The Nature Of Things

 The smart phone has embedded itself into our lives like no other of the many inventions ever conceived by mere mortals. If you recall the days before these devices, you’re considered ancient. A couple of generations have already been born since, and today, practically everybody is a carrier. These devices have wormed their way into our way of life in such a way that they are now fundamental for many and considered fundamental by just about everyone.

No one escapes, from the very young to the very old, once you experience the power, your way of life will forever be changed. To be fair, it is an astounding piece of tech. It’s no wonder people succumb to its charm. What’s there not to like? The world is literally at your fingertips, only I don’t believe that we need that, especially 24 hours a day. I fear they have become a part of us, like an extra appendage, one that many have become very attached to, and if one takes the time to look around, seeing our affection for this device in real life, one can get the feeling of great loneliness, but a loneliness that is not felt by the users because they are deep into the world that is in the palm of their hand, many times completely unaware of the goings on around them.

That’s the saddest part, for me, is not the fact that we have now opened ourselves up to scammers, thieves, or even fake news, it’s the apparent loneliness that comes with the relationship between the user and his or her device. And like I said, we don’t notice because we’re riding the wave of modernism and high tech, so it’s cool. What’s not so cool is how we don’t really communicate much anymore. Many of our relationships are now reduced to some quick and simple messages, where even the words are abbreviated because we’re all in such a hurry now, and to relate some sort of emotion there are some quick and easy emojis that will convey your mood or reaction. For those of us who were already well into adulthood when these goodies came about, it became just another way of doing what we already had been doing face-to-face, but for those who were born into this era, it’s the way to do things. I fear our young people are becoming less social and more social media.

I know young people who won’t respond to phone calls, only messages. It’s the cool thing to do, or something like that. It’s like the only way is the new way, typical of young people, always ready to dive in to the latest.

We have to be more conscious of how we live and learn, and how our kids live and learn. Smart phones are awesome, but they are not as awesome as we are. We need to control them and put them to use for us, and I think the tail is wagging the dog at the moment. When it comes to kids, it’s especially important to be wary, although It’s difficult to suggest possible solutions, or paths to take in order to find the equilibrium between natural learning processes and technology. We cannot simply give ourselves to these gadgets. We have to remember that these devices were made to sell us services and keep our attention, and this works especially well on kids because they are innocent and curious. Because of this, I do agree with keeping smart phones out of schools. Even with all its faults, it’s still where our kids go to learn about life, not just languages or science. It starts with us, the grown-ups, but we seem to be as fascinated by all this as they are.
Fiquem bem,

Raul Freitas/MS