No one is present where
they are anymore. At least, that’s how it seems. This is one of my pet peeves.
I go to the grocery store, and people are on their cell phones. The other night
I saw a couple walking through the neighborhood. Both were on cell phones. We
have to wait; what do we do? Get out the phone or electronic device. God forbid
we actually engage right where we are.
Not that technology is a
bad thing. Certainly there are times it makes life much easier. But we take a
good thing and abuse it. Suddenly we can’t be anywhere without our crutches.
What if we actually had to talk to the clerk in the store? Or, God forbid, be a
little bored for five minutes? It’s not going to kill us.
And what are our kids
learning from all this? How can we expect them to have any sort of ability to
focus or pay attention when we don’t? What message does it send to them that we
spend so much time on these diversions and get irritated when they interrupt or
distract us?
Fact is, the present is all
we really have. We’re not guaranteed anything else. We need to embrace what’s
right in front of us. I have a feeling that when we get to the end of our
lives, we won’t be wishing that we had spent more time with our electronics.
We’ll be wishing we’d spent more time being really present. Right where we
were.
I agree with this! I wrote about it for I is for Instant Instants
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loathe people who are fondling their gadgets when I am trying to talk to them!!
ReplyDelete100% agree, I love my cell phone but am happy when it's switched off. I see people driving with cell phones, at the gas station...is that not illegal? Can the call not wait till they get home!
ReplyDeleteI love my new smartphone, but I use it more for work than to completely and utterly immerse myself, as some people do. I especially hate it when someone seems like they're talking to you, but they're talking to an earpiece.
ReplyDelete#atozchallenge, Kristen's blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com