"Was that my phone?!"

Before reading, enjoy this short commercial:

Communication is an essential part of human society and technology allows us to facilitate communication at a degree once thought impossible.  But are there side effects to always being “on call”?  Who suffers?

Isn’t it interesting that with the ring of a phone, life stops for a moment?  Conversations are cut short, activities are stopped, and all attention is directed toward the ringing.  Rarely does a person just let their phone ring without at least checking the caller ID to see who it is.  In most cases, the person on the phone is given preferential treatment over those who are physically in the room.

This is most clearly witnessed when you go to the store.  Doesn’t it bug you when you’re at the cashier’s desk and the phone rings?  The employee will usually answer it and then the person at home (probably sitting in their pajamas) has in essence jumped the line and is receiving answers to their questions.  Why do we focus on the person miles away instead of the one right in front of our faces?

Back in the old days before caller ID and voicemail, a phone left ringing was unheard of.  “Who could it be?”  “What do they want?”  And if you didn’t get to the phone before the caller finally gave up, “Oh no! What if they don’t call back?!”.  Perhaps this is the root of our devotion to the caller; we can see and talk to the people who are with us at our leisure, but the person on the phone is outside our “control.”

I like the commercial that I put at the beginning of this post because it shows how we exhibit the same behavior with texting.  We can be completely oblivious of the world around us, because our focus in on a conversation with someone far away (and frankly, how serious are conversations that take place via  text?).

The next time you find yourself being a slave to a ringing phone or a texting conversation, think “Really?”.