“IDR the last time we hung out. Sounds good. ttyl.”
Since when did conversations with our family and friends become so detached and impersonal?
TTYL-Talk to you later, but the problem is, there is no more talking. The only sound being heard is the mental voice in your head, reading the words illuminated on the little screen.
When I was younger and growing up, my enjoyment was going outside and playing. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many scenarios I cooked up in my mind to act out in the back yard. From sun up to sun down I was using the “gift” of creativity to travel to foreign lands, take down the evil cowboys, slay the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and became best friends with the bugs I encountered. I would run and chase fireflies as the sunset landscaped my backdrop and settle down with my glowing jar and watch the night sky blanket over me. My own creativity was pretty great but when my brother, cousins, and friends came to play, we would throw our creative juices in a bowl and have the time of our lives. Video games and computers existed but they never really interested me. I remember playing a few video games when I was younger but would get bored and want to play outside. Computers, to me, seemed like a complicated box that robbed me of other enjoyment.
Hand-held technology is becoming an addiction. An addiction is defined as a having a strong need to regularly have something, a dependence. If cell phones were to crash for one week, imagine what your everyday life will look like without it. How would people with such a strong dependence on their devices function? Would the withdrawal cause chaos in the streets? Sure, it might seem a bit absurd to make such an accusation but we don't really know what would happen. We only know what has been shown in addiction studies. Withdrawal can include irritability, emotional distress, and restlessness. We can see short-term withdrawal effects in everyday living. Such as, I have seen witnessed individuals phones dying while they are away from any chargers and they became agitated, to the point that I struggle to keep their attention.
I encourage everyone to put their devices down for at least an hour a day and see how their world looks when they are allowed to look up. You might see things you never knew were there, you might hear conversations for what they are and not what you think you hear. Don’t let your life revolve around the battery of our devices, if a phone dies, it doesn’t mean you die. Let creativity back in and allow children to morph a cardboard box into a spaceship headed for Andromeda. Our addictions to our devices has become a lost cause but help the wave of addictions stop before our future generations create a dystopia. Keep the verbal conversations going!