Say What?!

I broke my cellphone yesterday, so all day I have, obviously, not been able to use it . Normally, first thing in the morning, is check my cellphone, text Andy good morning, follow up on any texts or calls I got while I was asleep. Then work, the during my break, out comes the cellphone and, normally, my iPod does too. This same routine continues for lunch, and my later break. After work is done, it's normally time for more cellphone, facebook, and email. It's almost pathetic..however, the more pathetic fact is there is always someone I am talking to during those times, which means, more than just I do this too. And most of these conversations are absolutely pointless. Why do we feel the need to fill all our free time with some sort of conversation, even if it is completely pointless, and we have had the same conversation six times that day?
It's almost scary to think about how much our world thrives on communication. I am not at all saying that technology is a bad thing, because I actually think the complete opposite. I do think, however, that we may need to lay off how accessible we are. Most cellphone receive not only calls and text messages, but also emails, tweets, Facebook posts and status updates. It's crazy!
The typical excuse we give the older generation of why we need to have every form of communication accessible to us at all times is "what if something happened to me?" "What if there was a family emergency?'' and so on and so forth. And although, I agree, that technology does make it easier for people to get a hold of you in an emergency. However, our generation has taken it to a complete new level. We almost feel a need to be in constant communication with those around us. I read a paper once that talked about how over time kids are going to lose their social skills because there will no longer be a need for them. The author argued his points by explaining that the majority of kids only communicate with their friends verbally when they see them in person the rest of the time the communicate through text, Facebook, or email.
This fact made me realize that John and Hank Greens Brotherhood 2.0 was really almost revolutionary. Pretty much the experiment was to see if John and Hank could go 1 year with text less communication. No email, no letters, no Facebook, and no text messages. Although the used technology(YouTube) to accomplish this feat, and they still could talk to each other on the phone. They proved something that not many teenagers would believe, you can maintain a strong and meaningful relationship with someone, without the use of text messaging.
All of this thinking has brought me to really sit down and think about how much I actually communicate with other people, and how much of that time I could be doing something actually productive.  I want to see how much of the communication overload I can cut out of my life. And what will I accomplish with all my new free time?!?!
I think my challenge to all of you out there in reader land, is to try and do the same thing. Next time your reach for the cellphone, or fly into the other room to answer the one word text message you must absolutely reply to, think about if it is really necessary, or if it can wait until you are finished with your current project.

As for me, I am starting with Facebook. So it is goodbye to Facebook world, at least until I find something else to occupy the time I used to fill with Facebook.