The cell phone

Laura Winner of the webzine Boundless has some interesting – and convicting – thoughts on cell phone usage. I was particularly struck by these paragraphs:

About a year ago, I was standing in line at the drugstore. The gal in front of me was talking on her cell phone. I (naively) assumed that when she got to the front of the line, she would hang up, or at least put her cell phone down. I was wrong. Where her turn came, Cell Phone Gal stayed stuck to her cell phone, paying for her gum, magazines, and lip gloss without so much as a hello to the cashier. It occurred to me that our gal was treating the person, the cashier, like a machine, and treating the machine like a person.

. . .

I am struck by the sad thought that we are no longer ever alone. We have eroded all the space we once had for solitude. I’ve had some of my best conversations with myself, and with God, strolling across campus. Now, when we stroll, we are talking into tiny bits of plastic – and most of what we’re saying is pretty lame. (“Well, I’m about 10 seconds from the library … yep, now I’m walking up the library steps … no, okay, well here I am entering the library, I’ll see you in three seconds.”) Is solitude so scary that we have made it impossible? Solitude is scary, but scarier still is the prospect of a society in which no one has time to be quiet, to be reflective.

Food for thought . . .

[hat tip: Transforming Sermons]

5 thoughts on “The cell phone

  1. As a mom of two with a job with people who talk all the time I love when I can sit in my car or walk quietly and know He is with me. The bumper sticker should say HANG UP AND RELAX or HANG UP AND REFLECT.

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