I was that girl in my Communication and Technology class: the one who raised her hand to dispute the professor when he doubted that the students knew someone who lacked a cell phone. I boastfully told him about five such individuals: myself, and the four members of my immediate family. My class stared at me blankly for several seconds before one of them broke the silence with a simple question: “How do you LIVE?”
I was the girl who raised my hand to dispute that a touch-screen world is a bad idea… that the more advanced our technological genius becomes, the smaller our brains get.
I was the girl who told my professor off for texting during class and reminding him of our syllabus, which clearly stated that while our class was about technology; cell phones would not be tolerated. He apologized and announced to the class that I didn’t have to do that night’s homework. I did it anyway.
Regretfully, I currently own a Tracphone, which I use for work purposes and for telling my husband which groceries to buy. In a world filled with Smartphones, I consider myself an anomaly. We are a society which is never content: we are constantly looking for smaller, flashier, more complex gadgets to obsess over. We are a society which cares more about our digital relationships than those sitting three feet away from us.
I can’t tell you how many times I have encountered groups of people who ignore one another in favour of their phones. Have our friends become so boring that we no longer care to talk to them when we’re together?
Yesterday, I saw a mother pushing her two very fat children (I estimated their ages to be two and five years old) in a shopping cart. She was on her phone, and they were playing Angry Birds on theirs. Each child had her own phone. Why is this necessary? What use could a two year old possibly have for a cell phone? As a child, I was content with a Koosh Ball, a bike, and the neighbourhood gang.
I have never been so sure that my own children will not be allowed cell phones until they turn 16. Once this age is reached, they will pay for their phones, themselves.
As that girl in my Communication and Technology class, put down your phone for 24 hours. Let it die. Don’t charge it again. Experience your life unleashed from one of the world’s most common vices.
Without a phone, my life is more adventurous… more personal and less displayed. I play board games with my friends. I talk to them in person. Rather than using phrases like ‘LOL,’ I actually laugh.
THAT is how I live. Could you?
Planets and Pebbles 