A world without cellphones is an inconceivable reality to any person under the age of thirty.  You have to be able to remember a time before cellphones were a ubiquitous part of daily life.  I didn’t get my first cellphone until 2007.  I was 56 years old.  That is totally unbelievable to young people of today.  In fact,  if you should state this fact to a teenager, they may not even believe you.  To them, a cellphone is a “necessity.”

Okay then, let’s define necessity.  According to Merriam-Webster, necessity is defined as: “something that is necessary especially to subsistence <obligated to provide the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter>.”  So, would someone explain to me, please, how this concept has somehow escaped the education of today’s teens?  Wants and needs are practically the same to them.

This is disturbing on so many levels.  What happened to common sense?  Where has logic gone?  We seem to have lost control of what is important and what is not, in terms of simple needs.  We need water, food, clothing and shelter.  Without them, we will die.  We can do without some of them for different, unextended periods of time. But without them, we will not survive. What if I were to say that you could substitute a cellphone for one of these real needs? What would you choose to live without in order to have a phone?

To know what it was like to live before cellphones, talk to someone who has lived then.  Ask me.  As someone who is older about their lives.  Talk to someone in person.  People lived and they lived well, way before phones, let alone, cellphones existed.

Young people are not the only ones, however.  This addiction crosses all boundaries of age.  My 90 year old mother sees a parade of people of all ages on their way to a nearby park.  She tells me that most of them have their eyes down, looking at their phones when it is a beautiful day to enjoy.  Mothers and fathers, pushing strollers are texting on the way to the playground with their children.

I fear that I am part of a minority with others who find this to be a sad commentary of our modern world.  I hope we can get a handle on this because we need to interact with each other and see our incredible world with eyes and minds open to the wonder of it all.  At the end of one’s life it will become clear that being alone with a cellphone is a poor excuse for a companion.