The Cell Phone Disconnect

A couple of nights ago I got a call from a friends’ mom. She was trying very hard to be calm, but very nervously blurted out that she had not heard from her daughter for several days. My friend moved to Chicago a few months ago, far from her family and home, and so when no one from home had heard from her in several days they naturally became worried. It turns out my friend is fine – and simply forgot her phone charger at work resulting in a dead battery.

No harm, no foul. Right?

I’m not so sure.

Consider this, we have become a society of instant gratification and instant communication. There are computers in our homes, at our offices, in our backpacks, in our cars, on our belt, you name it.

We have…
o Nextel Direct Connect instant communication, making cell phones as instant as walkie talkies and 500 times as powerful.
o Bluetooth – because picking up your phone is sometimes just not possible.
o Laptops
o i-Phones – Bringing entertainment and communication together
o i-Pod Touch – the music player that connects to the internet.
· Skype
· Garman GPS Personal Navigation System

I hope you can see where I’m going with this. Instant communication is a multi-billion dollar business.

When that communication breaks down, however…look out.
Instant communication on one hand offers a sense of reassurance and comfort. If a parent knows that they can instantly communicate with a child, then it is easier to let that child travel and spend time away from the parent.

But I wonder if instant communication has triggered other subconscious elements of our worldview, beyond safety and security. If a parent can be in immediate communication with a child, or track the child’s GPS location through their phone, is the child really free? Can a child experience a true freedom to find the self if Mom, Dad, and an entire support system are only one speed dial setting away?

For those of us who grew up without cell phones help was not always right at our finger tips. We had to learn to be independent, just as our parents had to learn to let us go. These are difficult lessons for both children and parents, but at their core they are lessons in faith.

Parents must have faith in the way that they raised their children, as well as discover faith in the children themselves. Children, by comparison, must learn to have faith in their own judgment and independence.

And we all (no matter our role) must have faith in God.

As human beings we seem to think that there is a patter or format which can be mastered in order to achieve a ‘successful life.’ No matter what you call it – nirvana, heaven, enlightenment, self awareness, the secret of everlasting life, etc. – every culture seeks the same end. And as man plans, God laughs.

We can arm our kids with cell phones, safety courses, self-defense classes, but at the end of the day they have got to be allowed to go out and live life. Life is messy, and as Mr. Miyagi said in The Karate Kid, “Somebody else’s Karate always better.” Bad things might happen to good people – so should good people not interact with anyone out of this fear. NO!
The things that we hear about in the news and see at the movies may happen from time to time. But for every bad thing that is covered over and over again in the news there are thirty good things that don’t get coverage.

We should be cautious and encourage people to be safe, but not at the expense of living life. Our cell phones are a great tool, but for all of their ability to empower connections to our family and friends – they might be facilitating the disconnect between people and their ability to grow.