Advances in communication causing more issues than solving

With+the+advent+of+cell+phones+has+come+a+myriad+of+issues.+We+are+now+constantly+available+and+live+in+a+last-minute+society.

With the advent of cell phones has come a myriad of issues. We are now constantly available and live in a last-minute society.

Letters to telegraphs to telegrams to phones. Over the centuries, we’ve invented better ways to communicate with others.

However, are these “advances” just causing more issues?

With cell phones, we now have constant and instant communication. Instant communication can be useful if you become stranded on the side of a road or need to get an urgent message to someone, but those same advances also bring on their own problems.

Since we can be in constant communication, people expect us to always be in constant communication. We get upset if someone takes more than a few hours to respond to a text or when people ignore our Snapchats. We’re constantly being bombarded with information which most of the time isn’t even that useful or relevant.

In the last week, I’ve received 1,210 notifications. I guarantee hardly any of those were actually important messages.

When communication was limited to a phone call or an occasional letter, we only passed on the biggest news and events in our lives. Now we have an outlet to express every thought that pops in our minds.

We’ve created a world where we’re always accessible. People can always reach you and therefore we have a very last-minute society. We don’t have to plan ahead because we know we can always contact people.

This mentality makes us feel that if we don’t have our phones with us at all times, we might miss something. What if someone texts me? What if someone needs something from me?

While our phones give us the illusion of connectivity, I would argue that our phones really aren’t improving our quality of life. We would be better off if we lived in a day and age where a phone call was special and people hung out without being distracted by technology.

21afeyerherm@usd489.com