You might remember when, a few weeks ago, I posted about a trip my husband and I took to Vancouver. In a nutshell, it was glorious… except for one teeny, tiny detail: My cell phone does not function internationally. “Oh, boo hoo,” you’re probably thinking, and you’re right. There are certainly greater tragedies than being unplugged for forty-eight hours. Still…
Admittedly, I’ve become quite attached to my phone. I use it for everything–calls (obviously), email, Twitter, Facebook, blog reading, blog writing, Instagram, weather checks, random Google searches, photography, Pinterest, calculating, directional navigation, Goodreads, blah, blah, blah… Plus, when I’m idle, like riding in the car or waiting in line somewhere, I fiddle around with Solitaire or read an iBook. So, as fun as Vancouver was, needless to say I was a *little* high-strung about not being able to get online. I mean, if something cool happens and you can’t tweet about it, has it really happened at all?
When my hubby and I crossed back into the US of A, we stopped at Bob’s Burgers for lunch (’cause that’s how we roll), and the second we sat down at our table I gleefully logged on. As I sat, zoned out, tweeting my little heart out, my husband created this (super flattering) sketch:
I at once tweeted a photo his artwork (YES), but I did take his message to heart.
I’m Katy, and I am a social media addict. (Hi, Katy!) But here’s the thing: I don’t necessarily think my addiction is a bad thing. It doesn’t (usually) get in the way of my day-to-day activities, and I connect with like-minded people online because 1) They’re almost always awesome, 2) I learn A LOT, 3) Professional contacts are never a bad thing, and 4) It’s fun!
My husband doesn’t get it at all, but to his credit, he doesn’t give me too hard a time about my love of the Internet. Thank goodness!
Tell me: Are you a social media addict? What’s your medium of choice?
katyupperman.com 
Dude. Your husband and my husband should get together and do lunch. Or a beer. Or a hockey game. If my husband could draw, YES – he would draw that pic too. LOVE IT. I am showing him this as soon as he gets up. 🙂
Yeah, I pretty much cannot function without my phone. Emailing eats up my data, but I do check it all the time, and I’m forever checking Twitter or Facebook in line or making notes about my WIP on the beach or playing word games when I’m bored. Great A-post, SWF. Can’t wait to check out B!
My husband would jump all over the beer/hockey idea! You and I can drink wine and write while they watch sports. 🙂 Glad to know I’m not the only technology addict around, though, I never doubted that you’d be right there with me!
Email. Definitely email. I check it first thing in the morning and have been known to check it after I’ve gone to bed if I’m waiting for a message, which I always am. Laaame.
Ha! I check my email before I even get out of bed, and it’s also the last thing I do before I go to sleep. You’d think I have foreign dignitaries sending me urgent letters about world peace or something. 🙂
Oh yes, I’m totally addicted to my phone. Email, Facebook and, these days, especially Zillow. I probably need to delete like half of my apps just so I can get a well-deserved break, but I think we both know that’s never going to happen. 🙂
It’s so nice to be plugged in, but yes… Sometimes I wonder if a (tiny) break would be good for me. I’m too addicted to attempt one, though!
Email and phone yes. I have a hard time with blogs and such, too small a screen and too slow. Yep, I’m an addict too. 🙂
Yes, my phone is slow for blog hopping too, but when I’ve got a bit of down-time (waiting in the pick-up line at my daughter’s school, for example), it’s nice to be able to catch up with my online friends. 🙂
Haha, I can’t say I’m as attached to my phone as you are, seeing how I don’t get data, but I’ve been known to, um, hitch on to other wireless networks.. rather shamelessly… because every gal deserves the right to access Twitter, yeah? 😀
Oh, the few times I could get Wi-Fi in Canada, you better believe I jumped on, and shamelessly, too! I just missed my Twitter too much!
A is for Agreed. I’m beyond addicted to Twitter and the blogging community and can’t seem to resist checking my Blackberry constantly. You are not alone, Katy 🙂
Good to know I’m not alone, though I didn’t have much doubt. 🙂 I miss my online friends when I’m unplugged for too long. You guys are just too awesome!
Absolutely agree 🙂 Maybe that should be a 😦 I walk around with my phone in my house. That’s pretty bad. It’ll be nice when the day comes and we can just think about logging into social media and a screen flashes over one of our eyeballs so we don’t have to worry about our phones anymore 🙂 Scary thought…
Eek, that *is* a scary thought! I walk around with my phone at home too… Seriously, what is wrong with me?!
Hi Katy – I came here from the A-Z Blogging challenge. I have to say my social media addiction is Facebook and it began when I studied abroad last year in Australia. I lost my phone and had no other way of contacting my friends even the Aussie ones except in class and through FB. Now it is such a problem lol! I also am now addicted to Blogger, but I just started that.
I also check my e-mail waaaaay too frequently. I doubt anyone is going to e-mail me within 5 seconds of me refreshing LOL. And I’ve even paused querying so what the heck,brain? 🙂
Querying is what programmed my brain to check email obsessively too. Now I’m constantly checking to see if my agent has news! And Facebook is a great way to stay in touch, especially with people who’d probably naturally phase out of your life otherwise. I’ve reconnected with so many friends and acquaintances from high school through Facebook.
Love that you studied in Australia, by the way. A country that’s on the top of my Must Visit list!
Oh Katy, Katy, Katy. The world did exist before Tweeting, didn’t it?
Ha! I’m not so sure it did! 🙂
Love Twitter. Lust Twitter. Adore Twitter.
Hate Facebook.
Obsessively check e-mail in 3 accounts.
With a smart phone.
Oh, I love Twitter a million times more than I ever loved Facebook. Funny, because my Facebook “friends” are, for the most part, people I actually know in my real life. My Twitter friends, on the other hand, are mostly people I’ve never met but would love to!
I hate my cell phone… I don’t understand the need for the technology.
Kidding… what time is it?
Great start… to the challenge “A” is for Awesome!
Jeremy [Retro-Zombie]
A to Z Co-Host
IZOMBIE: Visit the Madness
Thanks, Jeremy. Your comment totally made me laugh. 🙂 I’m having fun with A-Z already… so glad I decided to participate. Thanks for co-hosting!
That sketch is priceless!
I have a completely unhealthy attachment to the internet and my laptop. That’s why I have not allowed myself to get an iPhone, despite being a lifelong Mac person. I know myself, and I know if I had a smartphone, I might as well move into a cave and leave the real world behind!
Yeah… I never thought I *needed* an iPhone, then I got one. Now I don’t know how I survived life without it! Lately, I’ve been keeping mine on vibrate and I find it sort of liberating. I’m not jumping up every time I hear a text chime or a ring tone or an email notification. I’m thinking vibrate might be the way I’ll go from now on.
Loved this! I can absolutely relate. I’m trying NOT to get into pintrest, stumble upon etc…because I already spend a lot of time online…I use facebook, blog and twitter and balance having twins.
And as I type this my husband is moaning at me because he is cleaning out the garage and I am blogging! Yikes!
Stopping by from the A-Z challenge.
Leigh @oneandoneequalstwinfun.com
Ha! My husband is always grumbling at me when I’m “networking” instead of doing… whatever else I’m supposed to be doing (like cleaning the garage, for instance!). I’m in awe of you balancing twins with all the other crazy life hands us. Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to reading your A-Z posts. 🙂
Now this, is a letter I can TOTALLY get behind, Katy!!!
I’m going to set this up first by saying, I work in the marketing department at T-Mobile (that’s my “out”)…
I have an addiction…to my cell phones. Yes, that’s plural.
Cause I have two.
One for work and one that’s personal.
So when I’m sitting at my desk, pretending to do work “things”, I have 2 cell phones, one desk phone, my iPad, and my MAC, all in front of me (yikes, I just read that back and realized how bad that sounds).
And if my husband had any artistic talent like your husband does, I can assure you we’d have very similar pictures!
My name is Erin, and, like Katy, I am addicted to my cell phones.
Fabulous post, Katy!!!
FYI…next time you travel, call your wireless carrier ahead of your trip and ask to have an international SOC put on your phone (you’ll need to tell them what country you’re going to). Depending on the country, it’s free to add – and then you’ll have service, assuming your carrier has towers there (or you’ll roam, so you’ll need to decide how badly you want to repin that picture on Pinterest if you’re paying to do it!). 🙂
Oh, Erin! If I had TWO phones to deal with, I’d never see the light of day! And yes, we did set up for the roaming international service, but only in case of some emergency with our daughter. It was way too expensive to use just for social media!
Blogging is my most addictive media…and I use my phone to keep on top of all the comments and blog reading. I would be lost without my iPhone! 🙂
Great first post!! 🙂
I think as far as social media goes, blogging can be one of the most productive. At least you’re writing and connecting in a meaningful way with like-minded people. The same can’t always be said for Pinterest. 🙂
I no longer want to vacation in Canada. Being unable to check my email on four-hour flights is bad enough. Querying has done this to me. Submission is even worse. I can live without facebook and twitter, though, so I suppose that’s one good thing . . . 🙂
Yes! Querying is what did me in as far as email checking too! Now, it’s an impossible habit to break!
I have to say hubby’s a pretty good artist. Maybe you should tweet more of his work.
I’m a blog and e-mail junkie. I don’t have a smart phone so i’m constantly checking my pc – desktop or laptop. My hubby says I’m going to get sucked into the computer. scary thought.
I did go with my son to Busch Gardens today and rode rollercoasters. Of course, I ended up talking to folks in line and exchanging e-mails. Geez. Someone else to talk to online. 🙂 At least I’ll know these folks. 🙂
If he completes any more sketches, I’ll definitely post them. 🙂 And I love that you exchanged email addresses with people at Busch Gardens… awesome!
My husband detests social media. He endures my engagement with it as long as I don’t involve him.
Yeah, husband obviously isn’t a huge fan either. He tolerates social media, obviously, but I don’t miss the occasional eye rolling. 🙂
My husband also thinks I´m an addict and let´s face it, I probably am. The first thing I do (before I even get up) is checking my email and it is the last thing I do before going to sleep.
He doesn´t give me too too much of a hard time either but if he could draw he probably would have had a poster made already 😀 He just started getting a bit into Facebook since he got his smart phone (he was against getting one for the longest time!)
I´m probably more of a Twitter addict than Facebook at the moment which is funny because like you, on Facebook I do actually *know* *know* the people while on Twitter, I almost never met anybody I talk to. And I am definitely addicted to blogs!
LOL, my hubby just asked me as he saw me typing this (I´m drinking my morning coffee right now): “Really, really, this is what you do in the morning?” 😀
Ha! I’m drinking my morning coffee, responding to blog comments… birds of a feather, right? And yes: I check my email/Twitter/blogs before I ever get out of bed in the morning. Just typing that out embarrasses me a little. 🙂
Your husband would get along with my friends. They don’t understand AT ALL. But this is why I use social media to socialize with like-minded people 😉
My media of choice: Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.
So far, I’ve resisted the shine of Tumblr, but it’s oh-so-difficult. I’ve already got enough online stuff going , what with Twitter and blogs and Pinterest and all. And yes, thank goodness for like-minded online friends who TOTALLY get it!
I love that drawing. Hilarious.
Dude…I am the WORST addict. My anxiety level over the status of my phone battery charge is actually embarrassing. I have 2 fb accounts, 2 twitter accounts, and I have recently started using Tumblr, which I love, in addition to my blog. It’s ridiculous.
Yes! My phone charge stresses me out as well! Oh, you have no idea how happy it makes me to know I’m not alone in my crazy. 🙂
Blogging and Twitter are my social networking outlets. I have a Facebook account, but I log on maybe once or twice a week. And I probably shouldn’t admit this is present company but… I don’t even own a cell phone. We have one in the car for use by whoever is out, but that’s it. I just don’t have that much use for one. And I work in I.T.! 🙂
A cell phone for car use only is probably the most responsible thing I’ve ever heard, Colin. Your strength awes me. 🙂 And yes, I’m not a huge Facebook fan either. I much prefer the awesome of Twitter.
I am always messing with my phone too. Sometimes it’s playing a game, but most of it’s email, Twitter, Google searches, etc. I think I’m more of an Internet lover than social media though. I like it, but I’m not addicted. Out of the different medias though, I enjoy Twitter the most.
I love Twitter too, and funnily enough, I was initially very hesitant to join. I just didn’t get it. Now though… LOVE. 🙂
I used to be an aohell addict, then later I spent a lot of time on MySpace, and now I spend more time on Facebook, though I’ve cut down on how much time I spend playing games there. After all, writing comes before games.
My real addiction has long been computer games. I don’t want to know how many hours (probably adding up to months or even years!) I’ve ever spent playing Tetris, various Solitaire games, and various Mahjong games! Once I started playing at 16 (back in 1996), I was hooked!
Oh, I don’t even let myself get involved in games. I know I wouldn’t be able to drag myself away! My parents got us a Wii for Christmas and I’ve yet to turn it on. I know the addiction would come far too easily. 🙂
So funny! I just got my iPhone and I’m obsessed. I was mildly obsessed with my old Android but it’s grown to a whole new level. I blame Instagram. 🙂
I love Instagram passionately. Behind Twitterrific, it’s probably my favorite app. And I love seeing the photos you post, especially ones from the author/book events you attend. 🙂