Complacency: An unintended consequence of the “everything device”

When I started this blog, I had a goal to add an article a week.  I had been toying with establishing a blog for a while and had lots of ideas already accumulated when I decided to do this.  As I had ideas, I would dictate them into the notes app on my phone.  Besides several blog ideas and partially written articles, I also had a collection of quotes I accumulated over the years.  I like collecting quotes that inspire me  – choice ones give advice about how to think about certain situations.

Then came the Apple iOS 13.3.1 update.  I had put off this update for a while, mostly because the last update required me to reinstall and reset passwords for most of my apps. I also researched what that update would do to an Apple 5SE phone – it was supposedly safe. In January 2020, I finally decided to do it as more of my apps required the newer iOS in order to function.

The update totally bricked my phone.

I did have the “cloud” in place but to my horror, I found that my notes were not backed up to it.  I was incredibly relieved that my contacts and my photos were all backed up though. I lost my notes and years of messaging content.

So I decided to be mad at Apple. How dare they reach out invisibly over the airwaves with the promise of better functionality, and destroy my phone? What a scam, right?  For about a week, I tried everything possible to revive my 5SE rather than restoring it to factory settings and losing my notes.  Nothing worked.

Friends questioned me about why I still had a 5SE. I can’t help that, I am the product of an upbringing where you don’t throw away something that still works.

I was distraught over losing my notes.

I used to keep these sorts of notes in note books.  I would still have those notes if I had continued to do that.  But I got sucked into the promise of being able to do just about everything you need to do in your life: banking, scheduling, taking pictures, watching TV, email, shopping, texting, paying for things, networking, using the GPS, playing games, and oh let’s not forget: calling people, on a device that measures a little over 2 x 5 inches.  I was optimized!

What I eventually realized was that although I depended upon my phone for this “thought capture”, I didn’t take all of the steps needed to protect something that I didn’t realize was so precious to me. I was lured into the convenience and ease of my everything device.  

Catharsis: it was my fault – Ouch!

I now have an Apple 10 XR phone (measures 3 x 6 inches) with a few dozen camera lenses on the back. It was buy-one-get-one so I obtained an additional Apple phone that I use just for work. I also took advantage of the opportunity to get an Apple Watch.  

I have taken additional steps to protect information that is important to me. I revisited my cloud settings to make sure everything updates to it, and I pulled out my notebooks again.  I also regularly download my new sets of notes to a different location. I have started rebuilding my “quotes” file as well.  And I am recommitting to an article a week on this blog. The convenience of the everything device is great but it does not relieve any of us from taking the steps needed, beyond passwords, to protect what is important to us.  It was not Apple that put my “possessions” at risk.  It was my complacency. And this lesson extends far beyond what I do with my iPhone.

There should be an app for that, complacency, kind of like how my Apple Watch reminds me to Breathe every 30 minutes…

In a final step towards the point of no return, I recently restored my 5SE to factory settings to see if it would still be a usable phone – perhaps to have as a back up device.  I had to move past the dying hope that there still might be a possibility of getting my notes back. The 5SE updated to the most recent Apple iOS, and it works perfectly as a brand new phone.

Anybody want an Apple 5SE?