At a meeting of the MHS Philosophy Club perhaps the most insightful conversation concerned cell phones. Kids will admit that they are somewhat addicted to their cell phones, like on a scale of 1 - 10, they might be a 9.
But how addicted they are can be seen in the phenomenon of phantoming ringing. I have to admit, I have been the victim of it, too.
Symptoms of phantom ringing range from thinking you hear your cell phone ringing to thinking you feel it vibrating in your pocket or purse, only to pick it up and find not even one new call or message.
I'm not sure how behavioral scientists would explain this, but I think it is clear. Our kids' cell phones have become another limb, an extension of their physical and psychic being; one they long for when it is silent or missing, or even right there in their pocket.
Why would this phenomenon manifest itself in this way? One's cell phone is a connection to the outside world and to friends. Kids may be having superficial conversations in the language of text, but they are communicating with another human being on the average of every ten to twenty minutes. Most of those are significant others: mom, grandma, girldfriend or boyfriend, and best friends.
Unlimited texting allows unlimited access to the teen's extension of self in family and friends. In our world the cell phone has become the most obvious manifestation of sociologist Cooley's infamous Looking Glass Self theory. Not only do teens have a reliable way to obtain needed information about rides, practices, parental instructions and so forth, but they also have a mirror of themselves in the outside world.
Significant Other didn't text right back? Uh-oh, he doesn't like me anymore. Mom didn't get right back to me - she's mad and I must be grounded or have messed up. That cute guy didn't respond to my text - he thinks I'm a geek. A weirdo texted me - what is happening to my social life?!
The fact is that the cell phone ringing is just like that Streamline Princess Phone we all had back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. When it rang, we knew we were liked, valued, even adored. When it was silent, we were desolate. And, texting is just like that note your best friend left on your car windshield or that really cute someone slipped you in math class.
The ringing is important because it means we are loved. The phantom ring is just an existential sign that we wish someone were there, that we matter to someone. In that sense, the cell phone is a remarkable connection tool. That ring or vibration is an invisible hug - that phatom ring a longing for one.
When I was out at MHS getting ready for "The Hobbit", I asked one of my teen actors what he figured the percent of MHS students that DID NOT have cell phones was. He thought a minute and answered, "maybe 5 percent."
ReplyDeleteIn the 2 years since I taught high school, cell phones have become not a luxury, but an accepted and expected part of day to day life.
A game we play at our house is pulling up to a stop light or passing a car and finding someone NOT talking on a cell phone.
I have to admit it gets does uncomfortable when I am perusing the Lean Cuisines and another shopper is discussing her personal hygiene, her divorce or her finacial issues as she shops. Don't you think cell-phones need to be a convenience for quick communication in public places. C
I am amazed at how people are tethered to their cell phones! This year cell phones among the kids have gotten really bad - almost every kid's parents have gotten their child one and they truly can't keep their hands off them. They, and those iPods, make the time go by so much faster and relieve a lot of the existential ennui produced by listening to one's teacher drone on and on about the Holocaust....(being facetious, but that is about the point it has gotten to in our world).
ReplyDeleteOk- The English teacher in me cannot stand mistakes, particularly my own...proofreading just kind of goes out the window when answering blogs in a hurry.
ReplyDeleteIn last paragraph omit "does" or add singular "get" after does, financial lost the "n" in my typing and the last sentence needs to end with a question mark. There, I feel so much better.
By the way Mel, I had to look up existential ennui...for any non-Latin, non philosophy types...best I can figure, "a conscious decision an individual makes to be bored and inattentive because information is perceived as irelevant or irrational..am I close? And, I don't find your observation to be all that humorous, I find it to be true. C
C - I am finding on blogs and other Internet driven communication, nobody cares anymore if grammatical mistakes are made and I have mixed feelings about it. Thanks for correcting yours, although I know you are a very intelligent woman who was typing in a hurry!! Now anyone else reading knows, too! I tried to correct a possessive mistake I made in the article, but the blog is talking so long to load, I couldn't ever get it to do it. I will try again, though!! I would hate to be incorrect throughout eternity, as what has been posted to the Internet never seems to go away permanently!
ReplyDeleteAs to your comment about being facetious, you are right, it isn't funny, but I was trying to make light of it because if I didn't I might have to cry at what has happened to our children. I also don't want to be too freaked out by it because I think it has probably happened off and on all throughout human civilization - it just hurts more to see it happening to kids you love. Your analysis is absolutely right. I am persisting in my belief, though, that these are, or will be, good people when they are adults and everything will be fine for them. Today's report on NPR about the state of the American economy and China did not reassure me too much.
M
See, I said the blog is "talking so long to load" - I am not a good proofreader, either!
ReplyDelete