I hadn’t thought about turning my cell phone off. It was the one day of the year I thought I could ask to have off work without any problems. However, on August 22, 2006, after waking up at noon and heading to my friend’s house, I received a call from my boss.
“Hello, Matt?” “This is Anthony from Graul’s. I need you to come in today.”
“…I asked off over a month ago. Today is my birthday”
“Joe was in an accident and George isn’t picking up his phone. Plenty of other people work on their birthdays. You can come in at five.”
Shit! Why did I pick up my phone?
“Uhhh… I kind of already made plans.”
“Oh yeah, where are you?!”
“I…” Click.
Well, my boss never really liked me. He just wasn’t that nice of a guy. After that I’m pretty sure his feelings about me exceeded dislike. I only wish I had some other employers to use as references. However, the point of this story exceeds my contempt for my old job. While I often feel like I’m missing some important organ without my cell phone, I can’t help but realize the negative reality associated with the constant connection to everyone who has my number or can find it.
Gradually, the more I think about it, the more I become disgusted with my personal attachment to my cell phone and my descent away from face-to-face interactions. What a sad state mankind must be in when the majority of informal interactions take place in the form of poorly-spelled text messages. While I can’t blame anyone but myself for how I interact with others, modern technology simply fuels this desire to say things quick and be done.
Lately I’ve been watching some old black and white movies. A man is desperately in love, separated from his lover by some terrible inconvenience. He pours his heart out on a piece of paper and sends it. She reads it and the desires wells up inside her. Reunited, they are like one, and the look in each other’s eyes is one of pure love. Granted, it is a story wrought to invoke feelings of longing, etc., but it is a story of generations past that simply would not happen in our society of cell phones and email. It seems like something is lost when we’re always just a cell phone’s call away from our closest acquaintances.
If I remembered to do so this past Christmas, the last letter I sent was likely a thank you note. Every winter I tell myself I’ll be better at doing so, but laziness and forgetfulness often overwhelm the desire to be a better person. There is something more unique and personal about a hand-written letter that communication such as email simply can’t provide.
Two summers ago I spent a few weeks in
After receiving that letter, I made sure to immediately write one with an almost exorbitant amount of praise. I know that if I were to just write an email in response to her letter, she would likely feel I did not appreciate her hospitality. Maybe this is a good thing that letters are still regarded so highly; we must overcome our acquired laziness.
A trend I have noticed lately is the increase in the amount of blogs. In an article entitled “Culture Clash: Journalism and the Communal Ethos of the Blogosphere,” the history of these web logs is examined and talks of how they gained in popularity. I found it funny reading this article as two of my current classes require me to write blogs, yet I had never created one before. It appears that blogging is completely revolutionizing the world of news. However, I have mixed feelings about this revolution. I think it is great that nearly anyone can share their opinion with the rest of the world, but I do worry for the people who write articles for newspapers. Print publication is in serious turmoil and this could be terrible news for writers and readers of these publications.
