By Anthony Biondi (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 2, 2011
I have seen the world. I have looked up. I have existed for years, yet I have seen so little. This world around me, I see, is a bleak example of this modern time. Everywhere I look I see them. They … wander the streets like lost souls, seeing but not seeing, hearing but not hearing.
I have seen it.
But then I resume looking down at the small portable device in my hands. This “Cellular Phone” … Now I know. I am not alone in this plight. All around me they wander: the Down-Lookers, Loud-Chatterers, or Abrupt-Answerers. I experience them every day, in every facet of my life. They may be friends, strangers or loved ones. They walk among us, consuming … personal safety, social interaction, and time. I look back to the days of yore, when these devices did not exist. How did we get by? What madness would the … world fall to, if those lost souls could not know what their friends were doing at every moment of every day? Being only fingertips away from our entire social circle has blinded us from the world we live in.
… With blindness we put ourselves in harms way. The sheer convenience of mobile phones has left us remarkably vulnerable. It can be simply attributed to the fact that the afflicted cannot look away. When the phone rings, it is a calling.
… They take their eyes off what they are doing to look down to answer the call. It can be resisted. However, that ring or vibration will always taunt their minds. These Feverish-Users may be driving, or walking or doing just about anything else (hint), yet they will always heed the call of the cell. In many cases this could lead to bodily harm. The afflicted need only look down for a second to check a notification, and the next thing they know their car is in a ditch, or unpleasantly rammed up the back end of another car. Like wise, if they were on foot, they could walk … into holes or poles or other such rhyming objects …
Laws have since been put in place to protect them from themselves, yet I know that they still tempt the devil. It is nigh impossible to resist …
Humans are social creatures, after all. It is understandable that we require contact with our friends and family to fulfill our days. Although, I have seen people: the Social-Ghosts, who haunt the social outing. Friends surround them; yet they insist on talking to people who are not even present …
This ritualistic activity degrades their surrounding events to nothing more than a mush of background noise and peripheral nonsense. I have experienced conversations with these people. Let me assure you that statues have been more interesting to talk to. The afflicted hear what you are saying but the words wisp their way through one ear and silently dissipate out the other. They are too busy reading or chatting, to even process the outward verbal environment. I can only … put it into these simple terms: “Input overload.” So much interaction is taking place in front them that they blot out the rest. Since they deem the phone the most important part of their social life, the outside world no longer holds any focus.
To further the ideas of conversation, may I lead you to the thought of conversation itself? I visit friends. I know people. But from time to time, I will find one of those friends who, mid-conversation with me … will just get up, answer the phone, and walk away. I am left flabbergasted. Is my presence not sufficient enough to engage in conversation with? Perhaps I am just not the type to hold the attention of an individual. Regardless I find this activity baffling. The afflicted appear to have the ability to jump … from one conversation to another without the mind to even notice. This symptom I find most severe.
It makes me wonder. How much time do the afflicted spend on their phones anyway? In many cases they have telltale signs of hunching and stiff hands, with a strong potential for arthritis and carpal tunnel. These symptoms are a dead give away of overuse of cell phones. They sacrifice so much of the living world in order to stare down into a digital screen, waiting, scanning and hoping for a call … or message. This level of addiction has left them pale and elusive. The sun may rise and fall without notice, and days vanish without a trace. These people never disappear from their social circles, but can never fully interact with them either.
I have observed the world before me … I have seen its follies. Yet, I am among you. Throughout this divulgence of mine, I have taken periodic breaks, marked by a “…”, each time my phone has gone off and I have looked. I am one of many. A hunchbacked, arthritis-ridden, anti-social socialite. You may find me frequenting malls, hospitals, pubs, restaurants and classrooms. We all share this illness. These are the facts. There is no cure …
