this was hard. I realized how much I am in the habit of relying on my phone to access my messages. The fact that I was no longer getting instant notifications from my messenger app rendered my phone into that felt like this:
On the other hand, typing messages on my computer made me faster to respond / write the message and I was able to respond to my messages in bulk. My access was different and even my available tools were different. The stickers and the GIF keyboards are less accessible through the web interface since the presence of the physical keyboard no longer lends itself to quickly finding on-point stickers.
My rewire experiment caused some problems as well. It was one of my friend’s surprise birthday party yesterday night and all the coordination happened through a group chat on Facebook Messenger. My phone no longer had Facebook Messenger and I wasn’t able to check Messenger on my laptop before the event and I was relying on what I remembered about the plan. However, when it comes to these events, being up to date is key to the success of the surprise. As I was heading to the “meeting point” I was paranoid about seeing my friend heading there as well since the time was close to midnight. Had I stumbled upon her, the surprise would be ruined just by me, and I had no way of asking about her whereabouts through messenger (I wasn’t going to flip out my laptop while rushing there). Fortunately everything went according to plan but I rewired myself to some stress along the way.
How did this rewire experience contribute to the big picture? For one it made me realize the potentials of moving from mobile to desktop in other segments of my smart phone usage. There are many ways how seeing things in a larger format enhanced my experience with the messages and the text. An email written on a computer is easier to see through than an email on a small screen. I think in the end I cared more about quality responses. For example, imagine posting on Instagram but instead of using the mobile editor you would use Photoshop to edit the pictures.