One Day Your Phone Will Bake Cookies Too!!

Alright let me set the scene, it is just about to be winter break of my junior year of college. My new roommate that semester happens to live in the same city as me so my mom offers to drive him home when she comes to pick me up. My Mom is excited to meet my new roommate and was looking forward to the hour long car ride as a chance to get to know him better (AKA barraging him with questions). We pack up the car, get in and begin to leave Ann Arbor. I look over and see my Mom beginning to think of one of the many question she plans on asking my new roommate. What is your major? Are you involved in any extra curricular? What do your parents do? And so forth. My mom asks the first question and my roommate doesn't respond, he can't hear her as he is plugged into his iphone. Finally my Mom asks again louder, he responds quickly, visibly caring more about his phone. After a few more brief responses my roommate finally says " sorry Mrs. Golden, I have some important emails to write." At this point I'm pretty sure my did not even know that a phone could send emails, but she got the message, the conversation was over and we a quiet drive back home. As soon as we dropped off my friend, my expressed how rude she thought my friend was being. I agreed his behavior was completely out of line especially for someone doing a favor for him.

Unfortunately this situation is not too out of the ordinary, people who are constantly connected to their email, and others through text messaging don't realize how disrespectful it is to be in conversation or spending time with someone while completely distracted by their phone. I can't think of any email that is so important that it needs to be checked at the very instant it is sent, at the expense of ignoring others in the room. If I was spending time with someone would it be acceptable for me to take out stationary and ink and start writing a letter, I don't think so, yet my generation finds it acceptable to do the same thing through their phone. I really cannot stand when I make plans with someone and half of the person isn't even in the world but rather on their phone texting. For example I once went on a date, at the restaurant the girl was constantly texting people, clearly distracting her for the most important person in the room... ME. Let's just say that was a first sign it wouldn't work out between us. Imagine being on a date an all of a sudden I decide to call my friend and talk about the tiger's games, I would not expect my date to be to happy. Yet when texting it is socially acceptable. I know each of us will catch a student texting in class thinking they are being discreet, and yet texting is so intertwined in teens life today that they'll often text when it is not socially acceptable and think that it is.

Personally I hate texting. I text as little as possible, and really only text because has become such a prevalent form of communication, that I would be able to communicate with certain people if I didn't text. While I understand the value of texting as a means of quick communication, I feel as though another major reason people text is because of how depersonalized it is. In terms of human interaction, face to face is highest, calling on the phone removes the visual, and texting removes the auditory. When texting the person is so far removed from the person receiving the text, they feel empowered to say things they otherwise wouldn't. You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen my male friends text girls, that they wouldn't be caught dead saying in person or over the phone. People refer to alcohol as "liquid confidence" I would call texting "technological confidence." And yet whether I agree or not it is completely intertwine in today's social interaction.

The article spoke at length about how Generation M doesn't distinguish there private life from public life on the internet. I heard a comedian recently say a joke along the lines "remember when people kept their diaries private. Sally used to freak out when she caught reading her diary especially where it said she was pregnant, yet now Sally will just update her status 'OMG just got preggers! Should I name it Scooba or Winnebago.'" While todays teens keep online diaries and put lots of information they are clearly aware what they put online, who's most likely going to look at it, and how they feel they'll be judged by others based on what information they provided. Take Facebook for example, I would bet that most of my class mates carefully chose what information to put in their profile, and have changed that information at times, I know I have. When I created my profile I was asking people to judge me based on what I chose to include about myself. The information I provided isn't really the whole me. I specifically chose not to include Sleepless in Seattle as one of my favorite movies or Barry Manilow as my favorite musical artist, for fear of being judged harshly by others on Facebook. But really has anyone ever seen in anything negative in their personal information, I will give a dollar to anyone who can find someone who puts coke addict in their about me section. When I made my profile I carefully decided to include I wide variety of musical artist as my favorite. I thought at the time people would see my my musical preferences and say to themselves "Wow David has such an eclectic taste in music, he must really be cool," as if my musical preferences really describes who I am. I have never once had comment on my favorite music section. My point is that while their is plenty of information online those who put it there are quite deliberate, just as I've been deliberate in writing this online journal of sorts.

To reward those who made it this far, some info about me that you won't find on my facebook profile:

1) I use sesame street children's toothpaste

2) I didn't learn how to ride a bike until my teens

3) I secretly watch a lot of reality TV (Who thinks it's about time Tila Tequila joins the cast of Jersey Shore)

4) I am secretly Batman (please don't tell)