Reading News On The Phone? Ha.

Some years ago while working for the Bozeman Chronicle I was told by a computer tech there that folks would soon be reading the news on their phones.

I laughed at such a far-fetched notion, coming as it did from a computer nerd. What did he know about news?

This was a few years before the demise of the daily newspaper. I couldn’t yet see the end.

Now I’m lost without my phone, which provides me with up-to-the-minute news, sports, weather and nonsense. It also offers a constant distraction from the world around me.

I spent a few days off the grid recently at our cabin on Fort Peck Lake. We’d just cancelled out Internet service there and I didn’t think I’d care. Turns out I do.

Lack of service at the remote cabin meant my phone and my watch were just that and nothing more. I could no longer glance at my wrist to check the weather or pull out my phone to check a score.

The weather was an easy fix. I simply stepped outside and found it cold. News and sports, on the other hand, were only available on the radio on the hour. Such an inconvenience!

I worried something important would happen and I wouldn’t be among the first to know.

It wasn’t until I returned to town that my watch beeped with a news update. A feeling of relief passed through me. I was back in touch.

Pulling out my phone to see on a bit larger screen what was happening, I read the lede of a story about a man who moved to Italy with his husband and was followed there by his ex-wife, who moved in down the block.

It wasn’t exactly what I call news. As a former features editor, I recognized it for what it was: a feature. It didn’t seem to warrant a news flash, however.

A declaration of war or a major disaster should cause my phone and watch to beep, not a domestic dust-up.

But what do I know? I thought we’d still be reading newspapers. The idea that I’d be bringing my phone, and not a newspaper, into the bathroom for my morning constitutional remains a bit unsettling.

I’ll do my best to soldier on. I’d hate to miss anything.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]