I love this joke from comedian Mike Birbiglia:
"I get really annoyed with technology. They don't make better technology, they just combine stuff. Like you go to buy something, everything's also a camera. They'll be like, 'It's also a camera!' I'm like, 'I just wanted a grapefruit.' They're like, 'It's a camera grapefruit. You take pictures of yourself eating the grapefruit, and then you eat the camera, and you shit the pictures!' Oh my god, that is the opposite of what I wanted."
- Mike Birbiglia, as heard on Invite Them Up
I was reminded of this last night, as I was at a family function talking to some family friends about cell phones. One family friend, who recently became a grandfather in fact, was talking about his old cell phone that he just loved. "It was just a phone. You turned it on, and it worked, and it never missed a call." He was ragging on all these PDAs and data plans -- he had no desire for such technology in his cell phone. I started to explain how valuable it is to have the Internet at your fingertips at all times. I tried to think of examples of how handy it would be, without giving the use cases of twitter or email, but didn't get far before getting stumped.
And so I started to think about how hyper-connected we all are with our iPhones and BlackBerries and how this can actually keep us from the living in the very moment we are in. I have not actually mastered mobile tweeting quite yet, and so still find it quite cumbersome to try to tweet while at a party or other event. Sparse tweets can actually mean that I'm just having too good a time to pull myself away to tweet. And while I'm a big believer in all this technology helping us extend our community and allow more people take part in our experiences, it may simultaneously serve as a distraction from that which we are experiencing at a given moment.
I was recently telling my friend of the "practical" reasons behind "observing the Sabbath." I grew up in a Reform Jewish household, and still consider myself Reform. Though I did have periods of my life where I became more observant, or was surrounded by those who were very observant. My friend couldn't imagine spending 24 whole hours not being online, not using technology. I told her how invigorating it can be - to put aside your cell phone, but aside your laptop, and just be with your friends and family. Spend the day talking or reading or playing games. Just be in the moment.
Isn't it still considered rude to be on your cell phone at the dinner table? That's at least partly because you're signaling to those around you that you'd rather be somewhere else, talking to someone else. Putting down the phone shows that you want to be right then and there.
It's also incredibly calming. That's what I love about traveling, especially out of the country, where my cell phone won't work and I rarely have access to the Internet. I'm disconnected, in a good way. I can just be where I am, doing whatever I'm doing. My brain isn't somewhere else and it doesn't need to be anywhere else. A little bit of the back to basics can be good from time to time. And that's exactly what I got last night, with the Russian music playing, and the happy couples dancing, and even with the camera phones snapping away... it was good to just laugh and dance in that very wholesome my-family-is-ridiculous sort of way.
Photo by pouwerkerk
