Just Put Down the Phone

As I finished Interpersonal Divide today, I sat and pondered the book as well as a subject for my last blog post. I then remembered Heidi Nyland's brief story from an interview about working a drive through window (Interpersonal Divide, page 138). While her recollection was not shocking to me, once I put it in perspective, it was more like unbelievable. As we have grown up and become part of our communities, we have relied on others and actual communities to become the best people we can. We want to live the American dream and be good citizens. If we continue to use technology in the way we have been, particularly in this case the cell phone, we will destroy all that our fore fathers worked for in accomplishing an involved society. Personally, I want that instead of being the inconsiderate cell phone man portrayed in the following video:



We have been given so much power as citizens of the United States, including the ability to have access to innovative tools like a cell phone. In a heartbeat though, we will use that to abuse the community that provided it to us. In order to stay happy as people within our social realms, we need to pay a courtesy to those around us, those in the flesh that are working to serve us or even keeping us company. While I have never experienced what Ms. Nyland did in working the drive-through, I have been out with a friend supposedly enjoying dinner together only to have the friend decide it is time to return calls or catch up with other friends. Not a wonder I don't go out with that friend anymore... I imagine the gentleman in this video doesn't have too many friends that want to get together with him either:



If we all have experiences like the man in the video, Ms. Nyland or myself in which the cell phone or other technology came first, society will deteriorate bit by bit. I will admit that I have been on the phone with someone while working on another task, not fully participating in my phone conversation. I am sure there are many of us too that are online or working on our laptops with the TV or stereo muffling at us in the background. And let us not forget the 1000s of drivers texting and talking on their phones. In each of these cases, we are losing touch more and more in the relationships we need in our lives. Well, except maybe the driving one. There we are possibly bringing bodily harm.

As Bugeja wrote, we brought mobile phones for safety reasons and then use them for trivial reasons, putting lives at risk. This applies to all the technology in our lives. If we tune out the world and do not play our part in being social beings, we are putting our communities at risk. So, if you can't bare to leave your cell phone at home, at least leave it in your car or turn it off when you are in a public place. Whoever waits on you or converses with you will respect you more, and you can play your part in society. Don't worry, the phone won't go anywhere.

Spend "Real" Time at Home

After considering it further, I realized that most people are not going to stop abusing technology. At least not in the near future. Until there is evidence out there along with ways to make technology truly work for us, we’re not going to give it up. I stick to my idea in that we should learn to better use and not abuse. However, to start, how about simply taking a break from technology from time to time? Like with the change of seasons, we could take at least a one week break from our email, our MP3s, our HDTVs and all the other tech savvy critters that have come into our life. We take vacations from work and school, yet we never truly let it go like we should (and used to). Perhaps this is why the Europeans are so much happier and healthier than us Americans? We need to take a first step and resolve to start with taking a true vacation. Maybe you can only afford to start with one a year and maybe you can’t go far. Or start with dedicating one weekend per month to turning off all the technology in the home. The bottom line is we need to start somewhere for our families and social well-being within the real world.

There are multitudes of articles and research out there showing the negative impact of bringing home work. Go ahead, do a Google search. You’ll see what I mean. Consider how much more now that corporate America brings home their work than compared to before. Why? Easy. Technology. It is like our PCs and Blackberry’s tell us to – after all, isn’t that why we have both of those – to work?

I think I was inspired to write this as I have just spent roughly a week away from work and technology. Part of that week wasn’t by choice, but in the end, it got me to think about how great it would have really been if I had a week to myself without having to check in at work or checking someone’s status on Facebook or writing an email back to someone. I had a glimpse of it, though I won’t say that I didn’t write a few quick emails or let friends know I was under the weather. I did. But I also had a lot of time to think, to read (an actual book!) and to write in my journal (you know, with pen and a paper). I came close to busting out the photo albums, but I didn’t make it quite that far. And as I write this blog post, I am thinking of how great it was! I didn’t even think about my job, which is pretty huge for me. I have nightmares about my job…

In a nutshell though, it made me see that I need to spend more time actually doing things with my husband and our cats. We used to bowl almost every Friday night – I can’t recall when we did that last. We have a list of restaurants that we want to try out and review in the FM area. Thanks to technology (and probably a little of the school stunt by yours truly), we’ve made it to one place. There is so much more to do, even in Fargo in the winter. And yes, I know how valuable the time in front of the TV set is for bonding as well as having the ability to go to our own little world’s every now in then (AKA as the Internet in my home). I resolve though to bring back in home life too and once finals wrap up in two weeks, you better believe my husband will be bowling in an alley instead of using a Wii remote.