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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

PYHO: Get off that damn phone

The irony is that I've spent time typing this on my laptop. I say it doesn't count b/c Hannah's napping, so what else would I do, dishes? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Juuuuuust kidding.

Over the last few weeks, I've found myself irrationally annoyed with people who have smart phones and cannot put them down for any reason whatsoever.

On Sunday in church--church, people!--I see parents checking their phones and responding to texts and FB messages.

At the moms group I go to sometimes, I've seen moms spend more time looking at their phones than at their kids, then look totally surprised when Junior has a bump on the head and an owie from getting stepped on, because she was too damn busy looking at something OH SO IMPORTANT.

I've seen people looking at their phones while driving. I've seen people stop in the grocery store to play Angry  Birds. I've seen associates at Walmart stop and check their iphones and droids instead of cleaning up the sty that is their section.

Mostly, I'm suuuuuuuuper annoyed by parents who spend more time with their phone than their kids, especially when their kids are young and not capable of sorta-supervised independent play.

Now, I have an ipod. I love it. I've got all sorts of kooky apps that I've downloaded. I love playing Angry Birds and Words With Friends. I like that I can check the weather and the score of the Sox game. I love that I have a few different play lists and that it's got this handy Nike+ feature so I can take it with when I go for a run. I even have a ridiculous "Tiger Blood" app that I downloaded around the time Charlie Sheen announced that he was doing 40 gram rocks that didn't have any affect on him thanks to that Adonis DNA his dad Marty passed along. But I know when to put it down. I walk away when my baby girl starts to fuss because she's just woken up from her nap and her gums are throbbing. I don't bring it with us on walks around the block because I want to talk to my daughter and show her birds and flowers and everything there is to look at; I don't want her to think my face has been replaced by my purple ipod cover. And I especially leave it at home when I'm in church. Nothing is so important that I can't turn my attention away for an hour or more.

I have a few "friends" on FB who are constantly--literally, constantly--checking their phones. At work, because they're bored. In church, because they're bored. On their way to and from work because--gasp--they're bored. You know the ones, because we all have at least one or two in our feeds. These are the people who "like" every. single. status update. They post the most ridiculous things and really, in my opinion, these are the people who are ruining social media. "At work!" "At the Bulls game!" "At the Pump-n-Go! Wow! Gas is really expensive!" "Going to sleep!"

I used to feel sorry for these people. "Gosh, poor Emilio. That damn phone is all he's got!"

Now? Not a drop of pity, just pure, unadulterated annoyance.

There is no place in my life for people who spend more time on their phone than in real life. There's so much to see and do, regardless of who or where you are. And especially if you have kids--this bears repeating--they're only this small once. Your kids aren't going to wait until your phone battery dies to do something cute. They're not going to hold that first word in their mouth so you can finish up with Angry Birds. Kids are going to do what they want to do when they want to do it. Can't all that time on your phone wait until they've gone to bed? I love messing around with my ipod (cuz I'm too po' to have a smart phone), but I do most of my messing around once Hannah's gone to bed.

My time with her is too precious. I'd rather be with her than destroying green pigs, anyway.



*Linking up once more to Shell.

3 comments:

  1. Well said. Technology has really caused us to lose that personal touch, hasn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely! I am on my phone quite a bit... but not when driving or in the middle of a store, or when I should be watching my kids!

    ReplyDelete

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