(Original Post - April 2011)
Can you hear me now?
It's a phrase that has annoyed me since its first utterance. Society jokes about how annoying these loud cell phone users can be, yelling into their phones in relatively quiet environments. And then there's the scrollers and the texters. I’ve often pulled up to drive-thrus to find the industrious worker engrossed in their mobile device. If employers could develop an app that allowed orders to be taken this way, efficiency would be through the roof.
I’ll leave the rant on this topic for the time being. I’m not anti-technology by any means. The Netbook I’m now using is connected wirelessly, as is the laptop that my wife is currently using downstairs, the iPod Touch I use to download music and the Blackberry that incessantly buzzes somewhere in the house, like the midsummer mosquito that drones through each room, robbing you of sleep and sanity.
My wife recently suggested I get an iPhone. I’ve never texted, I rarely use my cell, but I would enjoy the convenience of accessing digital books from anywhere – perhaps while patiently waiting in line at the coffee shop drive-thru while Trainee’s fingers blur across the keys to form nonsensical acronyms that I hope I never understand.
The short thought - We’re sitting on the couch after supper a little while back. I’m checking my email. My wife is doing the same on her Blackberry. The kids are playing, laughing, falling down, laughing harder. At one point, our son James goes over to my wife and puts his arms out, asking to be picked up. She sits him on her lap as she finishes her email. “A da do” he says, as she completes her message. He looks around, and then looks back at her. “A da do”. A little louder. No response. Finally, he reaches out his little one-year-old hand, takes my wife by the chin, and pulls her face roughly around to look him square in the face. “A. DA. DO!” Her eyes, finally, are locked on his. A wireless connection has been established.
Sunday was the 38th anniversary of the first cell phone call. Martin Cooper of Motorola used the 2.5 lb phone to call his chief competitor at Bell, no doubt to rub it in. It could be said then that the very first cell phone user was rude and undoubtedly annoying, at least to his competition. But it’s not the rudeness that worries me so much. It’s the ironic disconnect.
The Big Idea – When my son turned my wife’s face to his, wanting that personal eye contact, he reminded us of the most important connection there can be. Don’t get me wrong; I know of no child that gets more love, attention and nurturing than our kids, but this little example speaks to a larger issue. Especially with adults. The old saying is that the eyes are the windows to the soul. How often do we seek out that soul, that connection? And how often are we content to have the blinds drawn, rarely seeing the world that exists beyond the screen?
Can you hear me now?
Just a thought - Put aside your electronic appendages for a while. Now, the debate begins over what constitutes 'a while'. Try it for a day. Give up the use of all electronics that are not essential to work or school, and focus on the people around you. I was at a conference a while back, and the facilitator challenged everyone to engage in 60 seconds of silent, uninterrupted eye contact with a stranger seated next to you. No talking, no laughing, no goofy awkward smiles, no looking away for a moment. Of the 150 or so people there, not one couple completed the 60 seconds. We've become disconnected. So, turn off all the electronics, and for one day, see if you can connect... "Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences."
-Lewis Mumford
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