Isn’t technology amazing? I’ve decided that there are several tasks that I do on my own that my cell phone could probably do for me. No longer do I really need to know how to use maps, for example, when an automated voice can tell me turn-by-turn how to get anywhere on earth. My alphabetizing skills can go by the wayside, because I won’t need a phone book either; my phone naturally seems to know how to find people when I need them. Thanks to Facebook, I know what all my friends are doing without even having to ask. And shopping? Or watching my kids? Forget it. I’m sure there’s a phone application that can do that for me too. If not, someone’s bound to invent one.
Cell phones are probably one of the best and worst inventions of all time. They provide us with added security, help during emergencies, and instant access to all sorts of information. However, they are also helping us become a ruder sort of people. I’m guilty of this too, so I’m not about to start pointing fingers. To every Wal-Mart=2 0checker and fast food employee that I’ve ignored as I talked on my phone, I apologize. Please consider this my public pledge to try to do better.
I have become one of those people who, for lack of a better word, is a junkie. Ask my husband if you don’t believe me. Years ago, when mobile phones were fairly new, I got my first bag model “just for emergencies”. It couldn’t leave the car anyway, thanks to its need for a power source, so not much harm was done. As time has gone by though, I’ve upgraded. My current phone has the internet, and I’ve been known to shop on Ebay and check baseball scores from the passenger seat as my husband drives my family down the road. I’m not proud of it, and if not for some special circumstances, I might not ever have wanted to change. Now I do.
One recent day, when I’d been on the phone for quite awhile as I drove my children around town, my two-year-old said, “Mommy, talk to ME.” There in my car was a little person who had observed me making some major mistakes. Not only was I probably setting a bad example by being a distracted driver, but I was also ignoring one of the most precious people in my world. I was talking to everyone but her, as far as she was concerned, and that isn’t right. She will never know a world without cell phones, it seems, but that doesn’t mean that I always have to be on mine.
Another lesson for me is a recent local tragedy. I don’t text (that’s one function of my phone that I’ve never gotten into), but if I did, I could be that one unlucky driver. Any of us could be. No message, no phone call, is worth that.
And so, I’ve decided to try life without my constant cellular companion for awhile. I’ll still carry it, just in case of that dreaded emergency, but I want to remember what my life was like when I just drove my car, sang the songs on the radio, and talked to the folks in the passenger seats. I want to enjoy the company of the person across the table from me in a restaurant, without both of us chattering away to people who aren’t even there. I want to call my friends or send them notes and ask how they are, not just read about it on their profiles. And I want to be grateful that it’s not too late for me to change and be the polite customer and listening mother, sans the cell phone, that I want to be.
Isn’t technology amazing?
Editor’s Note: This guest editorial is offered by Jamie Bergsten, a member of The News-Star Guest Editorial Advisory Board. She also is a teacher at Grove School. The views expressed by our guest editorialists and guest columnists are theirs, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the News-Star’s management.
