Shall we talk?

A Post a Day in May 31/31

My father was an early adopter of all things technology — radios, cameras, computers, iPads, gizmos of any kind, really, but he didn’t make it to smartphones. Though he was thoroughly intrigued by my iPhone — “It’s a computer in your pocket!”— he stuck with his flip phone, which he used as a phone. My smartphone, on the other hand, I use mostly as a mini computer and only occasionally as a ‘telephone’. And, it seems, I am not the only one.

A recent CBC radio piece tells the tale: Younger people have a smartphone in their pocket, but they rarely, if ever, use it as a telephone. In fact, speaking on the phone makes them nervous, gives them anxiety. They prefer to text, instead. That way, they can avoid the ‘live’ nature of a real-time conversation — or, they can text the person to ask (in writing) when it might be convenient to chat on the phone. That way, there is no risk of interrupting something more important going on on the other end and, I suppose, being either ignored or hung up on. Rejection is hard in any medium.

Technology is a powerful force in our lives. It does a lot of good, yet it can also intrude beyond where we would like it to be felt. With caller ID and call blocking, even on old fashioned land lines, we have been able to avoid being reached by those we would rather avoid. However, the hesitation that the CBC piece illustrates is particularly fascinating to me.

We have the power of a phone in our pockets and, yet, many of us don’t want it to interrupt our days with calls that we are either not expecting or not wanting. True, we have never needed to pick up the phone when it rings, but back in the day, it was so exciting when it did ring. Certainly, I remember being happy when I received a phone call: Who knew who it might be from? And who knew what they might offer me? So unknown! So exciting! But these days, I react with suspicion to any number that is not recognizable to me — “What do they want from me??” — and I don’t pick up those calls.

So, while I have the power of a smartphone in my pocket, I choose to use it less as a phone and more as that mini computer my father was so impressed by: on my terms, in my time. And maybe that is the ultimate power of the technology we have in our pockets: We are in control of how we respond to it and, thus, to what extent it invades (and influences) our lives.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash