Remember years ago when cell phones were just for calling people? The phone rang, you picked it up and then you jumped back into the world of the living.
Those days are LONG gone. Sometimes, I wish they’d come back. Hear me out. People are on their phones non-stop. During meetings, kids’ recitals, driving, while walking across the street – all the time and everywhere! Phones are such a wonderful distraction. When I’m on the train and I want to avoid eye contact with a particular crazy person, I’m stuck on my phone. It’s great for that.
I don’t even have to name all the positives of cell phones. We know what great things they do. But let’s get real – you’re probably spending way too much time on yours. There is absolutely no reason we need to be as connected as we are to our phones. The world will keep spinning if we miss a call, or we aren’t available to give play-by-play tweets of the date we’re on.
When I’m out and about, I always judge how good of a time I had by how much I was on my phone. I also use that as a barometer of whether someone else is enjoying themselves. If they are constantly attached to the phone, my guess is that I’m boring them. I cut that outing short, quickly.
Everyone is not a Fortune 500 CEO who has to work 24/7 to make the company function. Most of us are middle managers with modest savings and the ability to cut loose just a little on the weekends – nothing special at all. So no, I don’t believe any of us needs to constantly have our phones in our hands because we don’t do anything all that important to the world. So if you’re constantly connected and missing all that’s going on around you, you’re being rude and you should stop.