A week ago I knocked my phone – a Google Pixel 8 Pro – off the table and watched helplessly as it bounced awkwardly onto the stone floor of our favorite restaurant. After retrieving it I noticed a splotch of dead pixels in the top right corner. This was a new phenomenon – I was expecting a cracked screen. But the display sported what looked like a deep bruise. Over the next few days, the black spot spread slowly toward the phone’s front facing camera. By midweek, the Pixel’s light sensor was enthusiastically involved, and my phone was rendered unusable.
I live on an island, so a quick repair or replacement is not an option. That’s why I keep my old phones in stock – it can take up to three weeks for a FedEx or UPS shipment to find its way to my home. I ordered up a replacement online (I settled on the Pixel 10, as the new 11 is on backorder for more than a month), fired up an old Pixel 6, and popped in my SIM.
It had been more than three years since I’d turned that phone on. A lot changes in that amount of time. I felt like a time traveler landing in the Spring of 2023. There were most of my familiar apps, but many were stuck in amber. Suddenly I was still halfway through The Covenant of Water on Audible. Long forgotten texts reminded me of relationships I’ve neglected to tend. My old Recount account was still integrated into my email app (we had just sold the company, and I was still consulting for the new owners). And apparently, the 2023 version of me thought Threads merited a place on my home screen. (That didn’t last long).
Of course, the most noticeable change was the absence of Claude, which since last year has sat prominently in the center of my home screen. I’m not entirely AI-pilled – I don’t use Claude as a frontend to a dedicated Mac Mini running endless loops of vibe-coded life hacks. But returning to a time before AI became the center of my technology life was….kind of nice.
Comparing the two vintages, separated by just a few years, has helped me understand what’s changed in my life – the habits I’ve picked up, what’s become more important, and what I’ve left behind. The Fidelity and Coinbase apps were buried in 2023, today I check them regularly. Why? I’ve decided to get serious about my far flung (and rather poorly managed) investments, and the best indication of that commitment is screen real estate. Also new: A folder dedicated to Google apps: Docs, Sheets, Slides and Calendar – we run DOC on Google, and DOC didn’t exist three years ago. Also new: Google Wallet, which I use to pay for pretty much everything. Three years ago, most of the stores on this rather quaint island were still using plastic. Now, they all take Apple or Google Pay.
I’m writing much more now, so WordPress has also moved into prime position. Lutron (a home automation app) and Oura have reappeared after many years offline – I’ve gotten more serious about my health, and I finally can control the damn lights in my house after many years of not having the time to figure it out. Constant throughout the past three years: Peloton, Maps, Slack, Strava, NYT Games, Spotify, and the Video and News folders. Relegated to second or third screens: Sonos, Firefox (used mostly for testing), and WhatsApp and Signal, which I used mostly for The Recount.
It’s been five or so days since my main phone went down, and perhaps the biggest change has been my commitment to the device itself. Because my old phone doesn’t have my new DOC email or Slack integrated, I’ve stopped bringing it with me when I go to dinner, a movie, or a weekend tennis match. That feels a bit like having a phantom limb – I’m so used to checking my phone whenever I have an idle moment. But I’m also enjoying the freedom of a tether-less life. Yesterday I took a two-hour walk and brought the old Pixel 6, sans SIM card. No calls, no texts, no email, no connectivity whatsoever. Just me, Audible, and a good book in my ears. I just might get used to this.
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