Texas Lou

This morning, as I was driving to work, I spotted two high school-aged kids waiting at a bus stop.  They were both staring down intensely at their cell phones, texting away at their little hearts’ content no doubt.

This image conjured up memories of waiting for the bus on the corner of Kindle Oaks and King’s Castle many years ago and using the time to chat with my peers whom I probably would have never spoken to otherwise if we didn’t have the bus stop in common.  This was something I desperately needed, although I didn’t know it at the time, due to my shy, awkward teen years and my fear of communicating with others my age who intimidated me. 

The two texting teens made me think how ironic it is that the cell phone, a very powerful tool that was invented to increase communication and social activity, actually hinders those very ideas and promotes a taciturn demeanor by providing the user with an alternative focus to engage their attention.  Why would the two teenagers need to communicate with each other and possibly find something in common and maybe even become friends when there is a cell phone there in which they can bury their social anxiety.  It’s like those kids in college who would walk across campus listening to their iPods, thus releasing them from any social responsibilities. 

Perhaps technology, in its attempt to bring the global span of humanity together through faster and more efficient communication, is actually making the human race grow farther apart by allowing us to ignore our gregarious instincts with battery-powered distractions.  Or perhaps the two teens were just texting with each other because there’s no need to let those unlimited monthly texts that mom and dad are paying for go to waste!

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