Our PHONE-y Relationships


Our generation is technologically and socially obsessed. We have this social anxiety of consistently updating ourselves about other peoples lives through social media or text. There is this compulsion, which has become uncontrollable to have our phones on us at all times. To at least feel or hear it. And if we dare to leave it at home, we have become disconnected, a lost soul, breaking out in a cold sweat, wondering what amazing things we could be missing out on in the online world.

It drives me crazy that people now a days can not put their phones down. When I go out to dinner with my friends, they leave their phones on the table as if waiting for someone to text or call them. I can see them peering from the corner of their eyes as if sending some powerful signals for their phone to go off. Their hands tremble, inching their way closer and closer to the device. HELLO! I'M RIGHT HERE! Can you put the phone away and enjoy a real relationship with a real person? You know, the ones that consists of face to face communication and yes, TALKING WITH YOUR MOUTH. 

We need to be in touch with everyone and see what they are doing every second of the day. Sooner or later technology will be so advanced that we won't even need to leave our house. A virtual image of us will appear wherever our friends are while our lazy butt is in bed ALONE! This world is causing us to dig ourselves in an anti-social, social media hole. We become distant with the world being satisfied with these virtual relationships, when in fact, our only friend is our phone. 

Online relationships tend to just stay as online relationships. Half the people we are friends with through social media, are not really our friends. We may communicate online, but when it comes to actually seeing them in the real world, we can't even make eye contact. There is a part of us that knows so much about them, it's like a big secret, but then when we pass by them in person this weird feeling overcomes us and we are confused as to whether we should say hello.

Instead of having a few friends that are close, we would rather have a thousand friends at a distance.

But it's not as if our phones help us with this social anxiety. We have the whole world wide web compacted in this small device we carry with us everywhere. 

In reality, we are talking to our screen. We are so fixated on this little rectangular screen with just words and pictures. We constantly update social media pages and scroll through our text messages, even if we haven't received any recently- a nervous twitch.

But screw whatever is happening in our phones, the real problem is what is happening to us. The infamous TEXTING AND WALKING. Oh yes, we all fall victim to this criminal act. Not only are we not paying attention to what is in front of us, but we are putting ourselves in danger of possibly hitting a pole, wall, tripping, and bumping in to others. And it's not even about the danger, it's about how we are walking. Our head is down, we slow our pace, moving side to side trying to avoid people but sort of bumping in to them. We might as well be DRUNK!

SO HERE IS THE TEST
Spend a whole day with a close friend or family and ditch the phone. Enjoy actual company and create memories without having to share them with the world. No one needs to know what you are doing because in reality, no one really cares. Go out and leave the technological bubble. For once, you will walk with your head held high becoming familiar with the world you easily ignored.

{Image by Daniel Krall}

3 comments:

  1. This is not entirely new, some people just get sucked into these friends at a distance similar to some sort of blankie.

    I remember about twenty years ago now, we were having a small party at my fiends house, and we invited our friend Steve over. He was one of the first people I knew who carried a pocket sized cell phone around with him everywhere he went.

    Steve came through the door on his phone, and waked around the party talking on it, nodding to people, and smiling, it went on for over an hour and nobody could talk to the guy.

    Then my friend had a brilliant idea, he called him on his phone, we then all talked to him through his phone pretending he wasn't actually in the room, he didn't really get why all of us thought it was so funny, then after the call ended, he called someone else and exited the party still on his phone.

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  2. This post made me think. I'm not much of a technology person, I have a cell phone that isn't smartphone, not because I can't afford it but because I don't want to, I don't put my photos online (at least not on daily basis) and I prefer having coffee over having a skype conversation. :) Recently I started a blog and got really bad reviews from one community because I had more text then photos. It really shocked me. It's like people are always rushing somewhere, like they don't have time even to read, they just look at the pics, conclude something and skip to another thing.
    I believe that is what technology brought to us and therefore I agree with you. I remember watching a bunch of teenagers coming home from a night out. They were walking side by side and their noses were in their smartphones, uploading photos from the night out to Facebook. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

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  3. Denise:What about all those things you wrote on Facebook?
    (In a seductive voice) "How was your day?" "My neck is so sore"

    Phil: Why do people keep adding voice to these things!? I didn't mean anything

    Denise: You mean to tell me I wasted a year of my life on this relationship!

    Phil:What Relationship??

    Denise: How many other women have you lead on!?!? (Scene ends)

    Phil: I don't know!

    (Scene ends) Those lines were from Modern family. I was watching it and reading your post and sure enough, this was a PRIME EXAMPLE of what you were talking about. His ex girlfriend who he had been talking to for over a year on Facebook, decided that her and Phil had some special romantic relationship. The line he mentioned about people using certain voices when they read messages, IS A VERY TRUE LINE. That's the problem with social media....lol

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