We might as well have been born with them: smartphones. A bonus when you leave the hospital together with your birth certificate and car seat, you should get a phone assigned at birth. Smartphones have become as important as immediate necessities to survive these days. They’re attached to us like an umbilical cord; the other end is a signal that represents the ‘life line’. It was a lack of knowledge and technology that kept us generations apart, but now every generation has one thing in common: they all know how to operate a smartphone. I can’t quite remember when they became so imperative in our lives, but now it’s the one thing you can’t leave home without. 

Back in the day, we spoke via phone, only when it was important. Cost played a huge part in our ability to have mindless conversations. Patience was a virtue, and it is missed. We waited to talk in person, observed body language, and engaged in interaction. I remember it being a luxury to have a mobile phone; now, one looks down on you if you don’t have the newest model. The entire planet shifted to ‘keeping up with the latest and greatest’. Trust me when I say the entire world is involved in this psychotic behavior. I have traveled to countries where being homeless is accepted, but being phoneless is not.

Instant information is at the top of the list today. With these devices, we have everything we need, and it’s almost done without another human being involved. Our lives depend on our phones; they’re our ticket to knowledge, instant communication, and connection to the world and beyond. Yet we survived without the gadget in the past; we made it through not knowing a great deal. Sometimes, too much knowledge is harmful. We’re advancing into the digital world of Artificial Intelligence. It’s called ‘artificial’ for a reason. But as a human race, I believe we have taken many steps backwards. The more we advance in technology, we fall behind in primitive ideals: common sense, reasoning, native intelligence, and being real and present. 

My longtime executive job consisted of using a phone daily, sometimes handling several lines at a time. I remember coming home and not wanting to answer the phone when it rang. It irritated me to talk after a long day hunched over a receiver. Today, we converse via a phone all day, even with those we see daily. It’s become our storage bank. I remembered hundreds of numbers in my head. Now I barely remember any phone numbers. The overload of unwanted knowledge has taken up so much space.

Table manners now include phone etiquette. Phone distraction is a source of rudeness on so many levels. Our ability to simply wait has diminished, and with it the ability to obtain undivided attention. Unexpected death meant rummaging through personal belongings or diaries that would reveal secrets. Now everything is left on social media or in phones, together with secrets and hidden agendas for the world to find. There is no real privacy or seclusion. We were ok getting lost without a map and not making it home in time, and when you went missing for an hour or two, no one tracked you. Patience was really a virtue; now this phrase has no meaning. We require instant results; waiting now is a cause of feud. 

I must admit my phone did bring some positivity to my life.  Being alone during the pandemic, it became that one lifeline that kept me afloat. It was my only source of reaching out for human interaction. It was my ticket to a little hope. I was never a person who used my phone immensely. But isolation caused me to become dependent on it. I feared losing it and began guarding it like a pet. Unknowingly, I let it dictate my existence. My phone was my door to the outside world I was isolated from. I walked around with it in my pocket, not wanting to miss any signal or response. It helped me through the toughest phase of my loneliness. It allowed me endless conversations with loved ones across the world. I could be a part of their life through social media, and when times got really tough, I had an avenue of support right at my fingertips. I couldn’t see anyone in person, but video calls fulfilled that void too. I found myself documenting my journey through this phone, my writing, my photos; they all found a place right in my hand.  My phone became my holy grail. 

So, for whatever it’s worth, technology and advancements do aid, sometimes in ways that are forbidden to acknowledge, because until we need help, we can’t see that there is, in fact, a problem. For every problem we have recognized, there is always a solution. Cutting-edge advancements have led us into developments that are shaping our world for the better. Although some of us would like to go back to the way things were, it’s really not all so bad to be part of the change; change is how we evolve, and change is good.