Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Messages. Email. Repeat.
Out to lunch today, I witnessed several people doing what has come to be expected of today’s people – staring into their smart phone screens. Whole tables of people in each other's company in body only. I’m not talking about the occasional check for text messages or voicemails. I’m talking about the way they were staring into the phones like they were the Magic Mirror or something. And I’ll be the first to admit that I was right there with them. Noticing this, I had to stop and ask myself why.
Why are we more concerned with making sure that the salad in front of us is Instagram-ready than with enjoying the salad? What is the significance of a Facebook like or a retweet (by the way, my Microsoft Word didn’t recognize retweet, which shocked me… Get with the times, dictionary.)? Why are we more interested in what is going on away from us than what is going on in front of us?
Maybe we have always been this way and now we just have the technology to quench that thirst – or maybe the technology is the heat stroke creating the thirst. I like to think it’s the latter, because that gives me a little more faith in people. Maybe we aren’t just a bunch of social-media-soaked enthusiasts who would rather read an electronic book than its outdated paper relative. Besides, I never understood the allure of the Kindle or Nook – what is the joy of reading a book if you can’t crinkle the pages? Until the tablet readers get a “crinkle” button, count me out.
Tangent aside, I don’t mean to sound like one of those people who harp on society for being glued to screens. I relish in the consumption of social media. I browse Pinterest on the reg. I even spend minutes trying to condense a thought I just have to get out there into 140 characters or concocting the perfect caption for an Instagram. Seeing that I find nothing wrong with the offerings of smart phones, computers or the like, you may wonder why I am writing this.
It's sort of a "it's not you, it's me" type of thing – it's not the technology itself - it's the way we are using it. It's preferring an interactive screen to a human being in front of us doesn’t sit well with me (although I, too, am a culprit). So I am challenging myself for the next week: to refrain from using my phone while I am with others. If the world lights on fire or they find out that Nutella is an antioxidant or something, I might have to tweet about it. Otherwise it’s time to focus on what is in front of me – and I don’t mean my computer screen because that’s what’s in front of me right now.
After the week passes, who knows what will happen? Maybe I will be changed forever and I will no longer be one of those people you see out to lunch engrossed in their phone.
Or maybe it will be back to… Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Messages. Email. Repeat. Oh, and sometimes I blog.