The Day Without a Phone

Cell phones are ubiquitous these days, and pay phones are, well, nearly extinct. In a little over seven years I have gone from not knowing how a cellphone worked to not even being able to call family and friends if I didn't look up their numbers in my cellphone first! Texting in class, at work, and yes, occasionally while driving, seems second nature to me, which is ironic considering that the first cellphone I ever owned couldn't even text!

Needless to say, it is only when we lose cellular phones that we truly realize how dependent on them we really are.

I didn't even spend a whole day without my phone. It was more like fifteen hours or so. But for those fifteen hours, I felt like I was missing a limb! Even worse, it was as if I had whatever that problem amputees have is called, when their brain tells them they have feeling in the limb they recently lost. [Encyclopedic editor's note: That's called phantom limb pain.] I constantly thought I heard my phone ring, or reached for it in my pocket to text someone.

As light-hearted as this anecdote may be, it forced me to focus on a deeper issue. While cellphones have added much more convenience to my life, I began to think in what other ways my heavy cellphone reliance affected me.

The first way I could think of was that I very rarely have long over-the-phone conversations with people. Whether it's my best friend in Washington, D.C., or college friends who are scattered all over the country, we Facebook, we text, but I can't for the life of me remember when it last was that I picked up the phone and really had a good conversation!

The second way is the constant sense of urgency with a cellphone. Even though we're not supposed to, I'd wager more than 75% of cellphone users, myself included, pick up the phone while driving. We keep our phones on at night. In reality, upon further consideration, 99.9% of the time, texts or calls we receive when we're driving or sleep can wait! The world will not end if we don't get that message or take that call right that very instant!

In addition, we use our phones to facilitate Facebook and Twitter and other instantaneous forms of communication. So the whole world knows when someone wakes up, what their mood is, and a whole lot of other not-so-necessary details about that person, while not really getting to know what makes that person tick. I mean, how can you communicate complex emotions, thoughts, or opinions, in 140 characters or less? 

Well, I found my phone eventually. And while I spent a fair amount of time ruminating on the ways technology has invaded human communication, I'm not ashamed to admit that my habits haven't changed too much.