Cell phones have an amazing power to build and obliterate relationships. If there’s one thing learned from my first semester on TR Campus, it’s that constant connectivity affects social relationships in numerous unobvious ways.
Most students agree there is significant convenience in reaching someone important at all times of the day, like loved ones, school instructors and co-workers. But I would much rather not be quite so reachable.
I want to value the time spent with other people, and the way I communicate with them is crucial to building this value. There is value in waiting for response, in giving communication time. The flow is interrupted with the constant beeping and buzzing that comes with a busy life.
The most annoying thing is when I am talking to someone and, out of nowhere, that person pulls out a cell phone and starts paying attention to something else. This destroys any value of intelligent conversation we may have shared because I instantly feel disrespected and, quite frankly, boring.
We willingly find ways to be busy and preoccupied, which is amazing. I like to find myself relaxed and un-busy. This semester especially, when I’m reporting and doing things I’ve never done before as well as working another job and going to school full-time, I am more focused and prepared when I can take a moment to be undisturbed and unattached from the bustle.
The thing is, it’s hard to escape it. It is now an obligation to be available at least through a cell phone. Employers would be dissatisfied if they knew they couldn’t reach you until you return home in the evening.
Aren’t we missing tiny bits and pieces of life when we stand paralyzed with a cell phone glowing in our faces?
I have never enjoyed phone conversations. Phone calls are awkward situations waiting to happen, especially right before I hang up, which takes most people about 10 minutes to do. I’m all about chatting away the day in the right conversation, but let’s get together over coffee and do it.
The phone call can master a quick-and-clear relay of information between two people, and that is wonderful. That means you don’t deal with the clear-as-mud text message talk, and you don’t have to take the time to meet somewhere to discuss one small thing.
But it’s important to just save your words for the face-to-face contact. That’s when they mean the most.
