You’ve probably all experienced it. That frantic feeling when you’ve misplaced your phone. For many, it’s a tether to organizing life with the calendar, maps, alarm clock, clock, music, messages and connections. Is it a tether or is it an anchor, weighing us down and leaving us without a moment of peace?
A class discussion triggered this post for me. I don’t think I am as anchored to my phone as some. Messages come mostly from family and sometimes students. I do check, somewhat incessantly, Twitter and my email.
This summer I spent some time in West Virginia on a farm that had spotty service as well as a one-week phone ban during part of our three-week stay. Live in the present. In the moment. With those right here and now. I also was in Africa, where WiFi service was hit or miss. I found I didn’t really miss it all that much. Those weeks of travel helped to curb my social media addiction.
When I got back to my Omaha life, I realized that my incessant checking is more of a way to fill time, a distraction. I don’t have to be distracted every minute. I find social media interesting and useful for following the news, finding out new developments in social media, journalism or entrepreneurship. And sometimes, it just makes me laugh. But there is such a thing as too much distraction. I need to focus more. I’m not getting rid of the phone or the Twitter account. I can set it aside. I can turn off the tweets. I would like the phone and what it represents to be less of an anchor dragging me into distraction and more of a tether keeping me connected.
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