Why I don't have a smartphone

Remember when as children, people in my generation had delegated times to go on the computer? Half-hour time allotments to check e-mail, play games online and then sign off? Wow, has that idea disappeared.

Not only do we no longer allot our time properly on the computer, but now there's smartphones. The BlackBerry, Droid and iPhone have taken over our society. Upon entering any social situation in college, rather than starting conversation with each other, people just look at their phones. If a dinner conversation dies, rather than starting another one, each person takes out his or her phone to send a text message, reply to an e-mail, play a game or utilize an "App" like Angrybirds to distract themselves. It's too awkward to just talk, right? Why would we do that?

This New York Times article I found today highlights this point, adding more of a business and professional standpoint to the idea. I think it's equally applicable to college students, as we feel an inherent need to be connected to what's going on around campus, in our hometowns, with our friends and in the world at large at any given point in time. The author writes, "Employees are using their smartphones and other devices to connect with corporate e-mail, applications and data wherever they happen to be — whether at home, on the go or even on vacation." He is right.

We are educated that we need to know what is going on in the world. Current events quizzes are given, and professors lead conversations in class that we are expected to keep up in. But with so much going on in the world, how do we find the balance of how to stay involved without technology informing us of it?

John Lilly, the former chief executive of Mozilla (like Firefox, the internet browser), "recently pondered publicly what it meant to be so connected and decided to initiate a temporary reprieve. ...Mr Lilly is by choice and necessity a power user of multiple gadgets and social media. As he prepared for his new role as a venture partner at Greylock Partners, the Silicon Valley investment firm, he announced on his blog that he was taking time "to be a little more generative, to think bigger, more original thoughts. He said he would turn off Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook. 'I'm really excited to have a bit of time to start 2011 to slow down, try to think longer term, and to slow down my clock,' he wrote."

According to the New York Times article, once he began this resolution, he could not figure out how to disengage, and admitted that he didn't want to. As I have the same routine daily of checking Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter, I pondered how this is different from overall awareness of current events. I realized, instead of reading a continuous feed of news, we learn everyone in our 'network''s commentary on the news. Immediately. Retweets, "like"s and replies have created a world of constant opinion, so why discuss our opinion aloud when it's already written down?

People have become more expressive through words on the Internet instead of in person. They have thoughts, hopes and complaints that they would never say aloud, but write in a text, Tweet or Facebook post any day. Therefore, one of my goals is to "disengage" more from the Facebook/Twitter side of things and ask people what they think and how they feel, rather than comment on what they write on the internet. We as a society have become so impatient because we cannot wait to ask people what they think, we demand immediate response. Is this possible? Probably not. But usage can definitely be decreased to focus on qualitative conversation. Let's learn from this article to stray away from constantly checking Facebook statuses and Tweets on phones, and pay attention to the conversation in front of us.