UNITED STATES—Well, it is a conversation that I have wanted to have for quite some time and it fascinates me to a degree, but at the same time it frustrates me as well. What is it about our cellphone that has a grip on us? What exactly do I mean by that? It feels like there is a panic when we do not have our device right by our side. I am trying to put myself in a situation that I don’t worry about my phone.
What does that mean? I’m not worried about missing a text message, I’m not worried about missing an email, I’m not worried about missing a phone call or anything else. However, our phones have become so connected to our lives that we are failing to realize, “Hey, it is not the end of the world.” Unfortunately, that is something that is easier said than done. I had like 2 hours over the weekend to decompress and watch a scary movie, I mean it is indeed Halloween, and for some reason I had my phone on my charger and I was worried the entire time about missing a message or phone call, instead of watching the movie.
I kept telling myself, WHY, WHY ARE YOU WORRIED? Just let it be, if a message comes it comes, if a call is missed, a call is missed. If it’s urgent, guess what people will callback. I want to drill that logic into my brain that it is ok to decompress from allowing technology to control how we operate on a daily basis. Our brains have become so glued to our mobile devices for many of us we wouldn’t know how to act if we didn’t have it.
We are used to having access to everything right at our fingertips and that is the problem. Technology has not only made our lives easier, we have become dependent on that technology and we refuse to acknowledge it. I will admit the countless times I have lost power I have relied on my cellphone as a source of entertainment to scour the internet, when I should be conserving my battery life. The phone has shifted from being a source of communication to becoming a source of entertainment intertwined with communication.
I don’t think most Americans could survive 24 hours without having access to their phone. Their minds might go crazy, not knowing ‘what’ is going on in the world, when in reality, guess what, there is not much going on, we are just made to believe it. When you tie in social media it makes the situation far worse than we imagine. We have trained our psyche that we need our phones 24/7, but the reality is we must remind ourselves we DO NOT need to have access to our devices 24/7.
It is ok to leave your phone at home, it is ok not to respond to a call right away or a message immediately. It is ok to be busy and to live in the moment. That is the thing about life so many of us are documenting our lives on our phones; we forget the moments we are living in because we want the rest of the world to know what we’re doing. However, it raises the question, why? Why do we care so much what everyone else thinks we’re doing? Are we so self-absorbed we cannot see beyond our own vanity?
Only we can answer those questions, but the truth is we can live life without cellphones, there are those that need them and that is totally understandable, but guess what we lived centuries without cellphones. Hell, I can count on 1 hand the number of people that I know who actually have a landline. What does that say America? Times have changed, but the landline is still potent because when the power goes out there is a strong chance your landline might work, your cellphone, not a guarantee. A phone is to communicate, not to entertain, we need to be reminded of that.
Written By Jason Jones