Don’t Change The Phone, Change the Settings

By Levi Liberow

I once heard of a smart strategy regarding the adoption of modern technology, especially the kind that goes into your home and into your pocket.

“You don’t have to be on the first carriage of the train. It’s OK to pull into the station last.”

In other words, it’s not about rejecting new technology outright, it’s just that we let it “test run” a bit before we start using it so that we can objectively observe its pros and cons and make an informed decision based on other people’s experiences.

So while I’m still observing the effects of smartphones, in the meantime I am using a good old fashioned not-so-smart phone.

And truth be told, I enjoy it very much. A friend asked me if it’s for “religious” reasons. “Not only,” I told him, “it’s more for quality-of-life reasons.” There is a certain level of sanity achieved by not keeping your office in your pocket.

The problem began a few months ago when my service became increasingly lousy. Real lousy, like I couldn’t hear a full sentence on the phone feature of my device, which rendered it practically useless.

This went on for some weeks until some co-workers started to get frustrated – “If you don’t have WhatsApp, at least make sure your phone works!”

So I did one of my least favorite errands — I took a walk to my local service provider store. I got on the line and waited.

In front of me was another customer who had a phone similar to mine and was complaining of a similar problem. “I love this phone, but lately my calls keep dropping out randomly; anything you can do about it?”

“Get a new phone,” the service-person recommended.

At least I had someone to sympathize with. “I have the same problem as you,” I told this customer and showed off my model of the phone.

When my turn came, I tried my luck with the phone-guy and voiced my problem. He didn’t even want to look at the phone. “Get a smartphone!” he said impatiently. “But it worked perfectly till a month ago,” I protested.

So he finally gave a possible explanation for the change in the service. “Phone company so-and-so is moving to newer towers that support 5G and 6G high-speed Internet. The old phones aren’t built for it, they can only get service from 2G and 3G towers. Hence the reason for you losing your service. You just need to keep up with the times,” he once again offered his solution to my problem.

“Well, at least now I know what the problem is,” I thought to myself as I left the store. I would need to decide if I could continue to uphold my policy of taking my time on adopting new gadgets…

As I was walking home I fumbled through the settings of my phone, and came across a feature I never realized existed. It was a button that showed which mobile network I was connected to. I clicked on it and discovered a drop-down menu I had never seen before.

It read “network mode.” I clicked the menu, and I was given 3 options: 2G, 3G & 4G.

For some reason, the mode that was currently selected was the 2G only mode. After my cell phone towers lesson, I was a little wiser, and I selected the 4G option. Lo and behold — I could now make a call and hear every word clearly; I even noticed that the phone defined the call as HD!

Seems like a month or two ago, my phone was working with 4G towers, and somehow the lesser quality service was selected leaving me with low-def calls that were almost unbearable.

So after all, as long as we don’t hit 7G too soon and 4G towers will still exist, I can take my time deciding whether or not I want a smartphone…

***

“Tut altz vos ihr kent uhn zeht aropbrengen Moshiach’n teikef umiyad mamash” — “Do all you can and see to it that Moshiach is brought down immediately.”

If you were given the task, you were given the power.

And if it’s not working, it’s not because the device — or the mission — is outdated and expired, as some would like to have you think; it’s probably because you need to discover some of your own hidden features that allow you to be in touch with 7G speed. ■