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Isolated

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Its hard to say actually if I am more isolated or more connected with my cell phone. There's a certain level of personality involved in making that determination. I'm sure my daughter, for instance, the social diva, who is a freshman in college, far from home, sees her cell phone (but not her (ab)use of it on our family plan) as her connection to all that she's left behind.

I on the other hand, hate to hear my phone ring. But then, I've never liked the sound of a ringing phone. It has rarely been a benefit to me.

Its not that I don't want to have conversations with people. Its not that I don't need my phone. Lord knows, I need my phone. In this fast paced world, where everyone in one's life is everywhere except where you'd like to be able to interact with them physically, a cell phone is necessary.

Yet, when my phone rings, the person on the other end, almost without exception, doesn't actually want anything.

Maybe I was just raised differently. Maybe its my personality. I was never the teenager who sat on the phone all night long discussing everything that happened at school that day. I have never been like my daughter, needing to connect with all the people in my life just to make sure they're still breathing.

I think telephones, be they wireless or landlines, are for conveying information. They are for communicating particular information and then you should hang the damned thing up. I LIKE interacting with the physical form. I like for the physical form to be in the room with me when I do it. Something about looking in a person's eyes as they talk to me, I suppose. Go figure.

So, I'm not a big fan of picking up the phone and saying, "what chu doing girl?". I'd rather pick up the phone and say, "Girl, let's go hang out and catch up."

I have found myself observing people on phones lately. Most are having the sorts of conversations that I would NEVER have in public. Talking about what chores need to be completed, and who they're mad at and how they're going to get some project or other completed. Private conversations, mundane conversations, silly, "why the hell you on the phone" conversations.

I sense an addiction to cell phones also. As if, if I don't call right this moment to tell them the one thing that's on my mind, I will explode. I get that from kids alot. Take this recent interaction I had with one of my students as he pulled out his phone in the middle of a lesson one day:

"I have to call my mom". "
"Why?"
"I need to find out if she's picking me up this afternoon."
"Does

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