In Smartphones We Trust

You have a question that you don’t know the answer to. You ask around to see if anyone knows where you can find the answer. You look up the information at a library that is full of facts and trustworthy information. You cross-check that information with other sources to ensure its validity. You ask one more expert to make sure you understand what you’ve learned. You Google it. You have your answer.

You need to go somewhere. You don’t know where it is. You ask others you know if they know where it is. You get detailed instructions on how to get there, including specific landmarks and areas that you are familiar with, and have a pretty solid understanding on it. Enough that you could get there on your own without getting lost or going through a potentially sketchy part of town. You use said understanding and begin your journey. You use Google Maps. You arrive at your destination.

You are hungry. You want to go out to eat. You ask friends and family in the area if they have any suggestions. You know they have similar tastes to you, so you trust their previous experiences. You act on that advice and go to the hole-in-wall place Uncle Steve suggested, rather than the overrated, overpriced restaurant with all of the advertising money. You are extremely satisfied with your experience and plan on recommending it to others. You search “best places to eat in _____”. You are fed.

You want to get in contact with your cousin that you haven’t seen in a long time. You call you mom to get your cousin’s phone number, then also have a quick pleasant chat with your mother. You then call your cousin to catch up with them. You are reminded of a wonderful childhood memory together as you reminisce on the various family dinners and parties you both attended. Your relationship has been greatly strengthened. You add them on Facebook. You are connected.

Yikes. I could keep going, but I think you get the idea. We put so much trust and attention in our devices that we can be disconnected from reality. While smartphones and other devices do make our world a better and more convenient place in some regards, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, which tends to happen often in this case. Have some human interaction. Trust their expertise and experience over the countless reviewers. Don’t let that “Top 10 _____ Movies” dictate which one is your favorite. Allow yourself to go out and experience something that wasn’t premeditated in the form of combining the advice of eight different people online. Take the time to unplug and live in our beautiful world. Maybe things could look like this more often:

You have a few minutes between appointments and you’ve arrived early at where you need to be. You pull out your phone and text another cat GIF to your friend, then hop on Instagram and refresh to see the five new posts that were posted in the eight seconds since you last refreshed. You repeat the same thing on Twitter and Facebook. You check your fantasy football lineup for the third time today even though there aren’t any more games for two more days. You read a bunch of articles talking about the latest fan theories for that new movie that’s coming out soon. You then follow a string of links that lead you to discovering a new tidbit of meaningless info that you must tell all of your friends next time they’re online. You then finally look up at the time and realize it’s time for the meeting to start, right in the middle of the round of the game you’re playing. You look out the window and smile because of the beautiful garden right outside and the wonderful weather you’ve been having today. The person sitting across the way from you sees that smile and asks you how your day is going. You make a new friend. You are happy.