Thanks in part so smart phones that integrate voice, text, and now instant messaging services, the notion of having unbroken concentration during any task is completely antiquated. The fact that very few people turn off their phones at night is at the very least an small indication of society's active connectivity.
When "smart phones" started gaining momentum I remember starring in awe at the level of apparent rudeness of people engaged in face to face conversation, with eyes glued to their blackberry screens offering a limited level of attention to the person that was standing right there in front of them. What made the person on the other end of that phone more appealing than the one standing before them? I continued to judge these philistines until the day I purchased my first blackberry and suddenly everything changed. I became the "talk and texter" despised by non smart phone uses, and sympathized by fellow addicts.
It's difficult to say what this shift in attention means in our culture, why we seem to prefer negotiating reality through that 3 inch lens, but the ramifications for societal shifts are apparent. Perhaps the fact that we're able to control the content of our personalities and write our own press releases when conversation isn't conducted face to face, but this new trend certainly sparks controversy over the classic definitions friendship, intimacy, and human contact.
This is certainly an alarming phenomenon in contemporary society. Your point on people's need for constant connectivity to the extent that they don't even turn their phones off at night really rang true to me. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I rarely turn off my phone at night, in fear of any emergency that may arise overnight. I know that this is also true for the majority of my friends. To be honest, there have been no valid 'emergency' phone calls in the years of leaving my cell phone on at night. The only calls or texts that I have recieved overnight have been drunken ones, or random conversations that really can wait til the morning. Not to mention the fact that I'm often annoyed at when these calls do come in. So why do I keep my cell phone on overnight? I really don't know, but doubt I'll be changing my habits anytime soon. The need for constant connectivity is something very deeply rooted into our generation.
ReplyDeleteBlogger I completely agree with you, nothing good ever comes from a late night phone call. And even if there was some sort of emergency, I can't imagine that I'd be much use to anyone after being rousted from my slumber anyways. The deep seated paranoia must be a direct result of being disconnected from the "hive" for one second and the consequences (real or imagined) that we perceive would arise from taking ourselves "out of the loop".
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