How to End Cell Phone Addiction

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News — Samuel Morse sent the message “What has God wrought?” from the old Supreme Court chamber in the U.S. Capitol to his partner in Baltimore via telegraph in 1844.  Morse soon extended his lines to New York City. Western Union was founded in 1851 and by 1861 had built a transcontinental telegraph line.  Telegrams flew from coast to

coast at the speed of light!

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell said, “Watson, come here!  I want to see you!” into his telephone, and Watson, who was in the next room, could hear him over the telephone line. A new means of communication was born!

In 1915, that same Alexander Graham Bell, who was 

in New York City, once again spoke into a telephone and said, “Watson, come here!  I want to see you!”  But Watson, who was in San Francisco, replied, “It will take me five days to get there now!”

“Instant communication” and “instant messaging” have been around a very long time in United States and is, quite simply, nothing new.

In 1860, the first fax machine — called a Pantelegraph — sent a fax from Paris to Lyon, France.  In 1924, AT&T’s fax machines were used to transmit political convention photos long distance for newspaper reproduction.

In 1946, the first mobile telephone company opened in St. Louis.  By the early 1960’s, mobile telephones were common throughout the United States.  

In my own case, I have had a mobile phone continuously since 1966.

In 1971, AT&T submitted a proposal to the FCC to create the first cellular telephone service.  It took the FCC 11 years to approve the application.  Government delays are nothing new!

Does Having a Cell Phone Make You Smarter?

Today we have cell phones and wireless devices of all types.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Well, yes and no.  It is wonderful that brilliant men such as Morse and Bell invented the telegraph and the telephone.  It is wonderful that other brilliant men invented the fax, the mobile phone, and the cell phone.  It is also wonderful that you and I don’t have to be geniuses to use these devices.

In fact, we don’t have to know much of anything to use them!

In 1861, you could scribble out a message, run down to the Western Union office, pay your money, and the message would be miraculously sent across the country.

I wonder if people in those days thought they were “high-tech” because they could scribble a message?

After Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, people who could not read or write at all could speak into the telephone and be heard around the world.

I wonder if those people thought they too were “high-tech”?

Yet, so many young people — and even many adults — think they are “high tech” because they use a cell phone.  You’re not!

The Cost of Distracted Living.  According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 3,142 people died as a result of distracted driving in 2020, and 324,000 injuries were caused by distracted driving.  

People are driving down the road while listening to the radio, arguing with their passengers, eating junk food, putting on their makeup, and texting on their cell phone — all at the same time!  Then they have a fatal crash and the lives of innocent people are destroyed.

However, as horrible as distracted driving is, it is just the tip of the iceberg!  We are in a society where a great many people are living what can best be described as “distracted lives.”

They cannot focus on anything or anyone.  They spend most of their waking hours “multi-tasking” — doing multiple things at one time. 

  The Curse of Multi-Taking.  Multi-taskers believe they can handle it.  In fact, they believe they are more efficient and competent than ordinary folks who do just one thing at a time.  Now scientific studies are showing that “multi-taskers” actually are terrible at what they do.  They have slow reaction times, absorb little of what they are exposed to, and generally accomplish little.  Studies have shown it can actually reduce IQ.  Human beings are meant to do one thing at a time.

The irony is that the brains of multi-taskers are telling them just the opposite.  They think they are brilliant — perhaps as brilliant as the men who invented the technology they are enslaved to.

Why We Have Already Lost at Least Two Generations.  In the 19th century, most children worked with their parents on the farm.  They were with adults many hours each day and absorbed their parents’ values, their heritage, and their knowledge.  Then families moved to the city, the children went to school, and the parents went to work all day.  But they all came together in the evening and enjoyed dinner and family time together.

When television came along in the 1950’s, things began to change rapidly.  At first, the TV was only on for only a couple of hours at night, so everyone could watch their favorite programs.  Dinner was still family time, and real communication between the generations still occurred around the dinner table.

Then television began to intrude on meal time, and the television set became a constant companion.  People spoke less and less to one another and were fixated on the television set more and more.  

TV dinners became the rage.  Instead of gathering around the dinner table, people sat around the coffee table eating and watching their favorite shows.

Communication between the generations effectively ended.

Yet, teenagers began to talk more — they spent hours on the phone every night talking to their peers and absorbing the values of their peers.  By the 1990’s, cell phones and the Internet emerged, and the distractions accelerated.

Today millions of Americans, especially young people, spend hours each day on cell phones, ipads, texting, email, Facebook, TikTok, and the social media.  

Seven Hours a Day on Cell Phone and Devices.  One recent study said the average American spends seven hours a day on his devices and picks up his cell phone 58 times a day.

Often they do this during work time, family meals, and study time.  They ignore the people around them — often people they are supposedly meeting with. They ignore the task at hand, in order to respond to the latest frivolous, unnecessary message.  

The distracted life is a superficial life, which is often devoid of real relationships.  It is inefficient and often downright rude.  It can easily sacrifice what is good and real for what is imagined and superficial.

The distracted life can also cut people off from real accomplishments by allowing them to function far below their capabilities.  

Distracted Living Can Destroy Your Life.  Employees who bring their distracted lives to work can destroy a business, a Congressional office, or even our national security.

Consider the case of Pvt. Bradley Manning, accused of compromising tens of thousands of secret government documents.  How could his co-workers be so oblivious to someone stealing such a vast quantity of classified data?  The answer: His co-workers thought he was listening to a Lady Gaga CD everyday, but in fact he was copying secret documents to his CD-RW everyday!

Manning’s co-workers were so busy living their own distracted lives that they didn’t consider how dangerous it was to turn over the nation’s secrets over to a 22-year-old Army private. 

No one at the Department of Defense thought to work out a security protocol for people in his position.  The portals on DOD computers were blocked from copying to a thumb drive, but they forgot to block copying to a compact disk!  Apparently, the folks at DOD were too distracted to think of this.

Will You End the Destructive Distractions in Your Life?  Isn’t it time we limit the distractions in our lives and focus on the person we are with or the task we are supposed to be accomplishing?

Shouldn’t our heads be in the same city as our bodies?

Living in a state of perpetual distraction is far more dangerous for our society than distracted driving.  It will create a generation of superficial nitwits who are convinced they are high-tech geniuses.

In fact, the current generation is losing the ability to communicate with the real human beings they are physically with.  So many are overly shy and socially awkward.  They are far more comfortable dealing with their devices than people. Image a slumber party with eight teenage girls.  Do you realize they will spend much of the evening on their devices?  Not talking to each other but texting.  Now here is the really weird part.  Do you know who they are most likely to be texting?  Each other!  They will text across the room and have private conversations they don’t want the others to hear.

Time Is of the Essence.  In the dangerous world we live in and with the awesome challenges we face, it only takes one such generation for America to lose everything our forefathers have given us.

Is there a cure for Distracted Living?  Of course there is!  But it’s not easy.  It’s a decision each individual must make.  

You have to DECIDE to keep your head in the same city as your body!  You have to DECIDE to actually pay attention to the person you are with!  You have to DECIDE that you will focus on the task at hand and complete it!

Start by turning off the phone.  Keep it off for two or three hours at a time.  Then deal with any urgent messages or issues.  Then turn it back off.  

Never bring your cell phone to the table when you are having dinner with family or having a business meeting.  Pay attention to the people, not the phone!

Wean yourself away from the devices until the devices no longer control you!  Use them as tools.  Don’t let them be your master!

Turn a distracted life into a life that is fully engaged in the real world and the real people around you!  You may just like it!

***

Woody Jenkins is editor of the Central City News.

READER COMMENTS

Jeff Brown

Be Present.

Bob Watts

The future leaders of our Nation…..buckle up kiddies……we are in for a long bumpy ride.

Stephen Petit

Smart phones definitively make us less smart.

Dianna Alcede

The promoters of digital media were well aware of the deleterious effects these devices would have on developing brains. They prohibit their children from the use. https://youtu.be/okxrayrk9wY

Connie Zimmermann

Thank you Woody for this insight. I definitely am afflicted with the Distracted disease. I’ve been pondering how to slowly extricate myself from my smartphone. I think I will try the technique you mentioned in this post. Turn it off for a few hours a day.

Johnny Kovalcik

More information is available today at our Fingertips and yet CHOSEN ignorance is at all time high.

Gigi Spell

Exquisite article! I totally agree!

For teens, “…head in same city as our body…” is my favorite line! Then decide. It really is quite, very simple. It’s an addiction that can be easily broken … mostly. 

During my employed years, my phone was left in my car 4-5 hours at a stretch. Employees chatted with each other mostly about our task at hand. Rarely got involved in each other’s drama. Made your personal contacts on a lunch break (non-paid by employer), handled a situation if needed, touched base, then to work again with cell phone turned off and in the car. Unless you have a business like real estate that requires constant contact.

Employers could ramp it up. Parenting is of utmost importance! Being in charge of the ones you’re responsible for. PARENTING. Arguing with parents about the use of the phone they’re provided!?!?!  Don’t make me laugh! It makes me crazy

how NOT in control parents are.

I see sweet, tiny tots watching insane evil cartoons.  I see Disney literally programming their kids.  It makes my head explode that parents allow it. Kids come away from the television with a monstrous attitude! GET OFF YOUR DEVICES! Kids will follow your LEAD.

Someone has to lead. Be the adult. Be a parent. Your kids need to be taught values. They’re not your friend. You’re their parent.

Change your voicemail daily to announce your availability for that particular day and react accordingly. I think I’ll retrain my brain. It’s been 10 years. Seems so productive. Great article! 

Neal Simmons

Great article and so spot on!!

Suzanne McCraine Rome

Soooo true, Woody!!! Bless you!

DK King

Look around and you can see the difference hanging on to a phone all day has done. Kids today and adults have become so connected to their phone that nothing is happening while the brain thinks it is learning only to be blind-sided by junk, such as over eating not being active.  This generation is obese, lazy, doesn’t want to work, wants the government to support them, feed them, provide for them.  It’s going to be an uphill battle. Nothing is going to replace good old family stuff, going to be a lot of work to get this generation off their FAT behinds, before this government completely controls everything that they are told to do… best somebody wake somebody up before it’s too late…

Carol White

Well said Woody!

Elizabeth Spence Ersoff

Utter genius!!

Sheila Easterly

Truth and wisdom!!!!