Cell Phones and Social Graces!

After reading Charles Fisher's essay Cellphones and Social Graces, you realize that he isn't against cellphones; he is against how people choose to use them.  He doesn’t bother greeting someone because he knows they’re too busy babbling on their phone to listen.  He says “I can no longer attend a movie without cellphones intruding like unwanted aliens into my enjoyment.”  I absolutely agree with Fisher’s views.

I own two cellphones.  I use one to listen to music or to use the internet.  The other one I use it to text my girlfriend when we’re not together or to get a hold of my family.  Other than that my cellphones are inside a drawer or just laying around somewhere on the ground.  People nowadays need a cellphone to survive.  For example, my girlfriend is constantly on her phone.  She never sets it down which I find very annoying. It will be a beautiful, sunny day and if we were to go on a walk; she would be on her phone.  She’s either has the phone glued to her fingers or her ears.  We can’t go out to the movies because her sister or her “friend” will text her or call her.  All I see is the bright, blinding light coming from her phone.  When we’re home, if her cellphones vibrates or rings she dives to grab it and immediately reply back.  She doesn’t even pay any attention to me.  I have to beg for it like a dog begs for its owner’s attention. 

My 15-year-old sister is exactly the same probably even worse.  When she got her first phone, I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but I was sadly mistaken.  This girl doesn’t put her phone for nothing.  I could be dying and she would just be texting away!  It got to the point where her grades didn’t even matter anymore as long as she had her phone she would be okay.  My mom took her phone away, so she could concentrate more on her homework than who suspended for fighting at school.  My sister is too rebellious, so in order for her to get her phone back she made up a plan.  Her plan was to not come home and spend the night at a friend’s house; she wasn’t going to show up to school, and just stop listening to my mom.  My mom eventually gave in and returned the phone back to my sister.  This really bothered me because my sister did great without a cellphone.  She would interact with our family and friends more.  Now if you talk to her, you’re lucky enough to get a response back.  When we’re eating out with my dad or with my mom all I hear is the clicking noise her cellphone buttons make when she presses on them.  Her cellphone has got to go!    

This is probably one of the major reasons why I don’t really like cellphones.  Yes, they’re there when needed but do we really need to be constantly on them.  Why can’t we go back to the times when people actually interacted with each other, when someone would actually greet you when you pass them on the street?  Now when someone is on the phone and you pass them on the street, you’re lucky enough to even make eye contact with them.