“We have now reached an altitude where you may now turn on personal electronic devices. However, you may not use cell phones, televisions, radios, or any other devices sending or receiving a signal.”
If you have flown recently, you know the speech. It’s a frustrating rule for me because the camera I use most IS my cell phone. The pictures I use here are pictures I take and most are taken with my enV phone.
When I was talking with a friend, he indicated surprise that I couldn’t turn off the cell phone part of the “personal electronic device.” So I decided to look again.
Standalone mode.
That’s what the setting is on my phone. When standalone mode is “on”, the phone doesn’t try to connect with the rest of the world. It becomes safe to turn on in the airplane, at least when the plane reaches the right altitude. I tried it the other day and was able to take all pictures I wanted to. I was shooting inside the cabin and out the window. We have pictures of Massachusetts and Michigan, of tray table locks and Indiana rivers.
It was great.
Until I wanted to upload them to my flickr account to share with others, the way I always do. Suddenly I realized that standalone mode lets me capture images but it keeps me from sharing them. And my phone is built to do both.
Just like me. There are days that all I want to do is hide, to capture images and impressions, to not have to interact with anyone. And then, in the middle of those days, as something suddenly makes sense, I realize how important it is to me to be able to share, to interact, to connect. At those moments I understand what a people person I am.
I’m guessing that most of us need to spend most of our time with standalone mode turned “off”. It’s nice for occasional flights, while we are getting perspective from 21,000 feet, to stand (or sit) alone. But to be what we are made to be, we need each other.
Right?
