smart phones: good or bad?

source.

You should read the quick post where I found this picture. It's pretty ironic.

To our generation, this picture is so normal. How many times have you seen a group of people sitting in the same room or at the same table all on their phone? Sometimes they're talking to each other, sometimes they're not. When they are, they usually aren't making eye contact, they're looking down at the screen. We all do it. In social settings, we have our phones at hand at all times. There are many reasons why. In fact, can you relate to any of the following?

I pretend I'm on it to avoid the petitioners every single time I go to Trader Joe's. I can show my husband what I found on Pinterest instantly instead of trying to describe it to him. I don't have to feel so silly when I'm sitting by myself and waiting for whoever I'm meeting. My phone helps me feel not so awkward when a conversation all of a sudden went silent. Of course, I need to know instantly when theres a new text, e-mail, notification, convo, or tweet. Yeah, I'm spontaneous in a foreign city (as long as the 3G network is at my fingertips) What happens when you can't think of that actor in that movie you were just talking about? (IMDB saves the day again.)

As someone who is already painfully shy, I'm finding this crutch creating me into an even more awkward socializer. I hate (and I mean hate) making phone calls. If it's a professional phone call- woah. Immediately, I get very anxious, shaky and sweaty. (Yep, gross.) I even get so nervous that I have to write down what I want to say ahead of time or I'll completely forget. I know that this is really crazy sounding and pretty extreme, but for me, it's the truth. You may not hate phone calls as much as me, but how often do you check your phone during the day? What's the first thing you do when you find yourself alone at a table or as you step into an elevator with a stranger? You usually check it again, even when you know it hasn't made a peep about new e-mails or texts, right? It's usually the last thing I do before going to sleep and the first thing I do when I wake up.

I just wonder how different our interactions would be if we didn't have this device of avoidance and instant satisfaction. I've read about studies that say this generation has a hard time relaxing or staying focused because we check our on phones too much. That totally makes sense to me. I can't even tell you how many times I checked my e-mail and twitter feed while I was writing this.

How do you think you would deal with not having our phone for a day? What if you stayed away from the internet all together?

PS: Here's an article CNN posted about smartphone users and their "checking habits".