Have this made you wonder
“what do you miss out on because you are often not “present” as you focus on
what your phone presents to you.
Most people seem
completely addicted to their phones.
As soon as a plan touches
down many simultaneous “ding dings” chime out demanding the attention of their
owner.
Recently a friend of mine
off air for two days with no email, phone, sms or internet, and when he was
back, he had quite a back log of email and messages on his return mostly with
response “Is something wrong with your phone” and that too when we announces
this in advance that he is not able to response to any call or email or message
for next two days.
People seem to have a
high expectation that if they send a message, the response will be
instantaneous. Even if we all noticed on a normal bus stop most of the people
waiting were all inspecting their mobile phones – not even noticing the
existence of the other human beings around them.
My question for the
situations:-
Is all this immediate
communication really giving us the opportunity to do good work?
How many emails or text
messages are dashed off in haste only to be misunderstood or incomplete? Are we
being truly present?
Okay I am taking a
personal challenge for the next 3 weeks to not use a mobile device in the
presence of others. And I wonder who I will get to meet and what conversations
I will get to experience – and also the added upside of not sending off a one
line response to someone without a considered response.
Let me slow things down –
and not rush to everything, and I’m sure I will do better work as a result.
Who wants to play with me
– the 3 weeks 'being present' day challenge? Let me know how you go.