An Arm’s Length Away
A new day has begun, and once again I am awoken by the alarm. However, it is not the traditional jarring brrrrriiiiings of an alarm clock but rather the wispy chimes tolling from my phone. I have started anew and that dusty, old thing is no longer worth my time. There is not a need for it and neither is there a need for my mother’s echoing calls every morning. As I drag myself out of bed, I head past my curtains while checking the weather with a quick swipe and touch. I then respond to my “urgent” text messages and continue to get on with my morning. As I step into the car, my mom is waiting, seemingly ready to start the usual morning conversions. All the while she is asking her questions, “Did you bring your lunch? Did …show more content…
Let me know how today goes! Love you honey! Bye!,” I am looking down at my phone. I respond with, “Can you repeat that? Huh? Wait what? Uh huh. Ok. Yes mom, yes mom, ok mom, gotta go, bye mom.” Though I hear every word she says, I am much more concerned about what goes on in the world I hold so dearly in my little hands.
Every morning drive to school is a reminder of how my cell phone has become integrated part of my life in an unhealthy manner. Before I got my first cell phone, I would focus my attention on our conversation and respond with longer replies. Now, I am too engrossed in checking my text messages and social media apps to be bothered with actually talking to my mother. I have become more observant of how cell phones dominate the lives of everyone around me.
Cell phones have significantly changed the dynamics of family relationships. A common public scene I see often. One family sits together at a restaurant table, waiting for their order to arrive. Taking the time to eat out together is a perfect opportunity to converse and become more aware about the recent state of each person 's life. Yet, the table has no such conversation. Instead the family members are like models posing for the filming of a cell phone commercial. The parents and teenagers are fixated on their phones, …show more content…
Usually in-person conversations allow us to consider a person’s facial and body language, their tone of voice, and the expression in their eyes when listening to what they are saying. The ambiguity in the most popular mode of communication for cell phones, texting, can create unnecessary misunderstandings because it does not give the user access to all the cues of an in-person conversation. Sometimes, responding too slowly or tersely to a text can make the recipient falsely imagine an imaginary film of tension with the sender. One particular instance that helped me realize the flaw in texting was a text conversation with my classmates for a group project. As I took a break from tennis practice and checked my phone, I received a text telling me to finish answering the worksheet questions for our project. My immediate response was, “Ok, I will later”. My group mates, unaware that my short response was due to my hurry to return to the tennis court, misunderstood and thought that I was angry to receive extra work. They assumed that I was responding with attitude, and our group relationship immediately soured. After I returned to the court, I continued to receive texts, but was no longer available to respond, which only further reinforced the misunderstanding that I was rudely ignoring my responsibilities. The phone jumped and screamed impatiently in my duffel bag with growing intensity,
A new day has begun, and once again I am awoken by the alarm. However, it is not the traditional jarring brrrrriiiiings of an alarm clock but rather the wispy chimes tolling from my phone. I have started anew and that dusty, old thing is no longer worth my time. There is not a need for it and neither is there a need for my mother’s echoing calls every morning. As I drag myself out of bed, I head past my curtains while checking the weather with a quick swipe and touch. I then respond to my “urgent” text messages and continue to get on with my morning. As I step into the car, my mom is waiting, seemingly ready to start the usual morning conversions. All the while she is asking her questions, “Did you bring your lunch? Did …show more content…
Let me know how today goes! Love you honey! Bye!,” I am looking down at my phone. I respond with, “Can you repeat that? Huh? Wait what? Uh huh. Ok. Yes mom, yes mom, ok mom, gotta go, bye mom.” Though I hear every word she says, I am much more concerned about what goes on in the world I hold so dearly in my little hands.
Every morning drive to school is a reminder of how my cell phone has become integrated part of my life in an unhealthy manner. Before I got my first cell phone, I would focus my attention on our conversation and respond with longer replies. Now, I am too engrossed in checking my text messages and social media apps to be bothered with actually talking to my mother. I have become more observant of how cell phones dominate the lives of everyone around me.
Cell phones have significantly changed the dynamics of family relationships. A common public scene I see often. One family sits together at a restaurant table, waiting for their order to arrive. Taking the time to eat out together is a perfect opportunity to converse and become more aware about the recent state of each person 's life. Yet, the table has no such conversation. Instead the family members are like models posing for the filming of a cell phone commercial. The parents and teenagers are fixated on their phones, …show more content…
Usually in-person conversations allow us to consider a person’s facial and body language, their tone of voice, and the expression in their eyes when listening to what they are saying. The ambiguity in the most popular mode of communication for cell phones, texting, can create unnecessary misunderstandings because it does not give the user access to all the cues of an in-person conversation. Sometimes, responding too slowly or tersely to a text can make the recipient falsely imagine an imaginary film of tension with the sender. One particular instance that helped me realize the flaw in texting was a text conversation with my classmates for a group project. As I took a break from tennis practice and checked my phone, I received a text telling me to finish answering the worksheet questions for our project. My immediate response was, “Ok, I will later”. My group mates, unaware that my short response was due to my hurry to return to the tennis court, misunderstood and thought that I was angry to receive extra work. They assumed that I was responding with attitude, and our group relationship immediately soured. After I returned to the court, I continued to receive texts, but was no longer available to respond, which only further reinforced the misunderstanding that I was rudely ignoring my responsibilities. The phone jumped and screamed impatiently in my duffel bag with growing intensity,