Is the internet laborious ?

I left my phone at home on Thursday. As the passage of time feeds my insatiable need for a mobile phone that is, frankly, nuts- I'm now using a Nokia N900. It has whistles and bells- definately. Using its browser is outstanding compared to my last phone (Nokia N82), which I thought was pretty swank at the time. But this phone - It connects to all of my socials crap (Twitter, MSN, gchat, skype, etc) all of the time. I take a photo, and the phone records the GPS coordinates along with the photo*. and I can immediantly send that - or a video for that matter - to anyone via the afore mentioned social mechanisms or MMS. I can verify information at anytime from any location - pretty much ANY information.
So there I was, driving home from work after leaving my phone at home. I barely noticed the fact at work, having made the realisaion during the drive there. I had my laptop with me, so I had tunes and podcasts - and there was definately work, at ... work. However, once I'd jumped in the car to head home, the phones absence was felt. Do I just play with my phone when driving on the way home? Well I could start a discussion about that by saying that I stop at alot of lights on the way home, but for the sake of simplicity, lets just say I'm chauffeured by a man called jeeves, in a stretch magic carpet with tinted windows (Radio might have temporarily departed from embellishing when it manifests the visuals within a story - but I'm all for it). I imagine I had at least 20 occassions to use my phone on the way home. Songs, GPS to avoid traffic or to see if there was a new secret route I could discover, but no, no phone.
What was interesting was, despite my obvious substance addition (substance being little packets of data), my inner being had a different opinion of the situation. I expect like me, you remember a time when you were doing something naughty or taboo, something that you were committing to do - despite knowing that someone somewhere disapproved:-  and it made you feel just, delightfully wicked? A part of me, irking with the adjustment of my missing appendage was basking in the moment.
A naughty - for lack of a better word - sensation spread through me as I realised:- I couldn't be contacted, even in an emergency. I couldn't get any news, not even directions**, I couldn't see what anyone had tweeted. With my current phone, the blogging interfaces are quite usuable, qwerty keyboard, etc - I could have written this blog entry on it*** from anywhere, except I didn't have my phone with me. For the first time in a very long time, I was alone.
Isn't it strange to feel this way. I didn't have a mobile phone until I was (thinking about it) about 20 years old- wow 14 years ago (am not!). Now, its not that I do all of these wonderful things all of the time, but I do some of them and normally I could do them all of them, at my whim. (Beep Beep, I just got a message). I suppose, the phone has become a safety net, for example, I know that if someone had an emergency, that I could be contacted at any time. That certainly what happens when I'm on call - 1 week of 1am calls, 4am SMSs - ROCK!.
As the old man floats above the soil in the clearing, up some impossibly long mountain path- his wispy hair and beard blowing in the wind. This depiction has not adopted a mobile phone in its modern telling - and I don't think its going to. I have deep and meaningful's with my self all the time- why I'm always crying at home (joke), but the situation of having no chance of distraction or interruption was no longer familiar. As a consequence of this, now rare situation I was in, I found myself in introspection.
In today's age of endless distractions and toys, I wonder if I might try to separate myself form the technology more often. I didn't have any revelations whilst I was isolated from the world, but the moment was definitely cathartic. It is an experience that I think I have missed. I'm not going to go on a rant (too late) about the evils of the new world - after all once I got home, I found my phone, connected every internet capable device to the rest of the world and cried in the beauty of it all (joke  again- boys don't cry, Robert Smith) - but I do envy the ease in which some people claim to be able to switch everything off and be alone.
I think that once a fortnight, I might actually leave my mobile at home and just be. This new world that I fully endorse, is a change in lifestyle, but it is also an incredible distraction... to... anything anytime - and I think that there is an alternative to that life. I intend to experience that alternative and with a bit of luck I might be able to slot it in twice monthly, on a Monday etween 9am and 5:38pm, not including my lunch break :)

* GPS coords. in the photo - Its very cool, I've never liked that whole sit down session you have after going snap happy, writing the photo's "Situation" on the back. No compaints there
** I find GPS' boing factor interesting, news has been around for ages, before mobile phones we had pagers which had news feeds. GPS however has come in done its thing and everyone has gone "Yep!".
I think it is now far more widely used then people wirelessly getting news - maybe not socials
*** The N900 qwerty keyboard is good. But I must try and hook up my bluetooth keyboard, because yes I have on of those as well.