Cellphones: Worlds Sedative For Reality

​There was a time when people lived in the moment. You went on family trips or hung out with friends and just experienced the world around you. The memories were in the stories of the people you were with. Now the memories are on our cell phones and online for everyone to see. We are so engaged in how everyone else's life is online, that we don't cherish the ones that are happening in front of us.

The world we live in is a complex one. It's a high tech one. It drastically has changed the way we communicate, live and perceive one another. Cellphones, I believe are pivotal in that change. I didn't have a cell phone until a month before graduating from High School. I was an extremely late bloomer in that department, but I was okay with that. I didn't need a phone.  The friends I had in High School, I spent about 85% of my day with them. Monday through Friday with an occasional Saturday thrown in. But that has all changed. Now kids are equipped with cell phones out of the womb. They have a better knowledge of operating them than their parents. It's a convenient device to shut the little hellions up.

With the constant upgrade of technology, our cell phones have become this placid tool that we can't go a day, an hour, not even a minute without looking at it and I get it. It can tell time, it's our datebook, it's our music player, it's our everything.  Like a bug to an artificial light, I am drawn to my phone. Attracted to the many apps (some useful, some not so much) I've downloaded. I don't know what it is.  It's comforting. You sort of go numb by what's around you because your entire existence at that moment is your phone.

Our constant need to have information at the drop of a dime leaves no room for surprise and has evolved into this sick game of voyeurism; watching and participating in senseless crimes or actions has desensitizes us from what's happening. In a way, you want to feel guilty. We're watching something that we shouldn't see outside of a movie, but like a good car crash, you can't help but watch.

I feel as a society, we shouldn't rely so much on our technology. You never realize how much you miss by unplugging for a day. No calls, no internet, no social media. You want to be social, arrange play-dates with friends and family and venture out. When dining, play a game. Have everyone place there cells in a bread basket or center table, first to answer there phone pays the bill or performs a dare. You may think you can't survive without your cell phone, but believe me, you'll live.