By Kathleen Knowles
Here we are with another addition of Are We Nuts? This week’s subject is one I have no doubt sane people wonder almost every day. In fact, many of you out there may recognize yourselves!
A smartphone zombie is described as a pedestrian who walks slowly, staring into their phone without watching where they are going. These people have been known to walk into others, light poles, trees, doors, and even pools. Why does an individual have to have their nose glued to a smartphone when walking down the street? Are We Nuts?
This may be the accepted definition of a smartphone zombie, but it really goes much further than that. I remember sitting in the baggage department of the airport, waiting for my oldest brother and his wife who had just arrived from Idaho to pick up their luggage. Looking down the long line of people sitting in chairs waiting for their loved ones, I pointed out to my sister who was with me, that everyone had their faces in their phones. We couldn’t help but laugh watching those who were already there to pick up their luggage, struggling to carry two or three suitcases and carry-ons with one hand while they operated their smartphone with the other, walking slowly paying no attention to their surroundings. People don’t seem to realize the field of vision for a smartphone zombie is just about 5% of that of a normal pedestrian! Are We Nuts? Can’t we walk from here to there without staring into our smartphones for a few minutes?
If this was all people did with a smartphone than we could probably just laugh at them and go on with our lives . . . but it isn’t. The smartphone is replacing something very important in our society. It’s called human contact! How many times have you gone into a restaurant, glanced over to the table next to you where three or four people were sitting together to have dinner, and how many times did you notice that every one of them weren’t talking to each other, but rather were staring into their smartphones! But let’s not even go out to dinner yet. Search your soul and answer this question, how many times have you and your loved ones sat at the dinner table and all of you were staring into your smartphones rather than communicating with each other?
There is a wonderful function on the smartphone called texting. It was invented for a very simple reason – to send a short message, “I’m running late,” or “I’ll pick you up at 6:00,” or “Junior gets out of school at 3:00. Can you pick him up?” Yet once again, people have used this method to avoid actual contact. Have you ever received a text message from a loved one who lives halfway across the country? Instead of calling you or using that wonderful invention of video calling where you can see each other while speaking, they proceed to carry on a half hour to hour conversation through text messaging! Are we nuts? I don’t know about you, but I either begin to ignore the text messages or tell them to pick up the telephone! I would much rather see their face in a video call or hear their voice than to spend my time pecking out words on a little tiny keyboard of a smartphone! That is just plain nuts!
It gets worse than that! I was visiting a friend in Port Huron where I had been invited to dinner. The kids were upstairs (no doubt staring into their smartphones) when she said to me, “Let’s sit down and eat.” She pulled out her phone and typed something into it. I asked her if she was going to call the kids to dinner. She told me she just did, she texted them! Whatever happened to walking over to the stairs and telling the kids dinner is ready? Texting people in the same household? That’s nuts! In sitting down to dinner, I watched as everyone had their noses in their smartphones. I don’t believe more than three or four words were spoken to each other during the entire dinner! Are we nuts?
Now, we know a lot of the time people are checking their Facebook accounts. Ah, let’s talk about that. If you have a Facebook account, you know very well that the people on your list are called your friends. However, it is a proven fact that people know very few of those that are on their friend list! People add others to play games since many games require that you get different things from other people. Others add people who have the same political views, or they join groups of similar interests. Facebook can be a wonderful thing for seeing what your actual friends and family are doing if they live across the country. However, when it becomes more important to talk to strangers on Facebook than to the people whom you love in your own household, that is just plain nuts!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against smartphones. What I am against is that the smartphone has become the most important way for people to communicate. We are losing human contact. The smartphone is a wonderful invention. It can help all of us in our daily lives. It was not, and never was intended to replace human communication completely. Yet, you can see that happening all over.
If you are doing the things talked about in this article, then you just may be a smartphone zombie! So take the time to stop and ask yourself, Are We Nuts?
Kathleen Knowles
Contributing Writer
