Can You Hear Me Now?

The other day I was sitting at home waiting for my wife to return from work. When I am alone, I have lots of time to ponder and think about random things that pop into my mind. On this occasion I was thinking about the telephone. Specifically the cell phone. In just a few years time, the cell phone has become a central part of the American landscape. Everyone seems to have one of these things attached to their body somewhere. They have become so ubiquitous that they are even wiping out another icon of Americana, the wristwatch. Trends are showing that wristwatch sales are indeed slumping since people with cell phones see no need to buy a watch when their phone also tells time. But I was wondering about something else that may be endangered. Conversation. Think about it for a few moments. It was only a few years back when, if you needed to talk to a family member and you were in the car, you had to find a phone booth, another disappearing landmark, get out your dime, and make the call. Today, you just open the flip, or say “call home” and you are connected. It is all so simple. And call we do. From the office. From the road. From the soccer game. From the stadium. Americans seem to be addicted to talking to each other… on the phone! Is it any wonder it is quiet around the house? What more could you possibly say that you have not already said in the course of your sixteen phone calls during the day? Remember when the family might have gathered around the table for dinner and shared all of the day’s activities? Now we don’t need to. Because as they were going on, you made the call. And I believe that is slowly robbing us of the magic of real conversation. It isn’t that I don’t want to talk to my wife, or husband, or child. It’s that I have already said it. Thank you Sprint, or Verizon, or T-Mobile! Is it quiet around the house at the end of the day? Do you feel disconnected to the significant people in your lives? Have all of the important issues of your day already been shared? Do you have to recharge your cell every day because of extensive usage? If you are like me, you’ll answer yes to one or two of those questions, at least some of the time. Maybe it’s time we were a little less connected, so we can better connect. Think about it. technorati tags: cell phones, conversation, connections