Smartphones and Golden Corral
In February of this year we got our first “smartphones”. Boy are they fun! You can do just about everything with them. I can check my mail, take pictures, post to Facebook, read Facebook, track my calories with MyFitnessPal, play games (I am addicted to Candy Crush), watch Duck Dynasty and Hoarders with the A&E app, carry a Bible, have a flashlight, and watch my daughter on Instagram. I can even occasionally make a phone call or text my kids.
It has occurred to me that having a smartphone needs some restraint, like going to a Golden Corral buffet. Just because they have who knows how many choices – it isn’t necessary to eat each and everything offered there. The point of the buffet is to have a choice of what you want, and it doesn’t mean that’s the only kind of restaurant you go to.
I realized that I have neglected writing because I spend more time on my phone checking Facebook and my email than I do on my laptop. It’s so easy to get caught up using apps rather than writing a blog post or reading other blogs.
I rarely go to Golden Corral these days. I find there are too many choices, it’s easy to overeat and I have a compulsion to “get my money’s worth”.
It is my hope that I can show better restraint with my smartphone now that the “newness” has worn off. I still intend to use it with all it’s cool gadgetry, but when I am “on the go”. At home I plan to open up the laptop to check my email and Facebook and WRITE more.
How about you?
YEs! I know what you mean. I use all those gadgets too, but I have been trying to limit use in public and in general, to set an example for my kiddo (who doesn't have a phone yet). 🙂
We almost never do buffets because we just don't eat that much.
It was easy in the beginning to download every app I could find to my iPad. Don't worry, that does wear off after a while when you start sucking up all of your memory with apps you never use.
I just got my first iPhone…Iphone5…my wife has had one for a while now…iPhone4…he he he. I am afraid of getting sucked into her virtual world. I'll take a Golden Corral portion of restraint please.
I'm far too stingy to fork over the money for an iPhone. Android all the way! Works just as well, and considerably cheaper.
With respect to "getting your money's worth", I'm the same. You may not always feel like you're getting your money's worth at GC. But spend five minutes on an iPhone and you'll know right away you've gotten your money's worth with it.
Restaurant chains that advertise their “all you can eat” buffets, such as Golden Corral and Old Country Buffet, present us with an interesting case in human resource management and business ethics. The structure of the system is particularly interesting from an ethical perspective. The human resource systems are intentionally designed so as to corral customers into paying tips in line with the lie. See http://www.thewordenreport.blogspot.com/2013/08/all-you-can-eat-buffets-unethical.html