I’ve got a hate hate relationship with my phone. I’m not saying I’m some sort of neo-luddite. I love my iPad for example. But there’s a not so subtle difference between the way most people use a tablet and a phone. It’s that difference that continuously leaves me scratching my head in befuddlement.
I failed to send out an email last week partly because I was on vacation at the beach (I love the beach), and partly because while at the beach my oldest son completely bricked the computer we took with us. I suppose he saved one too many witty memes to the desktop and then allowed the battery to completely die. The result was a startup disk that decided to go on vacation, and no amount of safe mode or recovery mode would coax it back. Meh. I gave it a permanent vacation with a quick wipe…that soon revealed the hard drive had passed out while sitting on the can during its vacation. C'est la vie.
Anywho, as I was saying, while not totally anti-technology I struggle with our society’s usage of the smartphone. While walking along the beach one afternoon, I noted nine people in a row who were all staring at their phones…while at the beach. First, there was a small family of three, each engrossed in their own world on their phones. Then I passed a young couple sitting side by side while otherwise completely cut-off from each other. I passed three young men, each on their own phones. And finally I passed a lone woman who appeared to be reading on her phone.
I don’t have this kind of relationship with my phone, so I struggle to understand the mentality that would lead me to travel to the beach just to engage with my favorite hyper-casual mini-game on my mobile device rather than engaging with the sand, waves, sea life, and/or my loved ones. Okay, so maybe some of these people were just listening to music, or reading a book, or perhaps they wanted their phones primarily as a camera. Those things aren’t so bad, right? I’m undecided.
I love music, and I’m utterly addicted to podcasts. But I’ve made an intentional decision to never put earbuds in or headphones on while walking about my neighborhood. This rule remains in place while walking on the beach as well. I feel like this behavior cuts me off from my surroundings. It teaches my brain to ignore everything around it. It dulls my senses and my ability to make observations. It kills my interactions with nature and other people.
I recognize I’m the oddball here. On the morning we left the beach, we had to wake up at 4am to catch our flight. While my groggy brain was struggling to catch its first cogs, I was thinking through stuff like where I put my toothbrush and how I was going to pack my still damp swimsuit. My oldest son popped his head in the room wondering if he could get the screen-time restrictions removed from his phone. I probably could have forgotten my phone and not noticed until the next day when I tried to go to work without it.
Mostly, my smartphone feels like a constant interruption following me everywhere I go. I suppose it feels like constant connectivity for most folk. But connected to who and at what expense? If I’m constantly connected to things and people not in my immediate presence, does that mean I’m less connected to the things and people in my immediate presence? I don’t know about you, but I can’t focus on both. I can’t listen to music and the surf at the same time. I can’t text someone and talk to someone else simultaneously. I can’t focus on Gaza and my neighbor in tandem.
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