A phone is not a friend
Photo: Google
A phone is a communications tool.
A phone with a camera is not a celebration. It is a way to record an event.
When do tools become the purpose of our lives rather than the means to achieve purpose? And how many pictures can you look at ever again? (I just emptied over 500 photos out of my phone and saved about 12.)
I believe we are addicted to devices. Smartphones. Tablets. Even desktops and laptops. Maybe if you’re over 50 you have maintained some control over how these devices invade your life. Maybe if you’re under 30 you’ve resisted the global digital jones. But, the digital world is changing our three-dimensional world, and how we interact as human beings.
Where’s the good and where’s the bad in these changes?
The bad for me? When a smart phone is used as a self-referential, narcissistic tool and interferes with in-the-moment, in three-dimensions communication.
The good for me? When tools are used to make important work. Here, actor Benedict Cumberbatch challenges media to make a difference with the tools.
Okay, I sound like a curmudgeon, but do we really need that many photos of ourselves?
Tags: communication, digital devices, media, phones
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I’m with you. I really, really hate that Iphone ad that brags more photos are taken with an Iphone than any other device. It could be remained the me-me-me-phone
I have met people (names of the guilty are withheld) who have taken hundreds, maybe thousands of photos on a smart phone but have never downloaded even one photo.
I consider it the height of rudeness to answer a cell phone when engaged in actual face to face conversation with a live human.
Pete says:
“I consider it the height of rudeness to answer a cell phone when engaged in actual face to face conversation with a live human.”
I say: “You can drop the word ‘cell’ in that comment” For example, your standing at a check out counter at a store and interacting with the checkout clerk and that person interrupts your interaction to answer the phone. Really annoying!!
I agree on all counts. While the clip indicates how pervasive it is with the younger crowd, I was recently in a Board of Directors meeting with a table full of middle aged “professionals” and there were three of them studiously texting through the entire meeting, hiding their phones below the tabletop. I was appalled at how rude these folks were, nevermind that they were only half aware of what was being discussed. If I were the Chair I would have had a good deal to say and it wouldn’t have been pleasant, “curmudgeon” that I am…….