I PHONE, Facebook, ICHAT - you think you are connected? Or Electronic Delusion?

I am 60 years old and I hate the phone!  I always have. I have an old pink flip phone with Verizon because EVERYONE in my family thinks that I NEED ONE. But the truth of the matter is that I do not even know my own phone number and I ONLY carry it when I am with my three young grandchildren. 

I lived in Brighton as a newcomer in 1969, whereby there were four party "party lines". Some of you may not even know what that means, but I will tell you. There were four families sharing the same phone line. Your ring could be a sounding of two full rings, or two half rings, or a long ring and a short ring, or a short ring and a long ring. YES, you would have to stop, pause and listen to see if THE CALL was for your house or for one of the other three families on the line. And, YES, you were free to listen in on any other other phone lines and no one could do anything about it. And Yes, all four families heard the rings of the other there families on the phone lines regardless of the time of night or day that they received the phone call.

I was 16 when that was the phone working at its best in Brighton. Hence, maybe that is when I began to HATE the phone. But HATE  is the right word. I view the phone as a nuisance. I view the phone as an interruption in my plans. I always feel like I am on a tether when I answer the phone and that the other person on the other one has all of the power.

If I am home with my family, I rarely answer the phone. The service which comes with my phone plan has a recording device and now I can even see on my TV screen whom it may be trying to connect with us via the phone.  People who know me well, KNOW I don't quickly answer the phone if ever.

I do however change, often, my recording and I often personalize it. It mine as well be entertaining if you are to call my house, is my thought.  I never use my phone in public and find it VERY RUDE when I am with someone who checks their phone while we are out together. If I managed a company, whether large or small, I would INSIST on a docking station for all personal phones while working.  Thus I think people shopping in the grocery stores with phones, or on a walk with a phone or in a restaurant with a phone are mindless! Where is the value you place on the person you are with or your down time when you always have a phone?

I remember being in Florida at the Epcot Center in 1973.  I was a cocky second year college student and I was on SPRING BREAK. The Epcot Center was featuring the "family of the future". They would be connected by screen and phone from either side of the continent.  I then balked and scoffed at that prediction because at that young age of 19 my HATE for the phone was pretty grounded.

Now fast forward. I am 60 years old and that is the world we live in.  Guess I had time to get ready for it, but in all honesty I am not accepting and am actually fighting THIS WORLD of the phone.

Recently I was called to help family members whom I hold in high regard and love with every bit of my soul. It meant a commitment of being at their home from early in the morning until after dinner time each day of the week for about the past four weeks. We hope they will no longer need my GIFT OF TIME, but if they do, I will be there.

Many people have said they could and would help me, but the people that I am helping, they live in a house that those friends may not know.  I know every bit of that house after a month of being there each day.  Many may not know the schedule of the girls. I know every bit about their schedule from coffee times for the parents to favorite channels for the girls whether it be Sprout, Nick Jr., Nick, Disney Jr or the many On Demand choices for children's programming.

I know the ABCMOUSE.com passwords along with Razz Kids and Math Workshop.

I know their food likes, their food dislikes, their bath times, their bed times and the repeat stories that just have to be read each night.

So whether you are using Facebook, FaceTime, the internet, I Phone, Ichat or videos, NOTHING takes the place of being in the same town as the people that you love and connecting with them face to face.  Don't let yourself think that you are connected with technology while at the same time living far away because you aren't. OR don't let yourself think that you are connected living in the same town and on the internet or e mail as your means of connecting. 
 If Grandma and Grandpa flew in from Arizone, or wherever, there is NO Comparison to the Grandma and Grandpa who live in town, who KNOW the schedule of the kids, the likes and dislikes of the kids, the favorite meals and treats of the kids, the stories that the kids love.  And those Grandmas and Grandpas still go to bed tired.

The same applies to friends. A friendship with time shared in person has NO Comparison to a friendship with e mail and I Phone as the main focus!

So technology is not the end all to life! It is time to stop deluding yourself that it is!

Respectfully written,
Diana L Worthy Grant 

Please feel free to challenge my thinking but don't do it on Facebook, or call me, send me a note or a letter or better yet come by and share some time with me face to face.  I am trying hard to live an old fashioned communicating life.