Why can’t people stay off their phones?

I’m a bit concerned that as a species we are losing our ability to communicate with people F2F. That’s “face to face” for those of you who haven’t let cell phones take over your life. Statistics show that nearly everyone has a cell phone now, and most of those phones are smart phones.

To call them phones is really a bit of a misnomer. Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple Inc. summed it up best when he introduced the iPhone in 2007.

“So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone… are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is,” said Jobs when he introduced the original iPhone on Jan. 9, 2007.

The phone launched a slew of copycats and 16 versions of itself. It is in reality a powerful computer that you can also make phone calls on. Until that point, phones were basically just phones, sending things like a text was clunky at best.

The smart phone has become so ingrained with our daily lives that many seemingly cannot function without it.

I have been a long-time user of cell phones. How long? 1988 long. The first cell phones in Marietta were about the size and weight of a decent size novel. You could wedge them between the front seats of your car and plug them into the cigarette lighter (yes cars still had them then). The newspaper used them to let photographers know when there was something, like a fire, that they needed to get to urgently.

From the base ran a cord to the handset where you could talk.

That’s all you could do with the first cell phones. Talk. No texting or any of the million other things that we now do. They were big and heavy and had horrible battery lives, but they were the start of the revolution that gets us to today.

The technology revolution may have gone a little bit too far and it is not just the “young people,” it’s the boomers of the world too. The younger generation may very well be modeling the behavior of their parents.

Many people, of all ages, seem to have trouble staying off their smart phone. I was driving across a parking lot at a big box store the other day and had to dodge people walking across the parking lot staring at their phone instead of looking where they are going. I’ve witnessed groups walking through Muskingum Park all staring at their phones. It kind of defeats the purpose of a walk, plus you kind of look like a zombie doing it.

Get a group of college students together and they will all be looking at their phones instead of talking to one another. Many public schools have outright banned them. College instructors have to have policies about what is allowed to be used in the classroom. When I taught a photography class at Marietta College last fall, I told the students on the first day that my policy would be the same as the policy in place when I took a photography class 45 years ago. A student pointed out that there were no smart phones or laptops in 1980. Exactly, and there will not be any in my class either, I pointed out.

Smart phones are capable of incredible things. Health apps can keep track of important information about yourself, navigation apps can insure that you can find your way home on a trip, weather apps can let you know what you need to be prepared for and of course the newspaper’s All-Access app can let you read The Marietta Times from anyplace on the planet. In the interest of public safety though, please do not read it while walking across a parking lot or driving down the road.

The fact that communities like Marietta had to put road signs up telling people to stay off their phones reinforces the fact that there is a real problem.

Less than 20 years old, smart phone makers will continue to innovate, likely making them more addictive than they are now.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times you can reach him at asmith@mariettatimes.com