When I first saw this assignment, my initial thought was, “How
could I possibly live without ‘checking in’ to the ‘real world?!’” I’ve only been in the “smart world” for one
year now, but I absolutely love my phone and the ease of knowing that I can
contact anyone and that Google is at the tip of my fingers at all times. This assignment only solidified what I had
been denying myself for the past year—I’m just as dependent on my phone as the
teenagers.
To make myself feel better, I began to convince myself that
I was dependent on “grown-up” things such as email, texting, checking the
weather or news. But I was only lying to
myself. The itch of wanting to open a
notification was SOOOO difficult to ignore.
How cool is it to open your phone and see the little Facebook or new
message icon in the top left hand corner!?
It’s the first thing I look for when opening up my phone. And now with smart phones, the itch is only
worse because my Facebook and Pinterest Apps (which I’m addicted to both) show
me how many notifications I have and the number only got bigger as the day went
along!!
As a softball coach who contacts with her players and fellow
coaches regularly through the phone, not checking it was hard and I did have to
give in when I saw I had a message from either player or co-worker. Otherwise, I found myself going to my phone
whenever I was bored--Sitting at my brother’s baseball game, reaching for my
phone between innings, reaching for my phone during commercials, or reaching
for my phone during my normal getting-ready-for-bed routine. It didn’t matter what I did, I reached for it
when I was bored. Why or when this
started occurring, I don’t know, but I was disappointed with myself. Whatever happened to enjoying the outdoors,
looking at the individual I’m talking to or actually watching the lame TV commercials
that flood cable television (definitely missing my Netflix!!)?
Either way, my smart phone has been a great addition to my
life, but I need to leave it at that—an addition. There are too many precious things in life
that could be missed my head is always down looking at the screen. LOOK UP!!
I reach for my phone during breaks in competition such as between innings too. I was especially likely to check other scores on my phone during media timeouts during the basketball season. I didn't necessarily check because I was bored, but because I was genuinely interested in how the other conference games were going. I did not need to know how the other conference teams were doing but I had the ability to so I would. Like you said, mobile internet access is a great addition to our everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed that I was more dependent on my phone than I thought before this challenge. It seemed especially difficult to avoid it when I was bored. I think smartphones have just made it too easy for us to look things up and check the internet whenever we want. We take advantage of it and it becomes a habit. I think it helps if we are aware of the habit and try to make sure it doesn't interfere with other more important parts of our lives, like personal face-to-face interactions with others.
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