Cell phones: we all have them. For many of us, myself included, it rarely is not by my side regardless of where I am. Even when I do not have cell service my phone is still with me. It’s not that I don’t think I can live without my phone, It’s just that I don’t want to! Now, I know I am not the only person who feels this way. Every day, everywhere, I see people gawking at their phones, texting or web-surfing away. Many people would be lost without them, their lives are completely scheduled day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute in their Blackberries. The phones wait silently in their pockets and the consumer waits impatiently for an alarm to go off and remind them to do whatever it is they had scheduled. Cell phones have become as much a part of American culture as baseball or apple pie. But can you really be addicted to these fun little gadgets?
This may seem silly but it is true, adults can become addicted to cell phones, just like these kids. Many students today use cell phones to stay connected whether through use of texting, calling, or instant messaging from their phone. So have we become a society that would rather text someone sitting next to you than actually telling them what you have to say? Sad to say, but, yes! What’s next? Text marriage proposals?
Cell phones were not always so convenient though. It’s hard to believe but cell phones are “A relatively new technology: cell phones started around the 1970s as a rather large, bulky, not too convenient portable phone that was not capable of doing half of what its descendents can now do.”
When I am talking about cell phones nowadays I don’t mean just those simple phones that consist of a keypad and antenna. I am referring to these supercomputers we hold in our hand. Almost anything you want to do can be done with today’s iPhone. You can check the weather, call your aunt Judy in Maryland, download the latest music and watch the latest movies all at once! Well, maybe not all of that at once, but you get the point. Cell phones have become an auxiliary tool capable of almost anything, a mini-entertainment system if you will as well as a mini computer. So many things are possible at the touch of a finger—things never even dreamed possible until recent years. Science fiction come to real life. So one can see how people could become “addicted.”
Don’t get me wrong cell phones are a great invention. Probably one of the very best of all time following television of course. Everyone has one. There are hundreds of different models available all with specific programs and options for the buyer. Phones come with every gadget imagined-or not, and in every price range. Cell phones encase everything American society wants today, fast, convenient, and easy to use. Unless of course you are in the rural mid-west and you can’t connect to 3G, then you are just backwards and going slow. Information transfer is instantaneous. It’s amazing. There is so much you can do with a cell phone some say it would be stupid to go without one. Even little kids own and use cell phones, some with more knowledge than their parents! It’s not just for “safety” as originally claimed, it is just a complete necessity in today’s world for a kid to have a phone. At least I am sure that is exactly what they would say.
This “epidemic” of cell phone addiction has gotten so bad that it inspired an episode on MTV’s True Life television series, “True Life: I Have Digital Drama” which follows two couples and films as one partner ignores the other who is right beside him to spend time texting, Twittering, answering calls and checking Facebook. We have all seen people who are playing on their phones a restaurant, ignoring the person who they came in with. I have to admit, I think the cell phone is almost the only way my own parents communicate. My dad lives on his phone, and checks it constantly as if he has missed something. My mom just got a new iPhone and has become part of the super-phone obsessed generation. I haven’t seen her much lately. When I do she is on the phone. Most cases aren’t this bad though. Most people are like me, I feel naked when I forget my cell phone at home, I feel completely cut-off from friends and family. What did people do in the “old days” when they only had one phone and it was attached to a cord in their house and had to be shared with their entire family? It must have been like the dark ages.
We all use our cell phones for different reasons. Some find it comforting to know that they can always call someone in case of an emergency, and it is that connectivity that feeds the addiction. Even when you are literally all alone you can still talk to someone hundreds of miles away. Somehow this technological tool has invaded our lives beyond even that and has become a part of our existence—even to the point of obsession. Even to the detriment of ordinary communication—like, say, a conversation. Even good things, if used too much, can become a bad habit for our society.
--Andrew Cormack
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