Remember the good old days, before cell phones and the internet? Way back then, if you thought of something to tell a friend while you were waiting for the bus, you made a mental note to remember it until you got home and could give them a call. If you needed to look up a bit of information or do research for a term paper or a new purchase, you'd head to the library. Ah, those were the days.
This time of year really points up the number of new information sharing and communication gadgets available. Each store flyer has dozens of laptops, netbooks, cell phones and smart phones on sale just in time for the holidays. Now, no one has to be without the internet or some sort of communication device right at their fingertips. Anyone can send and receive email, surf the web, instant message, text message and just generally communicate his or her little heart out 24 hours a day, no matter where they are. The only thing that these amazing little gadgets don't provide is the most important of all: Something to say.
Of course, people have always used the telephone to chat or even rehash that morning's pre-breakfast argument. Regular communication is the mainstay of interpersonal relationships, and the telephone made it easier to do than did the occasional long letter. However, more communication options don't translate into more information to impart. That is why we are all familiar with the grocery store cell phone call, which usually starts with something like, "I'm at the store looking at the stuffed pimentos." Who needs to know that? By the same token, we are all now privy to the rehashed argument, sometimes with accompanying histrionics. Nobody needs to know about that, either.
The problem is that even though there is more opportunity to communicate now, people really don't have that much more to say. So, in an effort to impress others or use those "free" minutes, people walk and drive around with their cell phones pasted to their ears. What is so important that you need to make a call while you're driving?
I think people have become so accustomed to constant noise and chatter that they are nervous when they are alone with their own thoughts. When cell phones first became popular, but not common, I remember people making a big deal about talking on them. They would exaggerate their movements and speak too loudly, as if to say, "Look how popular I am!" Come to think of it, many still do. But I have a way to get back at them. Whenever someone next to me at the store starts to yell into his or her cell phone, I just start talking or singing, at just the same volume. Ha! Because, you see, despite this communication explosion, I don't own a cell phone because we still don't have service where I live. So, for now, I have to be content with annoying those who do. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
This time of year really points up the number of new information sharing and communication gadgets available. Each store flyer has dozens of laptops, netbooks, cell phones and smart phones on sale just in time for the holidays. Now, no one has to be without the internet or some sort of communication device right at their fingertips. Anyone can send and receive email, surf the web, instant message, text message and just generally communicate his or her little heart out 24 hours a day, no matter where they are. The only thing that these amazing little gadgets don't provide is the most important of all: Something to say.
Of course, people have always used the telephone to chat or even rehash that morning's pre-breakfast argument. Regular communication is the mainstay of interpersonal relationships, and the telephone made it easier to do than did the occasional long letter. However, more communication options don't translate into more information to impart. That is why we are all familiar with the grocery store cell phone call, which usually starts with something like, "I'm at the store looking at the stuffed pimentos." Who needs to know that? By the same token, we are all now privy to the rehashed argument, sometimes with accompanying histrionics. Nobody needs to know about that, either.
The problem is that even though there is more opportunity to communicate now, people really don't have that much more to say. So, in an effort to impress others or use those "free" minutes, people walk and drive around with their cell phones pasted to their ears. What is so important that you need to make a call while you're driving?
I think people have become so accustomed to constant noise and chatter that they are nervous when they are alone with their own thoughts. When cell phones first became popular, but not common, I remember people making a big deal about talking on them. They would exaggerate their movements and speak too loudly, as if to say, "Look how popular I am!" Come to think of it, many still do. But I have a way to get back at them. Whenever someone next to me at the store starts to yell into his or her cell phone, I just start talking or singing, at just the same volume. Ha! Because, you see, despite this communication explosion, I don't own a cell phone because we still don't have service where I live. So, for now, I have to be content with annoying those who do. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
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