I miss the days before cell phones. Though they are useful in so many ways (e.g., a person is at a grocery store and has a question about what he/she was sent for), they are isolating in other ways (e.g., a person is at a grocery store, but this time he/she is just not sure about whether to get Brand A or Brand B; in the former days, the person would have asked someone standing there, and a conversation might have developed between these two 'strangers'; now so often a phone call is made to a third party and the opportunity to interact with a new person is lost).
Sometimes it feels like people are so absorbed in their phone conversations as they walk along that they are not even registering in their minds the fact that a person is walking on the same sidewalk, say, and that they are about to walk right into that person. In the days before cell phones, two people passing each other on the sidewalk would nod or smile or say 'hello, nice day', and it would be a nice little bit of civility in the day. Now if one party is talking on the cell phone the other person is trying to avoid a collision and this is NOT a bit of civility in the day.
I do have a cell phone and enjoy using it, but I think we are losing some connections with people outside our inner circle by the proliferation of cell phone usage. I also wonder about the loss of solitude which is as important to our development as socialization.
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3 comments:
How true! So this is the challenge. Embrace technology but don't lose our humanity.
I enjoyed reading your comments about cell phones. I have a teenage daughter and it seems like she never really talks on the phone anymore. She is always texting, instant messaging or communicating by way of her MySpace. Believe it or not I'd like to hear her talk on the phone for a change!
I agree as well--we're missing out on life when we're constantly plugged in.
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