An astonishing 54% of us claim to suffer from nomophobia, the fear of being without your mobile/cellphone. 42% of those who have one check for messages on the beach, 25% during a dinner date and a fifth when they’re in bed (OnePoll/Telegraph). 49% of 18 to 24-year-olds regularly check theirs while eating en famille (Mars/Telegraph). But American teens are even more obsessive about their “cell phones”: a third of them receive and send 100 texts a day, about ten every waking hour (Independent).
Recently, a Taiwanese tourist visiting Melbourne had to be rescued after walking off a pier and into the sea while checking her Facebook page. The woman was picked up after 20 minutes. “She was just lying on her back in a floating position,” said a police spokesman. “She still had her mobile phone in her hand.”
But back to texting. What do teens have to actually say in their 100 texts a day? Is this a case where you send texts because you desperately want the attention that goes with receiving messages in return? I don’t know, but it doesn’t meet the criterion of enjoyment of the one precious life we have. There are better things to do, like actually being with your text-ee and having a conversation. And may I suggest that the conversation includes asking the other person what they are up to, what is their news, how do they feel about it? This is the Epicurean way.
If your life is full and busy the cellphone is simply a convenience. My wife and I have a single cellphone which we use in emergencies or if we are out of the house alone.
I simply do not have the time to be constantly checking the thing and sending texts.
However, hypocrisy rules, o.k? I do have this I-pad , and it gets an awful lot of use. I must check emails five or six times a day . No nomophobia, but a visceral need for connectedness, maybe? I do think it important to understand that ignoring emails or texts, or simply forgetting to answer them, is one of the outstanding modern rudenesses. People hate to be ignored. Now we wait a week and then send a follow-up asking if the message was received? (Of course it was, but the question usually elicits a response and an apology). So no wonder we collectively have so little time to do meaningful things when we have to answer some damn fool texts.