What the Text?

         Wow, it has been a while since my last blog. I better get back on track. In short, Spring break came and went, March went in and out, and here we are in the last six weeks of class.

         Last week, my loyal phone of two years bit the dust. As I weigh my options for a new gadget--to upgrade to a Droid or iPhone, or keep it low key with a cheap Verizon phone--I immediately thought of dollar signs. But it occurred to me that there might be more I should consider besides pure cost. Although I am itching for an Internet phone (I am always behind the technological curve), it has really hit me how plugged in our society has become. Our cells require that we are always available; we have to drop everything to answer the call or respond to the text (I just ran downstairs mid-blog to grab my ringing phone). We feel constantly dependent on our phones: texting, checking email, or playing a game while waiting for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts or filling up on gas. It used to be considered a faux pas to answer a call or text during a date, conference, or chat, but the rules have changed. Now, when my friends and I go out to coffee, we each have our phones sitting on the table. An article in this month's Women's Health, "Never Run Late Again," suggest that cell phones encourage perpetual lateness. A simple text saying "Running late! Be there in five!" rids us of the guilt for making someone wait.

          And in the past few years, the Internet was added to the cell-reliant mix. Freshman year, I took a class called "The World According to Google," where we talked about the affect the Internet, Google in particular, was having on our society. We read an article from The Atlantic, written by Nicholas Carr, called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" It suggests that the way we read has been changed by the Internet, and that many of us are developing a case of Google ADD. Read a few sentences on one site, click on a link, skim a paragraph there, click again. Next thing, you're reading about a vacation in Hawaii when you started out looking up the earthquake in Japan.  Sitting down to read a full page of text, or God forbid a book, is now a daunting task. Bing's "search overload" commercials may actually hold some truth. But at the same time, instant answer sites like Bing and Cha-cha may be messing with our problem solving and cognitive thinking skills.
       
         If the suffering of our attention spans and social skills wasn't enough, another April Women's Health article, "Improve your Inner GPS," suggests that our heavy reliance on GPS devices is dumbing down our inner compass (not that I had one to begin with).  So I'm pondering all of this as I decide if I want to plug myself into the Matrix with a new smart phone. I mean, do I really need it to tempt me to go on Facebook during a boring lecture? But if I don't upgrade, do I risk being left behind by the technological curve?

         Definitely food for thought, but I'm not making any promises either way.

Text me! Love,

Annie