Griz Bear Comments | Another case of older is better

Mrs. Griz thinks I’m a bit foolish and has even threatened to throw away or hide my old Motorola cell phone, but once again I’m arguing in favor of a little older technology because it works well for its designed purpose.

I just happen to like my old cell phone better than my new ones because it’s more simple and easy to operate and it works better - well, at least for me.

It may not be as sturdy as the oldest cell phone still in my possession, which happened to go out the window of my truck at 65 mph and slide across the highway and into the ditch and still work great after Mrs. Griz and I finally found it by calling my number with her cell phone and listening for its ring - too bad that phone is of the pre-subscriber identity module (SIM card) era - but my Motorola flip phone works just fine too and gets great reception in places most cell phones just don’t.

So why is Mrs. Griz poking fun at me? Because I’ve twice updated phones since that good old Motorola, but after trying the new one for a while, I ended up pulling out my SIM card and inserting it back into that good old flip phone.

The first time I did this had to do with reception. It seems my then-newphone - I won’t mention the maker here - had lots of nice features and was pretty easy to use, but reception just wasn’t as good as what I had before. At first I blamed my service provider, but when I recharged my old and outdated flip phone I quit dropping and missing calls. I went back and forth between phones for a time, but finally decided my old phone worked better for what phones were originally designed to do - make and receive voice calls.

When update time came again and I had the option of getting a new phone, I chose the Motorola Karma because it was a sturdy phone with a full keyboard and my kids sometimes communicate with me more by text messages than phone calls.

With it I could respond to text messages more quickly, check and respondto e-mail and browse the Web, as well as make and receive phone calls. Reception was pretty good too, almost as good as my old reliable flip phone.

But, you guessed it, I recently put my SIM card back into my old flip phone again and am happier because it is so much easier to use. It’s got less buttons to push, less menus in which to get lost and works so much better for me to just take and receive voice calls. I’ve even got free insurance since Mrs. Griz has an old one too which she doesn’t use because she likes to keep up to date and not be seen using a now-antiquated cell phone. Beside that, she tried to change the color ofher old phone with a little paint and wasn’t too happy with the results.

Not too long ago, I bought her a new phone because her old phone - an update from thepainted Motorola - kept dropping calls and she didn’t want to go back to her old flip phone. Being a bit dumb about cell phones, I bought her a “smart phone” and am now required to pay more each month for service even if she doesn’t use all the phone’s features - proof that her new phone may be smarter than I am.

The other day, when she saw me using my old flip phone again, she offered to buy me a new phone for Father’s Day - one she thought might be more to my liking. I declined her offer and told her I was happy with the old phone and saw no need to replace it until it finally quits working or breaks.

If I do get a new phone some day, I’m thinking about getting one of those military-spec flip phones that you can run over with a truck or drop in a creek without detrimental effects to the phone. They’re not as feature-packed as most new phones these days, but they’re supposed to be good for making and receiving calls from most anywhere - kind of like the phone I’m using now.

If what they say about the durability of these phones is true, I expect, too, if I have to upgrade once there won’t be much need for me to ever upgrade again and that would probably suit me fine!

So as not to be wasteful, I’ll probably see if I can find a buyer for my new Karma phone. That way Mrs. Griz won’t be able to put my SIM card back in it and hide my old flip phone while I’m asleep. She’s threatened!

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Decatur Herald and the Gentry Courier-Journal. He may be reached by e-mail at rmoll @ nwaonline .com

Opinion, Pages 5 on 06/16/2010