Fire, Wheels & Cellphones

There have been a few really helpful innovations over time. Fire and the wheel are up there on my list. Cellphones may be considered for the list but with all things new, bright & shiny - the results are yet to be tabulated.

Both fire & the wheel have a long, storied history and track record of quantifiable value creation. Each have, in ways we can barely recall or comprehend, added to the steps that modernity climbed. They are that profound.

Communication stands among the pillars of our accomplishments. I've searched high and low for the tools of this skill. Each time I begin looking around, I wind up looking inside. So it was with great enthusiasm I welcomed cellphones into my world. Then smartphones! I began my foray of use with a divine understanding that they were inherently "good" & "productive". I left my skepticism at the door. Cellphones could be nothing but a net gain, a rare undeniable value-add.

Let me be the first to admit my mistake. I was wrong. Cellphones are a problem. And not a small one by any measurement.

Any tool designed to do one thing and delivering the exact opposite would quickly find the dust heap of discard. We routinely throw out things & replace processes that fail to perform as expected. Ruthlessly in most instances. Cellphones are designed and promoted as an ubiquitous entity that facilitates communication, entertainment, understanding and connection and the results are in. While they do each of these things in part, overall they erode the core capacities and competencies of the user to a degree that, if they where a tool in your tool box or hanging in your tool shed, you'd discard hurriedly. Imagine your cellphone had a contagion...you'd throw it away quickly. Then wash your hands...

Need first hand knowledge? Make a list of how your cellphone has contributed to your peace and balance. Describe how, by having a cellphone close at hand 24/7, you better manage the myriad of tasks that conspire to afford you a life of meaning & purpose. Then - think of all the times when you didn't have a cellphone nearby. How do those moments compare?