Back in the day, cellphones weren’t in existence, so that people that were working at various tasks, didn’t have the constant distraction and disruption that cellphones represent, because they simply weren’t present, and while it is true that our cellphone is our own minicomputer, the problem with these ubiquitous devices is that they far too often serve to distract us from taking care of our necessary tasks, at hand, which thereby means that people’s productivity thus declines.
The most amazing thing about cellphones is that whenever that you see somebody out in the public with their eyes glued to their phone, or their fingers moving rapidly upon such, is there is that remembrance and reflection that there was a time and age, when cellphones didn’t exist, which thus indicates that people quite obviously had to do something else other than to bury their nose in their phone, which might be activities such as concentrating on one’s work or homework, being social with other people, taking in the beauty of one’s surroundings, daydreaming, or just a general appreciation of all that surrounds us. Regrettably, this seems to represent for a lot of people, the past, and apparently a past that will not ever be repeated, because a significant amount of people, seemed to be tied to their cellphones, as if their life would somehow be much the worse, if they didn’t have their device always on them.
Look, it has to be admitted that every time that our phone makes some sort of noise or flashes, in regards to a text message or email or social media update, even if we don’t take a peek at our phone, it’s going to serve to distract us from what we should and ought to be doing, of which, because of that distraction, we simply aren’t going to be as effective or productive at what we should be doing, then we are. This is, in a nutshell, the problem with cellphones -- that while they can provide us with a wealth of actionable information, they have a strong tendency to actually pull us away from what should be our focus to something that really doesn’t need to be addressed at that time and place.
Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a clarion call to do anything about this, so that whatever issues that we presently have in the form of distraction and lost productivity seem to be the price that society is willing to pay, so as to have their phone continuously with them. This would appear to be a mistake, because when we fail to put reasonable boundaries in place to protect us from overeating, or drinking too much, or failing to get our work done on time, we are the worse for it, because we know that in order to achieve what we need to achieve, we are going to have to put forth concentrated effort which must be prioritized over all those other things that we could do, but ought not to do. This is why we need to develop the discipline to not permit our cellphones to dictate to us, and to thereby distract us from getting done first things, first.