I want to issue a challenge which could have amazing results. Choose one evening a week with your spouse/significant other/family and declare it officially a "No Cell Phones Date." For the evening, turn off all cell phones, PDA's, Ipods, Computers, and other gadgets that could distract you. Don't just set them aside and try to ignore them if they ring, beep, or whatever. Actually turn them completely off. Choose a good movie or perhaps some good music to enjoy while you relax together. Or go to a movie. Or dinner. Or just sit together in the room and talk about good things. Play a board or card game, perhaps. For something really different, find a good book and take turns reading it out loud.
Whatever you do, knock out any of the day-to-day distractions. Don't let the temptation to just run check the e-mail or messages overcome you during the evening. This is your time together
For many, this will be a daunting task. If it is, all the more reason to do it. I challenge you to do this -- just one evening a week -- for one month. See if at the end of that month you don't start looking forward to it and wanting to continue. If you take me up on this challenge, I hope you'll come back to this blog post and share what it felt like.
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
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Dan,
ReplyDeleteThe telecommunications call center manager in me heartily endorses this idea. These devices have become like umbilicals or an addiction.
Nomophobia was a phrase coined to decribe folks. From Wikipedia "Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.[1][2][3] The term, an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia",[4] was coined during a study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organisation to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users.[5] The study found that nearly 53 percent of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage".[6] [7] The study found that about 58 percent of men and 48 percent of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9 percent feel stressed when their mobile phones are off. The study sampled 2,163 people. [8] Fifty-five percent of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones.[9] The study compared stress levels induced by the average case of nomophobia to be on-par with those of "wedding day jitters" and trips to the dentists.[10]. Ten percent of those questioned said they needed to be contactable at all times because of work."
Interventions are needed and your idea is a great one!
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a show that ran on the early days of HBO (Home Box Office) called "Not Necessarily the News." They had a segment on each episode where there introduced "Sniglets." Sniglets are (fictitious) "words that aren't in the dictionary but should be."
A couple of examples:
"Prememblemitis:" dropping a letter in a Postal Service mailbox, closing the lid, then opening it again to look and make sure it actually dropped into the box.
"Kedophobia:" fear of having your sneakers eaten by the teeth at the end of the escalator.
"Lactomangulation:" the act of opening a paper milk carton from the "illegal" side.
(By the way, if you "get" the second one (kedophobia) then you are dating yourself... guilty as charged, here.)
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI actually wore the old Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars...virtually indestructible...escalators feared them...like Chuck Norris is feared! Sniglets...forgot about them. My favorite was futility infielder,,,the person who threw their baseball glove at a ball that got past them!
Love that one Dave! They actually put a "Sniglets" dictionary out at one time, if I am remembering correctly.
ReplyDeleteDan -
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that this would be so hard for so many. I've been doing a lot of "leave the cell phone in the car" these days, also.
On the home front side, I'm lucky that my wife has managed to cultivate a very low cell-phone tether factor. She's never distracted by hers.
It's like overcoming an addiction. Very hard at first, but it ends up being liberating after you get through the withdrawal stage. I find that even a stroll through the bookstore is more enjoyable if my phone is in the car instead of ringing on my side or in my ear through the bluetooth earpiece. If I am truly expecting a critical call that's one thing, but that brings us to the issue of reconsidering what's really critical. Weren't we all able to successfully conduct business before we had cell phones, Twitter, etc.?
ReplyDeleteMy take on it is that the technology has driven us to change our sense of urgency and priorities more than it has developed in response thereto. More often than not, the tail is wagging the dog, so to speak.