Are You Talking to Me?

I admit it. I like Facebook. In fact, I like it so much I’ve been accused of being on it “all the time.” However, I beg to disagree. While I may check it more frequently than others due to being on my home computer more this year than I have ever been in my life, that doesn’t mean I am “on it” every moment of the day. I like to spend time with friends, to take photographs or a walk in my neighborhood, to attend seminars and exchange ideas with others. I like to learn new skills and explore new places.

And then there’s my cell phone. It’s not fancy. It’s an old flip phone; one that I can use to call people with or send a text message to, or even send a photo from time to time. Other than that, it’s just a phone. However, I only got it a few years ago in case I was either a) stranded somewhere because my car broke down or b) got lost and needed to call someone to get redirected or c) in case I was going to be running late and wanted to call someone on my way to meet them. Otherwise, for 29 years of my life I existed, JUST FINE, without having a portable phone.

All this being said, I do not have a problem with all this connectivity, HOWEVER, I find that nowadays people are on their phones – calling, texting, twittering or updating their Facebook status - and not really always aware of their surroundings or the people around them. They do it when they are at the register of a store having a purchase rung up or ordering food, they do it when they are driving in the car or sitting in a restaurant with a friend, and they do it when they are walking down the street with another person. It seems to me that all of us are just so involved with our technology that perhaps we are losing sight of the fact that we have friends who are right there with us and sometimes it’s nice to talk to the person you are with and only answer the phone or make a call if it’s an emergency. Perhaps we can put away our phones or not be constantly preoccupied with who might be calling us or texting us or getting in touch with us and remember we’ve got people right in front of us who want to talk to us, hang out with us and just spend time with us.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I’m just curious…