More efficient, but not necessarily better

“Don’t sleep with your smartphone nearby”

I completely agree with this article. Not so much the “don’t sleep with your gadgets”, since I have no problem turning mine all off before I go to bed, but the steady decrease in human-to-human interaction is so true. We’ve forgotten how to hold a proper conversation with each other… awkward silences abound over meals as we all check our phones every 15 mins. When was the last time you talked on the phone instead of texting/IM’ing? In high school I had 4 hour phone chats with friends, now I can barely manage 20 minutes. ‘Course, as a student, you’re always working and thus, IM and text (and FB) become easy ways to communicate while still being able to work simultaneously. Phone/Skype chats have to be scheduled in because you can’t always afford to spend an hour or more not doing some sort of work.

That being said, I am definitely guilty of a lot of “addiction symptoms” this article mentions, especially thinking up FB statuses as things happen around me, and feeling disconnected from the world if I do not have my phone beside me/in a pocket at all times. Also guilty of checking my phone for texts during conversations with a person in front of me. I need to change things up. Place more value in human interaction, and more importantly, show respect by giving my full, undivided attention, even if I feel my phone vibrating with text msg notifications. New goal for the rest of the year! (…. rather sad that it has to be a goal…)