I used to think smart phones were great

Until the moment that they were everywhere.

You see, I am a child of technology. That is, technology shaped me. By the age of 13, I was surfing on the web and chatting with strangers. I found it easy to communicate on the Internet back in 1998, preferring that to whispering vocal words to people right next to me.

When new technology (as long as there was no cost), I would hop on it. I joined every social network I could.

Then the smart phone. You see, I had one of the early smart phones. A windows CE phone before the iPhone changed the landscape and how information was distributed. In the month that I had it…I was suddenly taken in by the ease of communicating…and the absorption that I found myself in the screen.

I hated what I had become in the mornings, turning over and reading my email right away.

I swore off smart phones quite immediately after that, claiming cost. I didn’t get a smart phone again (of my own that is) until 2010. And I found myself tapping, scrolling, swiping. As if I couldn’t get enough information. I wanted more. I always wanted more.

But now, I am at my brink. Even though I work in the industry (freelance, that is), I don’t want to be enslaved. I want to talk to people. I want people to see me in the eye. I want people to stop capturing the moment. I want people to stop trying to validate themselves. I blame the phone for this easy validation.

I want the phone to put aside. Because you know, this way, we have to face our own fears.

I wish that every place had a box like this.

1 thought on “I used to think smart phones were great

  1. I definitely relate. I scorn seeing everyone on their phones in public places, especially at nicer dinner places, and especially when it’s obvious it’s a couple on (what used to be called) a date. Yet I feel the same endorphin cravings for more hits of interesting tweets. Augh. It’s a nightmare. I think smartphones have killed the ability of most people to sit still and contemplate or metathink.

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