In a time where we quickly text or voice record a message to send, and spend just enough time on Facebook to “like” someone’s status or new photo, are we really too busy to pick up the phone?
I sat there. Counting how many friends I have on my Facebook page and thought, there has to be at least one person I can call. Someone with whom I can have a real conversation. Yes, it is easy to scroll through the newsfeed, to share a bit of my own life, and then turn off the phone. Yet after a few days of this, a few days of minimal conversation with my husband, I’m left wondering, are we really too busy to talk on the phone?
What am I afraid of? Sharing that I’m having fun and that I’m also missing the experience of having co-workers? That it’s not what it’s cracked up to be? What is it that I really need? Laughter, tears, a “totally” or “So, any new gossip?” to help me get through?
We can’t rely on the likes and the status updates people! We can’t rely on texting all the time. We are meant to connect on a human level. If you haven’t called a human being. I mean, really used your phone for it is original purpose, dial it. Call someone. Hear a human’s voice.
I don’t want to leave it all up to status updates and “screen” friends, only to find myself with no one to talk to on a Saturday night. I know better. I know because I lived before the smart phone. I was that 8th grader, in my room for hours on end, with that phone that you could see all the wires inside and I talked up a storm with my boyfriend, with my girl friends, and whoever would listen. I can’t imagine a young person today, just sitting there on their bed, typing away with acronyms and emojis instead of really talking and listening to the other person’s energy, their laughter and their tears.
Yes, life for most of us is full to the brim right now. Full with more work that we can imagine. Full with children that need our attention every minute of every day. Full with parents aging and parents passing on. Life goes on, but is really full.
I know you and you know me and you know we used talk on the phone. We used to meet for coffee. Let’s do that soon.
The next time you go to send a quick text, call instead. The twins might be sleeping. Your friend might be on the couch with their partner. They might be at work. It’s okay if they say, “let me call you back”. The key is you reached out. You heard a voice. You connected.
First published in Multiplicity Winter 2016 issue by Multiplicity Magazine