After an hour of stalling on my phone, texting, IMing and social networking, I am going to focus, sit down and write this. Admit it, you’ve done that before. “Oh, I just have to send one text”, “Let me just check my twitter notifications…”, “One more e-mail won’t hurt.” And before you know it, hours have gone by and you have done nothing. It’s a problem that is sweeping our nation and taking over our lives.
No, it’s not the zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion. It’s texting. Over the years, KIDS HAVE BECOME OBSESSED WITH THEIR PHONES. Now, I’m not saying that I am completely innocent of this crime, I’m simply stating a fact. As every second goes by, kids and teens everywhere become more and more obsessed with their phones. A new app will come out or some big issue will hit twitter and everyone is on. When kids are on their phones, they become distracted from everyday life, such as: talking with family or friends, sightseeing or even just going out for coffee. You miss the little things and even forget about the whole world around you. Instead, you’re focused on the small glowing device in your hands.
The phone issue has also been pretty bad in school as well. Kids will play on their phones during class or text each other (you’re right next to them?!) and forget about the teacher. Many schools allow phones but others require it on silent. Numerous schools have even banned phones… period. I know that most of my time between classes has revolved around my phone. A text here, a tweet there, but looking at my habit among so many others, I just find it rude. I would be sitting at lunch with about 12 girls and, about 99% of the time, more than half are on their phones. Some of them are texting, checking social networking sites (why would anyone update in the middle of school?!) or playing games. During the last Bat Mitzvah of the year it seemed as though everyone spent every minute on his or her phone (no, it wasn’t a boring Bat Mitzvah). When I went on to the dance floor, I noticed right off the bat, 3 girls holding a BlackBerrys and iPhones. WHY WOULD YOU NEED YOUR PHONE WHILE YOU ARE DANCING??! Believe me, hun, you are not THAT important. Basically the whole grade is here. Who could you possibly need to talk to on your phone? I mean, I understand the whole parent thing (annoying!) but if you really need to talk to them, don’t talk to them on the dance floor.
Why do kids always have their phones glued to their hands? I actually have a theory about that: I think kids hold their phones to look important. Not only do they just hold them, they play on them. At my school everyone hangs out in the alley and most of the kids there are on their phones playing Tiny Wings. That’s just ridiculous.
Teens end up missing so much of their lives playing on their phones and texting. But not only is it teens, but kids too! My brother’s friend just got a white iPhone 4 for his 9th birthday. Why on earth would you need an iPhone so young, or for that matter, a phone? Phones are literally taking over the world. They slowly take over each and every person’s life. The solution? Well, there is none; soon, the whole world is going to turn into a giant iPhone!! Just kidding. But seriously, take a break from your phone one day and take a nice walk with your dog (or cat??) and talk to actual people. It wont hurt you, I promise. Who knows? You may even like it and do it more often. Well TTYL 4 NOW! 
Image via freshorganicliving.com
YES!!!!
This is just what I was thinking! So before I had my son I straight up ditched my phone all together & I have never been happier. Oh, The freedom!!! Of course I still have facebook & twitter but now I only update my status when something is actually happening. It helps too that my husband refuses to get a cell & we’ve made a pact not to get our son a cellphone EVER!! If he wants one he’ll have to be old enough to get a job & pay for it himself. Just like my dad always says ” Nothing in life is free. Everything has a price”
I’m with you Jennifer – I’m a world class procrastinator, although I don’t tend to spend that much time on my phone, I’m on the internet a lot more. But a 9 year old with a iPhone does seem over the top. Then again, I know someone who used to give their 3 year old their iPhone to play games on to keep her quiet and she now knows how to program the phone better than her Mum (the kid is now 6 but still…).
Well I’m an excellent procrastinator. As such I look for anything to take my mind off of what I’m doing at the time. At work I’ll find an email to read instead of writing a report etc… I don’t have kids but I don’t think I’d give a kid an iPhone. I would give them a cheapy phone that they could use in an emergency. Oh well I guess parents want to give their children things they didn’t have.
When I was a kid, I was homeschooled. I admit it. But my mom had me in every social activity you could imagine, so instead of being on a phone, I was WITH my friends. CONSTANTLY. Now that we’ve all gone our separate ways, I miss the days where you could call someone up and say “Hey, let’s go see a 1pm showing of this movie” and they’d be like “Sure!” Now I have to follow their blogs, facebook them, text them, text to remind them we have a movie date next week… I’m SO UBER CONNECTED but completely isolated. I’m sad that kids today won’t experience that connectedness that I did when I was their age.
-Melissa
Honestly, I don’t get the whole cell phone craze. I’m a 15-year-old with a Blackberry, but I rarely ever use it. Instead, I’m horribly addicted to my MacBook.
Oh, and I was reading this article instead of writing a paper for social studies. :/
Unfortunately it’s not just teens and kids. People in their 20′s, 30′s and 40′s are glued to their phones.
I’m 26, and I found that I had to implement a ‘no cell phone rule’ inside my apartment when we had guests over. My b/f and I would invite friends over and they would ignore us while they texted away to a friend on the other end. We found this quite rude being ignored in our own home and having to fight for conversation with a person that wasn’t even there.
We had some resistance at first when the rule was put into place, but people soon forgot about their cellphones once they were having fun and engaging with the people right in front of them!
It took me a little longer than usual to read this because I had to update status and reply to texts whilst reading it.