Cyber Nation

Text here, post there, chats and tweets everywhere! While I was in the grocery store the other day being the observant (nosey) person that I am, as I walked down the isles I noticed at least one person is each isle on their cell phone! Trying to text, follow tweets and post stats as they pushed their carts picking up items. I thought to myself, how did we become so unable to perform a simple task without our cell phone in hand? Remember  as children how excited we were when we went to the grocery store with mom or dad and remember how they worked together selecting dinner menu items and a few other treats that would make it to the check out conveyor belt. Remember how they used to try and keep us under control as we ran ahead of them touching every single item on the shelves. WAIT put that back, NO! put that down, STOP shaking that before you break it were some of the sentiments that we heard in the course of grocery shopping; our favorite family time activity.

Oh the memories. But what if our parents were texting during grocery shopping, what a mess we would have been! Imagine mom so entangled on facebook that she doesn't even see my sister open that box of cereal or see my brother opening a bottle of pop. Imagine dad so caught up on twitter that he doesn't hear me ask him if I can have the candy bar that I'm opening while standing right in front of him. What if they are so busy with social media that they forget to get the special lunchable that I need for my field trip tomorrow! Or what if their cell phones rang and they each engage in a conversation, each talking so loudly that everyone in that isle could hear the conversation and neither one of them heard the announcement over the stores intercom system about the small child that has wandered out of the front door and was struck by a vehicle pulling out of the parking lot. Imagine what their reactions would be! I'm sure its already happened somewhere in some city, but of course not in your city, nah.

At what cost will we give into social media gratifications that is so conveniently at our finger tips. Fact is, our cell phone is at the top of our check list as we leave for work or school in the morning or afternoon, lets face it without it we feel kind of lost right? There was a time back in the day when we didn't have cell phones when we actually had to consciously set aside time to contact friends and family but not in this day. We take our phones everywhere we go, we post, comment, like and follow 24/7, have we become a hypnotized by the unified NOW train of thought? OK, here's the challenge, I challenge you to leave your cell phone in the car the next time you are in the grocery store whether you are with your family or not, with your children in tow or not, whether you are just running in to pick up a few things or have an exhaustive list and coupons.  Challenge your friends and family members to do the same, just for one day try it then lets meet back here to share our experiences. Deal?