I have had several interesting conversations about technology in the last few days. 15 years ago my husband and I started dating and we used to reach each other on our pagers. If you asked a 15-year old what a pager was I am positive they would have no idea. I broke down and got a cell phone in 1999 and I still have the same phone number. I love technology but sometimes change is still a little difficult for me. I thought I would never get a Smart Phone but that went out the window with my beloved Blackberry in 2010. It was so exciting to be able to go online without having to turn on my computer anymore. I was connected to the interweb wherever I was and it was wonderful. Now I have the iPhone and I will never go back. The Blackberry was a dinosaur compared to the iPhone. I can do everything including paying my bills and watch TV on it and it takes better pictures than my camera. I’m in love with my phone and its sparkly pink case and I am not afraid to shout it from the roof tops.
As much as I love my phone I think there is a time and a place for everything. I hate walking through stores dodging people who are too busy texting to pay attention to where they are pushing their cart. I cannot stand people who text or talk while driving and veer into my lane or drive really slow in the left lane because they can’t be bothered to realize that they are not the only person on the road. It annoys me when people talk on the phone while they are checking out in a store. No conversation is so important that it can’t wait 5 minutes while you pay attention to the person helping you. And if it is that important then you shouldn’t be shopping anyway.
I feel like some people may even prefer their phones over real live people. I have spent too much time with friends and family who sit on their phones texting while in a room full of people. This is an equal opportunity offense with both men and women indulging. Technology has made us a society that can no longer live in the moment and enjoy the company of the people around us. We have become multi-tasking robots who have to be leashed to our phones at all times. It’s disturbing and it will only get worse as more and more people head to the dark side and get Smart Phones. Last night I was sitting across the room from a friend and he was browsing through my photos on Facebook that I had posted earlier that day. Another friend pointed out that instead of telling me that he liked certain pictures since I was right there he instead chose to “like” almost all of them on Facebook. I happen to know that he is a people person, but sometimes it’s like he forgets that he is in a room full of people when he is on his iPhone.
Some days I feel like I need a technology break. I hardly turn on the computer at home anymore because I’m on one all day at work and weekends are family days. Yesterday when Nate went down for his nap I put my phone on the docking station to charge and put it on silent before heading to the living room. I didn’t check it for 3 hours and it felt great to not even care if anyone was calling or texting. Of course when I did finally check it I had 6 texts and a missed call from my husband. I think I’ll take baby steps on this one for now.
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