Sitting here in Sky Harbor International in Phoenix I’m considering how plugged in we always are. During the shuttle ride down, two women were using their cell phones continuously for personal and professional communcation.

I, OTOH, was plugged into my iPod so I could drown out their chatter while listening to Kojo Mnamde’s Tech Tuesday show.

As soon as I arrived in the terminal, I hauled out my laptop so I could connect and see if I could check email here (and, yes, make a blog entry…)

The urge to check messages on phone or email while mobile is overwhelming, especially when you’re in an anonymous travel situation, such as riding with strangers on a shuttle bus or in an airplane. Why NOT make use of the time to catch up or check in with family.

The service offered by my cell phone provider (Verizon) is SOOO expensive for what you get and I find I can just wait until I can connect somewhere with my laptop. My husband, in contrast, is not even a cell phone or email user and I feel very conspicuous when sneaking off to check in when he and I are traveling.

Have you compiled and  tallied your assorted communications bills recently? I think we all could likely do fine with less.

In the meantime, I’d like to hear from people who vouch for one or the other, smartphone or laptop, for those who live the mobile life.