Cell phones: Obession or addiction or both?

Tweet

How on earth did humanity survive in the “dark ages” (meaning prior to 10 years ago) before cell phone usage? How could people communicate without texting and relying on those primitive landlines? Egad, how can we live without checking the cell every two seconds? It is an epidemic that knows no boundaries be it age, gender, race, religion, political bent or anything else. I know the vast majority including many here on myLot will disagree with me but this cell phone obsession is becoming a societal sickness. What is the urgent need to check constantly for messages, get excited when it vibrates or have it glued to your ear? A minority of cells are actually work/business related (making you even more a slave to a job). Even those with numerous relatives and friends cannot be receiving or expecting earth shattering vital calls every hour of the day. I have overheard innumerable conversations that are pointless and about the trivial. People are literally and breathlessly and frantically checking their cells. It is ridiculous. Look how people behave these days. Interrupting conversations to take a call. Placing the cell on the restaurant table to watch while you eat with only half your attention on whom you are dining with. Defying theater rules and checking anyway. Abhorring turning them off and taking messages. Talking on a cell while in the bathroom. On the cell while attending a sporting event and paying little attention to the action. Being on the cell while working as well as breaks. Social gatherings have become collections of people standing around with cells eagerly in hand. The first thing people do these days upon awakening or exiting a forbidden cell zone is check for messages. I have witnessed people getting into their car to leave for work and what do they do? Check their cell.They just left their home and no doubt checked their cell three minutes ago. An era of increased rudeness and social disconnect (why bother to actually speak to someone when you can text instead!) has been ushered in. People are more enthralled by cells than with real interaction. Every call is so much more important than the person you are speaking to in person. Checking, checking, checking. Anxiously, desperately, waiting for the cell to display something or go off. And those calls/messages are not as important the majority of time no matter how much you argue they are. How many of these “vital” messages can wait until later? Do you really need to hear from your friend at Walmart reporting they are buying toilet paper? Contrary to young people’s belief, society functioned just fine without cells or even answering machines for almost a century. Who controls whom? Humans or smartphones? I think we know these handheld tech devices are winning that one. They are already do the math and spell for you and eventually your thinking.