addicted

The addiction that makes me step onto my soapbox? Technology. I know, coming from someone who first got a cell phone at the age of 23. Last week when I went to the grocery store, I could not move my cart anywhere. Not because the store was packed, but because so many people were haphazardly pushing their carts as slow as possible, cell phone crammed to the ear. I had to say "excuse me" three times to the woman blocking the hamburger buns because apparently the bread aisle is the place to stop to have an extended conversation via the phone. I was in awe at the amount of people who were with each other, but both were either on the phone or updating Facebook statuses. Really, "checking in" at the grocery store? Do we need to know so much minutia of a person's day?

The hub and I attended the Lil Wayne concert last Friday night, and it was awesome. But I noticed that the kids near us spent the entire time videotaping the concert on their cell phones. Probably so that later it could be uploaded to You Tube. All in an effort to prove how cool they are, how incredible it is that they got to be there. But they didn't see the concert, they didn't hear the music or move to the beat. They just sat there, watching the concert through their phones. Those kids won't remember how great the show was - only how great all their friends thought it was that they went.

Updating Facebook doesn't mean you have a life, just like adding "friends" doesn't mean they really are. We are substituting letters with emails, conversations with texts, emotional connections with internet connections. And I think it's sad. I think it's sad I can't go out to dinner without seeing a six-year-old's face lit up with the glow of a cell phone, or a teenager playing video games instead of talking, all at the same table where mom and dad are jumping on every alert their cellphones make. I think it's sad kids so readily bully each other anonymously over the internet, then feel no remorse because "it's not like I punched him or anything." Maybe it'd be better if he did, confrontation face-to-face instead of hiding behind a laptop screen. I think it's sad that parents only learn of their children's lives through status updates.

It is the obsession with staring at a screen of some sort - whether it be television, computer, cellphone, iPod, iPad, video game - that has created a generation of people who will not look me in the eye when I speak. This generation that will not know validation without a "thumbs up," who speak to each other as if they are reading from a script, outwitting each other with clever banter in an effort to have a funny story to post, a cool video to download, an enviable tweet to share.

What's the moral of the story? Is there one? Is rejoicing in all technology has given mankind the full story if we don't also discuss what it has taken away? Why are we all so afraid of leaving the cell phones at home, the television off, the email unchecked? What exactly do we think we will miss?

I'm off my soapbox (for now), but I have no conclusion, no answers. So I will share Britton's newest addiction, her mild berry-flavored toothpaste. Because if my post was depressing to you, these pictures will cheer you right back up...