 "Photo: Photo by Will Trentman")
It’s an electronic age and today’s American has to be plugged in, tuned in, turned on, and logged in. From the moment we wake until we sleep we’re electronically charged. One of technologies greatest gifts is the wireless hook-up, seemingly giving wings to communication.
We can reach out and touch someone around the world from wherever we are. If you’ve ever been on the phone and heard flushing in the background you know that boundaries must be established somehow.
As if the wireless world weren’t already mimicking a Star Trek flick, when we weren’t looking the Borg placed little typewriters on our telephones.
Callers don’t have to take the time to sit down and place a call. You don’t get the pleasure of hearing their children playing, dogs barking or smoothies whirling in the blender. All those little things that bring us into one another’s lives and build our friendships have been stripped from us like Lieutenant Data’s emotion chip.
Not everyone is a fan of wireless communication. The parents whose children don’t get the recommended amount of sleep because they stay up late night’s text messaging probably aren’t fans.
Neither are the teachers and professors of these under rested tele-typist. You know who you are. You sit there texting in your laps, under your desks as if your instructors are clueless. Stop it! You’re rude. You’re alienating your professors and the students on all four sides of you, who paid to learn. They are tired of being distracted by you and your mini-keyboard.
Those forced to walk at a snail’s pace behind text addicts clogging the halls and sidewalks aren’t fans of the constant connection provided by the text message either.
Your egotistical use of texting adversely affects you, as well. Text massagers’ routinely step into traffic without even looking up. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that doesn’t always end well.
For years, there have been an increasing number of drivers using cell phones. Experts warn that those using cells while driving have the cognitive driving abilities of someone driving while intoxicated. Now, many of these text drunken drivers are typing while driving. How good could that be?
Consider the health risks. Looking down with your neck bent all the time puts wear on vertebrae and disks in your neck. Be kind to your spine. Also, those opposable thumbs that separate you from an ape weren’t designed for the constant repetition of movement involved in frequent texting. Ask your doctor.
Now calm down. Don’t hate. This wasn’t an attempt to bash texters, but an attempt to open your eyes to what you’re missing, and the price that’s being paid..
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