Have you ever seen the image of the evolution of man? - It
starts with a hunched over monkey and progresses onward until it becomes and
upright-walking man. Well the next step
for man is going to backtrack. We will
return to our heads being hunched over- why will they be hunched over . . . Because
they will be staring into our phones.
For my entrepreneurship class I was asked to go to a place
that I normally attend and to sit and watch for 15 minutes, to just simply
observe. I decided to go to a food
court, and just see what I noticed about the world. And what I noticed, is that we don’t, that
is, notice.
I was amazed, by observing I figured that at more than 80%
of the tables there was a phone or a computer that the person sitting there was
buried into. This included people that
were eating at tables with friends, and this was the majority of the
tables.
I don’t want to sound like the old person that always says “you
youngsters these days are so into your electronic things, you need to look up
more” but . . . I want to sound like the old person. –GET OFF YOUR PHONE!
The assignment alone is not what makes me so
passionate. But the assignment made me
especially aware to other experiences I had this week. Because of where I was going passed a girl 10
times; she was engulfed in her phone and her face was engulfed in her hair, and
not once did I even see what she looked like.
Another experience, which I think is the worst, is that I came up to a
friend to do a task, and literally said “It is nice have someone to talk to
while we do this task.” After upon
saying this, they immediately put earbuds in and started watching YouTube clips
on their phone.
I found another blog that talks about this same topic, it seems that most of us are realizing that technology is talking over our lives. Too much technology
I found another blog that talks about this same topic, it seems that most of us are realizing that technology is talking over our lives. Too much technology
I think that society would be surely be a much more social place
and most probably a happier place if we would just unplug for a moment or
two. I am going to make sure that I am
not that person who forgets the people around me, or doesn’t take time to enjoy
the real world which is ever around me.
I totally agree with you about technology. Technology is pretty crazy! There have been several studies done lately. The most recent one was to figure out why people these days take much longer at a restraunt than they normally do, yet they still complain about how awful the experience is. This study showed through cameras that people would get seated promtly, then they would be introduced to their waiter who would go get their drinks. They would then begin to chat and pull out their phones to post on facebook or twitter. They would do anything, but look at the menu. So, when the waiter would return they were not ready to order. The waiter would then come back a few minutes later after she did her other rounds, and they still would not be ready to order because they are so hooked to their phones. Finally when they were ready to order the waiter was doing her rounds, so guests would become impatient. Once she came back, she would take their order and then take it back to the kitchen promptly and get their food. Well they complained to the manager later that the waiter seemed to take forever and their food came late compared to other groups around them. Little did they realize, that the whole incident was their fault, because they were on their phones and not looking at the menu.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is Walmart. I love Walmart, but anyone who has WIC checks goes there. I tend to stand behind the people that have them. I then get stuck there for forever. One time, the lady was on her phone that she did not even bother to look up to see that the guy had started to ring up her purchases. He was doing what any cashier would do. He did not know that this lady had checks. Well she did. He had managed to get most of her food scanned, before she even looked up from her phone. Well, it then took another 30 Minutes for them to figure out how to do the WIC checks, now that everything was rung up. Needless, to say I was very agravated with the lady. Can you not be on your phone when you are in the checkout line?? Really do you need to be on your phone that much??
I totally agree with your statement - GET OFF YOUR PHONE!! I feel like we need to take time and watch the world around us, not just technology. I love nature. I love seeing the world evolve, and change. I love the seasons. I love the beauty that is created all around. When people with their phones stand in the way of this beauty they truly are missing out on a beautiful miracle.
Thanks for sharing! I hope more people will take the time to be unplugged.
I am one of the older students at BYU and I have seen the significant change due to cell phones in the world. I received my first cell phone when I was a senior in high school and I remember being confused. I wanted to ask, "what am I supposed to do with this?" I was one of the first students in my high school to get one and it was just one of those things that I stashed in my bag and didn't talk about. Then again, there was not much that I could do on my phone. Besides making phone calls, the only other entertainment was the classic game of Snake and that was extremely basic. Now I feel that the younger side of society is losing the ability to connect with those around them because they do not have to go outside of themselves to be entertained. They are constantly plugged into a system and do not know how to live with out it. The main question that I have thought about is how am I going to raise my kids so that this does not happen?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts on this; it really is a serious subject that I think many people overlook. How surprised would we be if we each could know exactly how many hours we spend on our phones each day? I know that I'm guilty of overuse. What especially gets me is how people use their phones in the middle of conversations with others. Try as we might, humans really can't focus on two conversations at once, an usually the face-to-face conversation gets hurt. In class, we learned how face-to-face conversations are the richest form of communication, and when we are so into our phones, we miss out on much of those benefits. Thanks for the reminder to keep my phone use under control!
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