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Phones, phones, everywhere phones

Let me take you back to the dark ages … before Drake the Weeknd and Taylor Swift billion billion-dollar tours.

Let’s go back to the middle of the Garth Brooks era when Big Bang Theory was becoming a big bang on that thing we called television.

I was in a restaurant in Regina, waiting for my meal, sans cell phone. I had not yet succumbed to the devil’s instrument at that time. That came a year later.

But back then we called them cell phones and some folded up and one called Blackberry was considered cream of the crop for these mobile units that most folks were becoming enamoured with, but not quite in every environment or gathering.

I was in a small two-seater booth when a team of six people, a good mix of males and females entered and took seats at a big round table near the centre. They were dressed in business casual attire, so I assumed they were all from one company in a nearby office complex.

Five of the luncheon people chatted, laughed and took turns listening and talking. One guy stood out because he was totally engaged in his cell phone. He tapped it, he viewed it, did a few thumb texts. He got up from the table to take a call or make a call. He was totally distracted by that little device he so lovingly petted with his adept fingering. I don’t believe he kissed it, but he could have when I wasn’t watching. I kept a casual check on that table since I had nothing better to do while I absorbed my lunch.

The phone guy lifted his head once, to place an order, even though he had not even glanced at a menu. He totally ignored his dining companions. Not a word to them or from them. He just had his head down, engaged in his phone, even while eating. The others visited, talked about their meal, talked business, although I couldn’t hear much of what they were saying.

About 30 minutes later they were done, as was I. They got up to leave and phone guy did manage to join them, while his head was still buried in the tiny device. He avoided running into the doorframe, just barely, on the way out.

So sad, I thought to myself. He had missed a potentially fun luncheon date with friends and colleagues.

Now, fast-forward about 15 years. I’m in Estevan in a busy pub/restaurant with a friend. We had texted each other to arrange the details of our luncheon plans and then put our phones away.

Enter a group of five who took over a large table nearby.

Yep, you guessed it.

No one spoke. No one lifted a head. All five were focused on the iPhones. They placed orders and then went back to the phones. No one spoke. It was a Silence of the Lambs all over again. Why they had bothered to form a gang of five to engage in nothingness on a social interaction scale, was beyond me. But this was now the new normal.

Now let’s go forward a few more years to a near-current-year classroom. Twenty-three of the 25 students in a Grade 10 class, let’s say, have heads down studying their texts and TikTok 14-second dance routines in their $1,300 phones that deliver everything from fiction and fake news to crazy comments, social media blandness and world of apps. These $1,300 phones had captured their focus while the $50,000 to $90,000 well-trained teacher standing two metres away, attempting to inject some real-life education into their growing brains, had now become the distraction. That can’t be right, or efficient. I mean they all couldn’t grow up to be influencers, some would have to build something somewhere at some time, wouldn’t they?

So school boards and governments finally determined that phones needed to be banned in the classrooms with only a few exceptions such as for language interpretations or specific actual educational uses. Laptops in the classroom serve a similar purpose. Use, but don’t abuse. Simple, except we’re talking about young people eh?

Of course, those rules, when imposed, raised a bit of a ruckus with the dedicated viral game players, text disciples, and hovering parents who were also addicted to the device. But something had to be done to change the trend and the narratives.

Should AI, iPhones and social media platforms rule the day? Rule the world?

I’m guessing no. They obviously come in handy, but I’m also guessing that we, maybe, should still be relying on human contact well … maybe for the sake of humanity?

Quick example: The other night I had a platform up that was offering music with the titles of the song registered on the screen.

Coming up, I quickly read was the song “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin."

Hmm, I thought, classic soft rock song? Never heard of that one.

The song began … Sly and Family Stone  “I wanna thank you for lettin’ me be my self again.” Now I wonder if AI changed the spelling for Weeknd at the top of this missive.

Enough said, I had just received confirmation from Sly and his family that AI still has a way to go before it can totally replace human input. But many programmers are trying really hard, so give ‘em credit. Working with AI not fighting it, is the future.  Go Chatbox Go.

Oh, and while we’re at it. Let’s get going on some of those crypto meme and currency plans and scams and schemes. There are millions of makers of it now, so it’s pretty popular. We don’t want to fall behind, do we?