Did you own a cell phone 15 years ago? Probably not. When did you begin putting your phone on vibrate so you could still pick it up even if you didn't hear it ring from your pocket? When did you first start checking your email everyday? Multiple times every day? When was your first text? When did you realize you needed an unlimited text plan?
Today's society is always in contact. If for some reason I don't pick up a phonecall from my parents 3 consecutive times in a row or respond to an email promptly enough, they would be on the phone with the cops searching me down. If for some reason I don't respond to a text message from the opposite sex, the next time I see them words will be had or icy glares will be given. I don't like this. I don't like always being in contact with everyone in my phone book. But that's life and it's beyond most people in college right now how they would get by without email and cellphones. Our entire social life is kept in the flip phones in our pockets, and every paper is predicated on constant email contact with our teachers. (I email every single essay I write to myself for storage, sharing, and printing purposes)
In my parent's time, they made plans. They set up
dates and they showed up because how could they bail? Who would they call if no one was home? Can anyone under the age of 25 even think of a time where they had to use a payphone? Maybe twice. We've lost a degree of
responsibility with the technology we have now. We can change plans and coordinate so easily now that we don't really think of a meeting as important. Cell Phones have dramatically increased our social circles. There is no way my parents were in contact with as many people consistently as I am. And they're all the luckier for it. I have so many peripheral names in my phone who to put it bluntly are back-up and would-be friends. We both have the technology to make the jump from phone friend to real friend, but we don't, our names just sit in each other's phones until we forget and delete them.
Do you know people who keep their smart phones on the table with them as you sit down at a restaurant? Why not just order food for the blackberry? I find it so contemptible when people I am with in a formal setting pull out their phones to text someone else. What does that say to the group you are with? "Sorry this other person on the other side of the country is more important than you are right now." It's as if cell phones are a constant reminder that there is always something better going on somewhere else. That's not a reminder I want to have. I want a reminder that says what's in front of you Morgan is the most interesting thing in the world.
With all the good that cell phones and constant communication have brought it has made the world a much more annoying place. Though I guess it is helpful because watching how a person interacts with their phone isn't such a bad judgement tool. People say "don't judge" but if I am talking one-on-one with someone who pulls out their phone to reply to a picture message of a LoL Cat excuse me if I take that into consideration when we hang out (or don't hang out) next.
