by Justin Mccauley

Created on: October 20, 2009

I feel sorry for the younger generation these days because I don't think they form personal relationships anymore. I think they have a relationship with a thing. The mobile phone and the internet have destroyed the ability to be lonely and thereby miss someone. And how do you know that you're in a relationship unless you see it on Facebook.? What happens if you find out you're in a relationship and you don't even know it?

Missing someone used to be imperative in a relationship. Who can remember rushing home to wait with baited breath for that moment when your latest squeeze would ring you. Or even the disappointment if they didn't. All that effort wasted. What did you do today? Where did you go? Did you laugh? Did you cry? Who needs to ask these questions anymore because you can check it out on Facebook or Twitter. Please give me a chance to miss you.

And don't ring me on my mobile twenty times a day to find out what I'm doing now. It was the same thing I was doing 30 minutes ago except you interrupted me so I had to start all over again.

I don't want voicemail, email, pagers and the rest of any of those little gadgets that mean that my personal life is open to scrutiny. I want a relationship with a human being. My mobile phone is just that. Its not a GPS tracking device so that a crazy stalker can see where I am at any moment of the day.

I want to be able to tell my significant other at the end of the day how much I love her, how much I missed her. I don't want to know at 7.32am that she has made a cup of tea. If her leg fell off and I'm needed at the hospital, then I need to be told. Technology has broken down the mystery of love and has denied us the intensity of isolation. I know I miss my partner more if I have not spoken to her all day.

So bin the mobile except for emergencies for example, I have a flat tyre, locked the keys in the car, its dark and I feel like Michael Jackson In Thriller. Or my car seems to have been confused with something that's actually worth stealing.

Relationships are a true test of character. Technology is a test of how important you think you are.

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