Technology can be a wonderful time saver. I love mail merge features that allow an address list to become a sheet of labels with the push of a button. Email is a quick and easy way to communicate after hours when it’s too late to make a phone call. And yes, my niece Mindy is right, Excel spreadsheets (once set up) make life easier for math-challenged folks like me.
However, technology can also lead to mindless, time wasting activities. I know that and I tried really hard not to join the Internet game craze. I don’t really have time to spare for silliness. I passed on Angry Birds and Words with Friends. Unfortunately, for some reason I gave Candy Crush Saga a try.
It seemed so harmless, with those pretty little candies and the entertaining way they whoosh away as you crunch them. And like the sugar rush you get from eating a Snickers bar or guzzling a Coke, I get a buzz from completing a level. I am now addicted.
Thankfully the game is self-regulating. I refuse to pay real money to play in the virtual world so I only play as many rounds as I have free lives. When I’ve used up the five or six lives I have stockpiled or been given by Candy Crush friends, I’m done.
I’ll admit it’s a disappointment, but it’s a good thing. I have many other things I should be doing instead of crushing imaginary candies.
Last weekend I found another way to waste time on my phone and it is one that could really get me in trouble. A friend shared information on an application that offers a great variety of songs and sounds that can be downloaded to use as ringtones—for free.
So I went through my contacts list and found ringtones that match the various personalities of people who frequently call me. Now when someone calls, I can identify him or her by the sound my phone makes. I won’t say who goes with what ringtone, but I know who is calling when I hear the Beach Boys’ Wipeout or Move It from the movie Madagascar or the Scooby Doo theme.
It’s silly and truthfully it can get a person in trouble. A few years ago I was covering an important court case and I dashed into the courtroom, forgetting to mute my phone. As the judge was making an important announcement, my cell phone rang— blaring out Born to Be Wild as I frantically searched for it in the bottom of my bag. I got it turned off as Judge Sandvik glared at me and said to the bailiff, “If that phone goes off again, it is mine.”
I was humiliated. But I was also amused to notice that all around me was the soft sound of cell phones powering down. I wasn’t the only one who forgot to turn off their phone! I was just the first.
Technology is wonderful— it unites us through virtual games and mutual mortification. Remember to turn off those ringers!
Even before smart phones
and the Internet, we had
many ways to distract
our selves. Now that’s
compounded by a factor of
trillions.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Leave a Reply