June 10, 2015
Do Cell Phones Make Us Stupid?
This was the headline on a magazine article I happened to get a glimpse of over someone’s shoulder. I didn’t get a chance to read the article itself, but that question did get me thinking. I'M AS ADDICTED TO MY CELL AS THE NEXT PERSON
I CAN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT IT After all, we are pretty attached to our phones…can’t live without them, right? Everywhere we go…there they are. Ringing, or better yet, chirping rock songs to tell us someone wants to talk to us right now! They are forever beeping or chiming to let us know we have a text message that just can’t wait. You know the one: the text telling you what your aunt just ate for breakfast…oh wait, she sent along a picture of her scrambled eggs. Yum! I’m as addicted to my cell as the next person. I can’t leave the house without it. But I have my limits. For example: I leave my cell in my purse when I am at a restaurant dining with friends. Aren’t we there to enjoy each other’s company over a delicious meal? At least, that is what I always thought. But apparently I am in the minority. At almost every surrounding table there were people reading texts, talking loudly on the phone and playing games. All the while, ignoring their dinner partners. Actual face to face conversation was a rare exception. I wondered if they were texting each other instead of actually communicating. That seemed pretty weird to me. What a waste of a perfectly good steak. Another thing I am not too crazy about is texting. I see other folks texting away and marvel at the speed and dexterity of their thumbs. I can’t seem to speed my texting up. I guess I don’t do it often enough, or my fingers are too fat. (I keep getting bounced out of my text when I don’t hit the space key correctly.) I actually worry about what texting is doing to our spelling skills. “Are” has become “r” and “You” has become “u”. And those are really easy words to spell. LOL at the end of a joke makes me a little nuts. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we could actually hear our friend’s laughter when we tell them something funny? LOL just doesn’t cover it. All right, all right, I have to admit that I get a lot of amusement from those videos of people walking into light poles or fountains while checking their texts. That’s just plain stupid! LOL Cell phones and cars are another bad combination. I actually got rear-ended by a guy on his phone. He didn’t see my turn signal or break lights. I sure hope that message about picking up milk on the way home was worth it. Okay, so I take this one personally. But every day we see people in their cars reading texts. Hey! We’re walking here.
I CAN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT IT After all, we are pretty attached to our phones…can’t live without them, right? Everywhere we go…there they are. Ringing, or better yet, chirping rock songs to tell us someone wants to talk to us right now! They are forever beeping or chiming to let us know we have a text message that just can’t wait. You know the one: the text telling you what your aunt just ate for breakfast…oh wait, she sent along a picture of her scrambled eggs. Yum! I’m as addicted to my cell as the next person. I can’t leave the house without it. But I have my limits. For example: I leave my cell in my purse when I am at a restaurant dining with friends. Aren’t we there to enjoy each other’s company over a delicious meal? At least, that is what I always thought. But apparently I am in the minority. At almost every surrounding table there were people reading texts, talking loudly on the phone and playing games. All the while, ignoring their dinner partners. Actual face to face conversation was a rare exception. I wondered if they were texting each other instead of actually communicating. That seemed pretty weird to me. What a waste of a perfectly good steak. Another thing I am not too crazy about is texting. I see other folks texting away and marvel at the speed and dexterity of their thumbs. I can’t seem to speed my texting up. I guess I don’t do it often enough, or my fingers are too fat. (I keep getting bounced out of my text when I don’t hit the space key correctly.) I actually worry about what texting is doing to our spelling skills. “Are” has become “r” and “You” has become “u”. And those are really easy words to spell. LOL at the end of a joke makes me a little nuts. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we could actually hear our friend’s laughter when we tell them something funny? LOL just doesn’t cover it. All right, all right, I have to admit that I get a lot of amusement from those videos of people walking into light poles or fountains while checking their texts. That’s just plain stupid! LOL Cell phones and cars are another bad combination. I actually got rear-ended by a guy on his phone. He didn’t see my turn signal or break lights. I sure hope that message about picking up milk on the way home was worth it. Okay, so I take this one personally. But every day we see people in their cars reading texts. Hey! We’re walking here.