Public Service Announcement

Do you have a cell phone? If yes, how do you react when you hit the highway and realised that you have forgotten your phone in the charger cradle? Do you shrug and went on with your journey or do you double back to get your lifeline?

For many, the decision is the latter. The cell phone is no longer a mere accessory, but as vital as your wallet and keys. It contains your correspondence (e-mails, text messages), your confidential information (yes, there are idiots who keep their pin number on the cellphones, not to mention poorly shot nude pictures) and often doubles as work and entertainment system.

In a word: IMPORTANT.

We got so used to being connected that the loss of this connectivity is terrifying. I know many people who check their phones when they first wake up (and not to turn off the alarm) and scroll through e-mails and messages even before brushing their teeth.

Some worry that we are losing our vocabulary with text messages. What could be abbreviated, is, or poorly spelled. The glass half full people would say that our language is evolving with each thumb stroke over the surface of your smartphone. After all, no one speaks like a Shakespearean play anymore (unless they're literature hipsters or something).

But this addiction has more implication to it than surgical interventions to fix repetitive injuries from texting. Most of us text while we drive. I have even seen motorcyclists texting while riding their bike. You know what this means?

It means we're crazy. 

We take it for granted that we can avoid collisions with other objects when our thumbs run over the surface of our smartphones. We are special. We have superpowers that allow us to multitask, right? We are so good at texting and stuff, we don't really need to look at the screen, isn't that so?

Wrong. You won't see the lamp post or the old lady whose hands are filled with her grocery while you are sharing some youtube sensation with your Facebook flist. What you should do is move to the side, finish your text/Facebook update/Twitter rant/road traffic Instagram/whatever, put your phone away and then continue walking or driving. There are even people who got mugged because they are distracted by their phones that they are not paying attention to their surroundings. Heck, my aunt was one such victim. 


So either quit the dangerous self-delusion that you can use your phone while driving or walking or wean yourself from the hyper connectivity of your mobile devices. It may save you not just physical harm, but even fix your relationship with the people in your life.

Just ... just put the damn thing away, will ya?


*facepalm*