I got a new phone yesterday. My wife and youngest daughter will be getting theirs next week, which is why I went ahead and upgraded mine, since our package and monthly bill was going to change whether I upgraded or not, because the ladies were upgrading. Turns out, in the long run, my monthly cellphone bill will be actually noticeably lower. I had the sales guy recheck it three times. Now, how about that! Nonetheless, I have been suffering from buyers remorse. But it dawned on me, I really wasn't. What I am suffering from is upgrade fear.I haven't had a smartphone in almost 3 years, just had a plain text and call phone. Things have changed overt those years. Phones have become more complicated, they can do more things. So now I have to learn all this stuff all over again, and then some. And have you noticed how, for a while, we were wanting smaller and smaller cellphones, and now we want them larger? My new phone is almost 3x the size of my old one. I feel like I'm packing a gun on my hip!
As I said, I had a smart phone but downgraded almost 3 years ago. The reason I did so was because I discovered that, when I was in line at a store or waiting for a seat at a restaurant or hanging around outside a music club waiting to get in, I would be on my smartphone, playing games, checking emails, perusing Facebook, surfing the net. What I wasn't doing was engaging with people around me, talking to them, connecting with them. I became convicted that what I was doing wasn't good and that it was detrimental to society.
I read, according to a June 2012 Mobile Mindset Study that extrapolates its results to the entire country, that about 60% of the cellphone users can’t go for more than one hour without checking their phones for messages, getting online, or whatnot. I doubt most can even go that long. We are quick to say that cellphones have helped us stay better connected with our friends and family, making us better aware of what is going on around us, but I really have doubts about that assertion. As one blogger put it: "We think we’re really connected but there’s a metaphysical disjunct between true reality and really always being virtually connected." We really aren't connecting in a personal, intimate way, where conversations, body language and emotions are being shared with one another. Sorry, but having a conversation by text is not a conversation, and it leaves a whole lot of room for misunderstanding of what is trying to be said. Ask any parent who has just finished having a text conversation with their teenager. And, if the family is lucky enough to have meals together, watch how much the cellphone has become part of the family dynamic, or the lack thereof.
We are human beings who were created to relate with each other; and Christians have been recreated, in part, to share Christ's love with people through words and relationship and action. Smartphones have changed those dynamics! We need to change those dynamics back to a place where we are engaging with our fellow human beings; and for us followers of Christ, we need to stop holding up our phones and putting Christ into our pockets and instead put our phones in our pockets and start holding up Christ's love and grace for others to see.
So, if you see me, and I'm around people, and I spend more than a minute on my phone, please come up to me and say, "Jim, the real world is out here, not in there."
