iDistracteasily

What did we do before mobile phones, especially those with the ability to access the internet?

It appears we’ve been gripped by an ‘iPlague’, an incessant need to ‘check-in’ with various streams of communication – SMS, email, personal blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc.

It’s frustrating, and downright rude, when engrossed in a conversation, only to be interrupted mid-sentence by a counterpart’s phone zigzagging its way across the table, emanating bleeping discord, ‘alerting’ them to something of vital importance. (Perhaps a distant ‘friend’ from primary school days commented on a photo posted on Facebook over two years ago, or the local department store, of which the said user belongs to a distribution list with 30,000 others, just had to advise of an impending sale). Either scenario is far from what I’d deem ‘urgent’ communication or worthy of assuming precedence within the current conversation, yet this ‘interaction’, or inability to stay focused, is sadly being accepted as the norm. It’s disturbing.

This ‘affliction’ is cross-generational and isn’t reserved for the young and technically savvy – older generations are just as gripped by it, if not more, buying into the novelty aspect… ‘Back in my day we only had… (insert appropriate technical invention/marvel of their time)’.

Then there is the argument of ‘needing’ a mobile phone within a 20cm radius at all times (‘I’m expecting an important call’ or ‘I have children!’ are common justifications). Granted, those are two very good reasons for promoting your mobile phone to human appendage status but it doesn’t render you incapable of functioning (or communicating) without it.

There’s the irony – some people have simply forgotten how to communicate when in physical proximity to others (insert a partition and some computers and the chemistry is re-established!)

So herein lies the challenge – the next time you’re with company, do your best to give that person or group your undivided attention without being distracted by the bells and whistles of your mobile phone – we are after all meant to be very complex creatures (and not goldfish with limited attention spans!)