Loss of Humanity

I've seen actual photos or videos before of people using their cell phones to record a treasured event or a tragedy and it always fills me with dismay.  Today I saw a terrible cartoon video of how our society has become one of recorders rather than eye witnesses...parents who record their child's recitals rather than watch it themselves, masses of people recording violence and suicides as though they're not really happening.  Do they record these events so they can relive them over and over when they never lived through them once?

You see people surrounding a fight and egging on the fighters instead of trying to stop the violence.  You see people talking on their cell phones instead of engaging with the people around them.  You see neighbors videotaping neighbors who offend them.  It has become a world of second hand experiences.

My daughters can't understand why I don't want to carry a cell phone with me wherever I go and the truth is that I don't want to be tied to it.  I must be in the vast minority, though, because everywhere I go I see so many people talking on their cell phones...while shopping, while waiting in lines, while driving, while walking, and even while sitting on a public toilet, etc.  What is so important to need a phone call wherever you go and whatever you're doing?

A lot of people use their phones for more than talking...they do their banking, security surveillance on their homes, games, and so much more and it has become like an extension to their bodies.  I don't want that.  I want freedom.  I sure don't want to be out having a good time only to have my phone ring and someone I don't know try to sell me a duct cleaning service.

I saw a photo once of a group of students walking down the street to school and each had their heads down looking at their cell phones.  Just think how their world could open up to them if they actually spoke to someone else in the group instead of silently texting someone not even there.  Those kids looked like robots.

I read somewhere that just the position of neck and head hanging forward the way they do to use the cell phone will have a physical effect on the spine in years to come.  Remember the hunchback?  That will be nothing compared to the number of people who have learned to isolate themselves from physical contact with others.  They will have become a society of one.