Put Down the iThing

I am a child of my age.  I crave instant gratification, and sarcastic tweets are a sport.  Self-esteem is, at times, deeply tied to Facebook likes.  As of 4:30PM, I’ve texted three people, messaged five, called two, and had a handful of twitter interactions.  Sitting silently at my desk, I held at least five different “conversations” with people scattered across the country, from San Francisco to Detroit…

Yet despite their volume, are 140 character relationships truly genuine?

Sure, I said hi to mom as I left home, to the front desk gal, and to my coworkers as-needed.  But rather than paying attention to their stories and needs, my attention was fused to a 3×5 screen and the impending possibility of clearly important messages.

It’s a rather comical picture, in a way.  While surrounded by people and possibilities, society generally prefers isolation to contact, distance to conversations.

What would happen if we dropped the phones?  If we unplugged, disabled the wifi, and put the iThing in dead-mode?  We’d be faced with ourselves, wouldn’t we?  Forced to reconcile with faces, not emoticons–with emotions, not data.

Yes, I understand that texting and snapchat are extremely convenient–especially for socially-deprived college students, floating listlessly in the doldrums of summer.  However, here’s a challenge:

• Find someone you would normally text, and talk to them in person.  Far away?  Try a phone call or Skype.
• Uninstall Facebook and/or Twitter from your smartphone.
• Withhold the urge to snapchat your selfie to a mildly interested audience.
• Read a book with someone.  Talk about it over coffee.

What effect will this have on your life?  On your relationships?  On your faith?  When living in the cloud is no longer a euphemism, “groundedness” really appears to gain a renewed importance.

So take the plunge, take a chance, put down the iThing.