The Allegory of the Smartphone
On the one hand, you can connect more easily with anyone from anywhere across the global village with cellphones. On the other, the never-ending news feeds, countless versions of Candy Crush, and daily pings of incoming texts are emotionally exhausting. I often think of Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” when it comes to cellphones.
Some days you can’t help but feeling shackled by the fact that you are relying on a long string of text messages to sustain a relationship, thinking that these texts are enough. But humans don’t connect by text alone.
Sometimes in order to connect, we have to disconnect from our devices.
So, go ahead. Set your smartphone aside, turn it off, and read these stories about human connection in the digital age.
Christopher MacGriven pleaded with his mom to see reason.
“C’mon Ma. You gotta let me get a cellphone. I can’t even call you when I’m out with friends. What if it’s the start of the Zombie Apocalypse? I won’t even be able to tell you that a zombie’s eating my friend’s brain.”
After much protest and wrinkling his face this way and that way, his mom finally conceded to his supporting arguments. Not without adding a few conditions of her own though.
Mrs. MacGriven wasted no time laying out strict rules for her son, and his new cellphone. He would pay for the cellphone and only use it to call home and when working on group projects with classmates.
By early next week, Chris was testing his new gadget with his mom being his first audience. Within the next two weeks, Chris started working as a dishwasher at the local Mexican restaurant down the street.
After three months of working long hours at Tres Hermanos, Chris paid his mom back for the cellphone and his first couple of phone bills.
The novelty of being able to call his mom from anywhere in the city excited Chris. Eventually, his mom wasn’t the only one he would be calling. Following the rules to a tee, Chris gave out his number only while working in groups with friends. Even still, many nights, the glow of the cellphone illuminated Chris’s face well after midnight.
Chris’s cellphone bill grew too, meaning more days and longer hours at Tres Hermanos. Finally, after paying for his own cellphone and plan for half a year, Mrs. MacGriven wanted to treat her son to a different restaurant for his achievements.
All Chris could say was “Sorry Ma, I’m too busy with work and school now.”
Bobby, Joe, Stella and Nicolette went on their lunch break after debugging the code on their company’s, KayDex, website all morning.
Stella is the comic of the group. She could make even a donkey laugh.
“…and the screening was so blurry that I couldn’t tell if I was watching Brad Pitt or Charlize Theron.” And even Stella’s laugh was funny — she’d take a deep breath and erupt in giggles, always snorting like a piglet when her giggles went inaudible. Only Bobby joined her laughter. Bobby laughed so hard that the Chinese noodles he had just tossed into his mouth were now coming out of his nose.
A long minute passed until Joe and Nicolette finally realized that Stella’s infamous laughter had ended as they said in unison, “What did you say?” — peeling their eyes away from their iPhones at the same time.
Stella only shrugged. “Oh, don’t worry about it, y’all.”
Joe and Nicolette looked at each and then were glued back to their screens a few seconds later.
Stella bounced up from her chair to stretch after sitting for so long staring at numbers, symbols, and letters of all shapes and sizes. With her arms akimbo, she looked out on the streets of New York where the queues at pizzerias and sandwich shops snaked around building blocks already.
A grin reappeared on Stella’s face. “Is it my lucky day, or what? There’s a clown on a unicycle juggling through the streets. Check it out.” Bobby practically hopped out of his seat to get a good look at the unusual spectacle.
As if on cue, the two others chimed in with their regular tune, “What did you say?”
Gary was waiting in a long queue for a slice at Grimaldi’s.
He picked the wrong place to grab a quick lunch and he knew it. But, he thought, the hell with it, I have a taste for this pizza and that, as they say, is that.
Kyle, a co-worker and real good egg, kept texting him back and forth.
“Hey, I ain’t got all day pal. Get going. We all want our pizza,” a New Yorker said from behind him. Gary turned around to see a man who was as thick as a tree trunk. But that didn’t scare him anyway. After all, why would a fellow townsmen frighten him?
“Yeah, yeah, I’m movin’, okay,” Gary said as he put his phone away in his jeans pocket.
The tree trunk was satisfied and nodded with approval. Throwing his hands up with an impish grin on his face, Gary moved forward, stepping on the back of a woman’s shoes. She fell forward, but caught hold of a meter to break her fall.
“Jesus, did you just learn how to walk? Watch your step next time,” said the woman getting up. The tree trunk moved at top speed to help the woman to her feet. Just my day, isn’t it, thought Gary.
This time the tree trunk shook his head in disapproval. “Well aren’t you a pisser,” he said, then turning to the woman added “Miss, is he giving you a hard time?”
The woman straightened out her clothes and said, “Thank you sir, but I think he knows his left foot from his right one now.”
Gary threw up his hands again and said, “What I can I say, I’ve got two left feet. Lucky, this tr — er, gentleman was here to help ya up.” The woman shook her head and laughed. And they all got to talking and by the time Gary and the woman, whose name was Claire, and the tree trunk man, whose name was John, got to the front of the line, they all exchanged numbers with each other. And that, as they say, is that.
When in the company of your sister, co-worker, or even Uber driver, just turn it off and put it away.
I’ll admit it. It’s nothing short of a miracle to be able to call someone on your cellphone from anywhere in the world. This is a lifesaver for immigrant families who have left behind their relatives back in their home country.
However, in situations when you do spend time with people in-person, whipping out your smartphone can be awkward, uncomfortable and downright rude. It distances you more often than not from your family, friends, and colleagues if you use it within their presence.
In a world where you can send a text, email, or Snaps within seconds to someone from the other corner of the world, taking part in a face-to-face conversation will always take the cake.
Having more face-to-face conversations can not only reduce your risk of depression and anxiety, but also help you cope with it.
A 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reveals strong evidence for face-to-face interactions as a preventative measure to depression and anxiety.
Researchers found that the less someone engages in face-to-face communication, the more likely they will have depression. The study’s participants who met and spoke regularly with family and friends were less likely to show symptoms of depression compared with those who only emailed or spoke on the phone with their network.
Because our mental well-being is inextricably linked to our social interactions, the medium by which we communicate is crucial.
In “The Lunch Break,” the characters Joe and Nicolette had the opportunity to connect with Bobby and Stella, but were more interested in their smartphones.
I know what you’re thinking.
There could be many reasons why Joe and Nicolette were glued to their smartphones, and maybe it had nothing to do with the latest iteration of Candy Crush.
That’s fair.
But what do smartphones do for your lunch break at work anyway?
Psychological scientists Hongjai Rhee and Sudong Kim launched a study that answers this question.
After surveying 400 working adults about how they spent their lunch breaks, the results of the study show that those who entertained themselves via smartphones felt worse than those who relaxed without technology.
Research shows that mental timeouts are essential to stay focused and motivated at work. Taking a walk or chatting with a colleague proved to be more reenergizing than scrolling through social media news feeds via smartphone. The latter left workers feeling more fatigued than anything.
Those workers who read a book, took a walk, or chatted with colleagues reported fewer negative emotions than those who used smartphones. The study suggested that smartphone usage requires almost as much energy needed to be productive while working.
While on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jerry Seinfeld dubbed the notorious texting dots as the little ghosty dots. He called them a little creepy — the text hasn’t happened yet, but is in the process of being sent.
Instead of waiting for a friend’s ghosty dots to disappear, give them a call. At least awkward silences are less foreboding.
Interested in reading fresh writing that gets you thinking about technology and your relationship with it?
Follow The Quasi Luddite and connect with me on LinkedIn to chat more about the digital age.
Originally published at elizabethivanecky.com on February 13, 2019.
The Allegory of the Smartphone
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