Are we too plugged in?
© Thinkstock

How Plugged In Are You?

Think about the technology in your everyday life.

• Do you go on dates with your smartphone?
• Do you excuse yourself to go to the restroom and check your email?
• At a coffee shop or airport, do you try to get the seat nearest to the outlet?
• In line, do you immediately pull out your smartphone for something to do?
• Do you think your smartphone makes you smarter?

If you answered “yes” to the last question, then you must disagree with a quote circulating the Internet. Attributed (incorrectly) to Albert Einstein, it states that, when technology surpasses human interaction, there will be a generation of idiots.

A series of photos accompanying the quote show people engaged so intently with their smartphones that it brings up an interesting issue: Are we all too plugged in?

Are our devices a distraction?
© Sheron Long

The Role of the Smartphone

In our house, no smartphones are allowed at the dinner table. Inevitably, though, one of us will run to get a device during the meal because we have to look up an appointment time on iCalendar or we need to Google some question we can’t answer.

We go on walks and tuck our phones in our pockets in case of emergency. But they manage to wiggle out when we wonder what some landmark is, when we want to take a photo, or even when it gets a little too dark and we need a flashlight.

I worry that we have our noses in our devices more than we should.

After all, my smartphone is, to name a few: my appointment book, mailbox, shopping list, library book, flashlight, alarm clock, camera, photo album, audio player, dictionary, encyclopedia set, calculator, newspaper, weather report, oh, and phone.

Wait! Oh, I see. It’s not that it’s bad to be plugged in. It’s just that this little device has taken the place of so many other tools.

There’s just something about doing all of these functions on a small device that doesn’t get as much respect as doing them the “old-fashioned” ways.

When I see someone looking at a smartphone or on the computer, I don’t feel badly about interrupting. But if I saw the same person engrossed in a book, or pouring over a hand-written letter, or writing out a list, I would probably pause before talking. True, we all tend to reach for the devices more readily than we reach for reference tomes, but the intent is the same.

Do the Devices Stop Communication?

Actually, no. Many times, we share photos from them, watch videos together on them, or, during a conversation, look up things we can’t remember. And often we’ll send a quick text to record an idea we would have otherwise forgotten.

There are times the devices seem to be barriers to communication. It’s easy to get caught up in a game and not lift my head for thirty minutes. But I remember doing that with a deck of cards and solitaire, too.

So, I think being plugged in is fine—as long as we use technology in everyday life as a tool and a way to reinforce face-to-face relationships.

And the games? Well, Einstein did have a strong personal opinion about that: “I do not play games . . . . There is not time for it. When I get through with work, I don’t want anything that requires the working of the mind.”

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Help is what we need in life after technology!
© Thinkstock

How I Got the Wrong Spelling and the Right Answer

The other day on a talk show about cars, the caller identified herself as a software engineer for Microsoft in charge of spell-check.

The car conversation made a sudden U-turn into how technology affects our lives, specifically the perils of spell-check. Finally, the software engineer wriggled her way out of a tight spot and shared one of life’s secrets: for spell-check to work, “you have to get close.”

For me, one who almost won the school-wide spelling bee in sixth grade, getting close is not the problem.  It’s the technology advancements that moved manual spell-check into rapid-fire Auto-Correct, or “Oughtta-Correct,” as I call it.

Somehow the technology thinks it knows what you oughtta say and takes over, changing a perfectly good word into an embarrassing moment.

Technology and Life—Not Always a Good Mix

Take for example, a colleague of mine who was in charge of manufacturing books for a publishing company. He worked against one deadline after another, and printers (who are generally not an understanding lot) were pressuring hard for the final files.

Oh no, not again!
© Thinkstock

We had been late with the delivery for four consecutive weeks, and our reserved press time was evaporating.

After one last promise to deliver failed, my colleague wrote a lovely letter of apology with a new file-to-printer date. Right above his signature lurked the words:

Sorry for the incontinence.

Now, of course, he meant “inconvenience,” but Auto-Correct converted his message to use a more appropriate word. He had peed on the printer yet again.

For more on such life experiences, see this recent Auto-Correct post on Here and Now, especially the Comment section.

Love and Divorce After iPhone

I still remember when I got my first iPhone, I was sure that my life after technology would be rosy. And I did really love my iPhone, but I fell in and out of love with Oughtta-Correct.

If the suggested word was right, I was grateful. It saved me time typing on that flat keyboard. But when it was wrong, I kept forgetting to hit the little x, and the word popped in. Then I ended up spending even more time deleting the wrong word and starting over.

I began to ask my oh-so-smart phone, “What makes you think you know what I want to say?”

Divorce came after Oughtta-Correct guessed wrong big-time, and I was sure I oughtta apologize.

I apologized. Then I went to Settings to General to Keyboard, flipped ON to OFF by Auto-Correction, and—ahhhh—I was back to thinking for myself again.

Now I Know:  Being Wrong Is More Fun than Being Right

Life went on, but something was missing in my life after technology. I began to long for the daily chuckles I used to get from Oughtta-Correct’s brain.

In an Oh, I See Moment, I realized another of life’s secrets: more laughs in the day are worth the miscommunications. And besides, having to apologize for life’s little typos are a good way to cement a friendship.

That’s when I went back to Settings and gave Auto-Correct new life.

I also adopted a new regimen to build up my WRS (Write-Read-Send). It’s better for avoiding embarrassment, but maybe not as good as WSR (Write-Send-Read) for sharing Auto-Correct’s funnies with a friend. Do U agree?

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.