[Note: Opinion piece originally written for a news project in December 2011]
Walking down any high street
you can guarantee the air will be illuminated with hundreds of sparkling phone
screens as people eagerly text back their friends, ‘BBM’ (straight
out of Blackberry’s
own dictionary) their mates or quickly send an email to so and so. Isn’t technology
great? Just over ten years ago it would have seemed alien
to us that such a small device could do so many wonderful things; how long
until a mobile can make us a cup of tea? (I can tell you now, I am impatiently
awaiting that day - it‘s
only a matter of time!)
My gripe is not with technology. No, technology can be
marvellous and mind-boggling, producing information creations that I could
never understand. Technology is awesome. But this isn’t an ode to
technology; this is a warning to you. Yeah you, the one with their head so
engrossed in their phone that you’re almost a part of the little electrical
currents running through it. Oh hello, so you can hear me!
That’s right; my problem is with those people who appear so
attached to their gadgets and gizmos that they’re part robot, so lost without
technology that they may as well glue their hand to it and eliminate all risk
of ever being apart from their beloved.
It’s
one thing to be in touch with people via mobile, I do it myself, but when
technology takes over and you no longer communicate with the people you’re with in
reality (that strange place that many people seem to have lost touch with),
there’s
definitely something wrong.
There have been many times when what started out as a
conversation turns into an awkward laugh when I realise the attention of a
friend has been diverted to a phone rather than their company. I’m sure many
of you have faced the uncomfortable silence when a phone has taken priority
over your charming and witty analysis of the meaning of life. (Well, you can
always pretend; after all, they didn’t hear you anyway).
Take this as a warning, all you part-mobile iPeople: you
and your phone can be disconnected. Life will go on! Look around and you’ll realise
the real world is just as interesting, if not more! Take notice before all your
real friends get fed up of talking to the human equivalent of a brick wall. Oh,
and just in case you missed what the meaning of life was during an ignored
conversation, I can tell you now…
Oh wait, you’re replying
to a text.
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