Sometimes I am struck with one of the deep ironies of contemporary American life. Everywhere I go, people are talking on their cell phones while they are walking, sitting at a bus stop or sitting with friends at a restaurant. Whole families eat together with each member texting away. We are bombarded with ads urging us to not drive distracted. Still all around I see drivers texting and driving. Once I saw a man in the adjacent lane talking on the phone with one hand and eating with the other. Since he only had two hands, guess how he was steering. With his knee! I hurried quickly past before he landed in my path.
Meanwhile everywhere I go I am told the benefits of mindfulness. Mindfulness supposedly improves schools, work places, and home lives. Mindfulness teaches a person, as far as I understand it, to be in the present moment. Classes, retreats, guides and experiences are available, for a fee, to teach you to be mindful.
Herein lies the irony. People who are spending hours of their lives removed from the present moment by their focus on electronic devices are now going to workshops to teach them how to be in the moment. I offer my no fee suggestions. Hang up the phone. Look around. Enjoy your surroundings. Without any further training you can find yourself present!
Saved By Words 
great post!
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Thanks.
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Self-driving cars can’t come soon enough to protect us from fools like the “man in the adjacent lane talking on the phone with one hand and eating with the other.” Unfortunately, so far self-driving cars aren’t fool-proof….and I’ll probably be dead by the time they’re perfected.
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Me too.
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There is so much to learn about ourselves. There is such desperation to stay connected through electronic means, we forget what it means to really connect live and in person.
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And we miss the physical interaction that takes place face to face. Expressions, postures, breathing patterns.
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All this technology, but what’s it really adding to our lives? A barrier between us and the present moment, it seems.
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Absolutely.
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I rarely even take my phone out with me. I look up at the sky, and down at the ground. I gauge the weather, and watch my dog about his excitements. Life is too short for anything less.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Hey. You could sell an on-line course.
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Well said, Elizabeth!
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I find it strangely pleasant when I lose an online friend to a busy, real-life life.
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You mean there is such a thing as real life?LOL
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Good advice Elizabeth. I do agree with you. People everywhere are committed more to their CPs than having a nice conversation with other people
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And they don’t seem to know what they are missing.
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Being on the phone constantly is one of my pet peeves. I think it is incredibly disrespectful to pay more attention to one’s phone than the people right in front of you.
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I dislike people walking into me because they are on the phone.
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You do make a good point. I see this in my children and their friends.
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And they don’t get to learn how to interact face to face.
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Great point. These devices were supposed to free up time, to be spent with others. We now use the free time, using the devices.
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I am glad you get my point, Ron.
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Mindfulness is the elusive dream now. It is tragic how distracted we have become. It’s as if we have been programmed to need constant electronic stimulation. It makes me very sad for us.
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It is easier to stare at a screen than to deal with a living person I think.
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I had the horrible experience last month of finding an app which told me how long I had been using my phone each day (how many hours of screen time and how many unlocks). I discovered that my average was 2½ hours !!! I was shocked and now have relegated my phone use to only that of a phone – average now 5 mins. I also feel a great deal better.
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My grandkids have that so their parents can check up on them. I wonder if a lot of your time was reading the news.
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I’d like to think so but I fear that it was often much more lower brow than that 😞
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I tried!
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Oh I absolutely agree Elizabeth!
Here in Australia its a rather hefty traffic infringement fine $A350 if caught talking on a hand held mobile phone or texting on any mobile phone while driving.
Blessings,
Jennifer
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That size fine would be a real deterrent.
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