Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Column: Ghost Touch

I often find myself writing about technology and how I am kind of in this never-ending loop of it driving me crazy while at the same time being an absolute necessity in my life.

A perfect example of this would be last Tuesday evening when I had to use my phone to record a county commission meeting. It’s a very convenient thing to be able to not have to attend everything in person and it is even better to be able to fast forward when somebody will not stop rambling – saying the same things about the same issue.

As happy as I was to be able to not go back to work after a long day of getting the papers to the printer, I was a little disappointed that the entire time the meeting was going I was wishing I had the phone to look up meaningless things on the Internet. It’s sad I’ve arrived at the point that I can even put up the phone for two hours because I want to look up the demographics of Russia or who the actor is in a minor role on a television show.

Hopefully, someday I will able to use my phone for a few minutes here and there every day, but I should probably take baby steps on my journey.

The past several weeks has also been a surefire way to get me to spend a lot more time on the phone. Up until July, I had never heard of “ghost touch” on a phone, but I am now very well it is a real thing and is very problematic.

“Ghost touch” has become a problem with newer model iPhones and basically what happens is that there is an issue with the touch screen and the phone will start doing things on its own. I know this probably sounds ridiculous, but it is very real and has very much been a pain in my backside. If you have a minute, do an Internet search and watch a phone have a mind of its own. It will most likely be funny to watch, but it isn’t as funny when it is your phone in the video.

It all started out pretty gradually with my phone acting a little sensitive and clicking on links I did not push. Over the next several days it got worse and worse. Finally, after about a week, the phone started to completely have a mind of its own. It started to send text messages, make phone calls, opens up just about every app on my phone, and also went into social media where it sent out a friend request. I was horrified because I did not know the person, but they seem nice so I’m just going to play it off that I meant to add a new “friend”. It also updated my status with a picture and information about Nefertiti. I didn’t catch the status update for a few hours and could not believe that the “ghost touch” had managed to do this.

I also end up texting Melissa “witnesses”. Most of the messages it would send would not make sense, but this one managed to spell out a real word.

After the phone goes berserk for a few hours it will settle down and actually let me use it which I did for the meeting last week. I was a little bit worried the phone might start acting up while I was on Zoom for the meeting but it behaved and didn’t start playing “Journey” on YouTube as it did a few days ago.

I guess if there is any silver lining it is that I am not using the while it is glitching and I have found that to be very positive. It’s so much better to read a book than to play online Blackjack. I have also been looking at a lot of my cookbooks and bringing some new recipes to the table.

I have followed every tip to remedy the situation, but it appears I will need my screen replaced which I will eventually get around to, hopefully without sending out any more messages about “witnesses”. Sounds kind of dark.

 

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