VIEWPOINT
With many of us seemingly glued to our phones, our columnist suggests a more satisfying alternative to scrolling: socialising
It was my lovely, attentive sons who issued me advice on the ownership of a mobile phone. ‘Come on, Mum, it’s time you entered the 21st century. Dump that old Blackberry. You need an iPhone – slim, elegant, superfast, anything you’ve ever wanted right there at your command.’
So it was their intention I should join the 97% of people over the age of 12 for whom the smart phone is so much more than a means of communication. One could almost say it’s an addiction. I had no desire to dump my old Blackberry. OK, it was a bit chunkier than the slender gadgets with which they appeared to be somewhat obsessed, but theirs were intensely irritating. Every few seconds an annoying ping. And the pings were never ignored. How many times had I to say, ‘No phones at the table’? I knew, though, they were hiding them under the table. Those wretched machines were never left in another room; they’d always attract attention.
My Blackberry was a marvel. I could receive emails and texts, always ensuring I checked them only at certain times of the day. Nothing could be so urgent that it had to be seen and replied to right now. But its true beauty was the keyboard: a familiar Qwerty design, the keys stood up slightly, separated, like they are on a computer. I wrote endless articles on my phone, making no mistakes as the little keyboard had no difficulties with my long nails.
Then the company let me down. Blackberry, that perfect means of communication, was no more. Into the 21st century I was forced to march, and I have yet to learn why so many people seem to be obsessed with their phones.
My typing, on the rare occasions I attempt it on my phone, is appalling. The keyboard will not accept an instruction from my pride and joy – my nails. I have to type using the flesh to the side of the nail on my little finger. Such gobbledegook emerges as ones become twos, gs are fs, ns are ms – my name is often Hemmi. Everything takes time; speedy communication is non-existent.
Yet it’s clear the majority of the population is completely addicted to their mobiles, to the exclusion of everything and everybody else. I look on aghast at mothers picking up their kids from school, a buggy with a little one inside being pushed with one hand, a phone in the other. What does she think she’s doing? Why isn’t she talking to her children and making them feel they matter more than the phone?
I sit in cafés watching coupl
