Mobile agony and ecstasy: upgrading mobile phones.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: FROM THE EDITOR

My phone died a week into May. I knew it would happen, expected its demise last August under the unwritten rule of planned obsolescence when my two-year contract was up. I started checking out all the new phones when I started getting all the notices that I was eligible for a phone upgrade, and those started coming before my contract expired, in fact.

However, I got caught up semantically. Upgrade meant better, I thought. I could only imagine better equated to a new and improved version of my phone, to which I was rather partial. In the cellular world I suppose I am a relatively late bloomer, having resisted until the end of summer 2010 even getting a mobile phone, and then before I became so enamored with it I had to first learn how it worked.

My grandchildren eventually taught me how to use it, taking pity on me and, I suppose, despite their exasperation with my smartphone stupidity and impatience with my utter lack of intuitive technological competence. We received them all the same day; they got their phones out of the boxes and had made several calls and texts before I figured out how to turn mine on.

With their expert tutelage I was soon able to make calls, text, and read the news with ease and aplomb. Not wanting another mobile learning curve, I had no desire to get a different phone when it was time to, though I started looking for a new improved version of the one I had because I thought it was something I had to do. Turns out I didn't have to get a new phone when my contract expired or a new contract either for that matter. I kept paying my same rate and checking for a better phone for months. I read the tech blogs and learned my brand was coming out with a new model in October. New: yes. Better: not necessarily...