As I approached the corner booth of the restaurant, with pen and paper in hand, I soon realized how difficult it was going to be to get a decent tip from this particular family. It was not that they were any kind of race that may not be inclined to tip well, or that they looked disheveled and unkempt, but the fact that when I opened my mouth to say hello, not one head peeked up from behind their cell phone. This was not the first time I had run into this sort of predicament. In fact, in prior occasions I had shrugged off the other waiters’ comments of the dissatisfaction, not to mention the disrespect, which would come from tables such as this, and decided with all my might I would give them the best restaurant experience of their life. My efforts were only followed with disappointment, and grief that I had been unable to make a social connection with my customers. As this scenario grew more and more popular, I realized that I was not the only one unable to make a social connection; this issue was also true amongst the actual families, couples and even teenager groups that would come into the restaurant. People were becoming unable to rationalize socially; an unsuspected gap was growing between interpersonal relationships.
According to lecture, cell phones came about in the late 1900s when Martin Cooper invented the first portable phone handset. Soon after, the U.S. began experimental cellular telephone systems in Chicago, Ill, from then taking off as a technology with huge expectations for the future. Today, “it is estimated that one billion cell phone calls are made in the U.S. every day,” (Mahood, Lecture 15). Cell phone penetration into U.S. households is only increasing due to the versatile characteristics of the cell phone. Areas all over the world are divided into what are called cells, which are served by a single cell phone antenna (Mahood, Lecture 15). All wireless calls are sent to the nearest antenna, which operate at various ultra high frequencies, then travels to a wired network due to a more expanded bandwidth. The call is then radiated to the respective tower where the call is directed (Mahood, Lecture 15). Advanced technology, such as this, has allowed for internet, text messaging, and game usage morphing the cell phone into a form of entertainment as well.
“The global cellular phone market now stands at approximately 1.8 billion subscribers, and is forecasted to reach 3 billion by the end of 2010, by which time nearly half of all human beings on the planet are expected to own and use a cell phone,” (Reid, & Reid, 2007). This success is staggering in that, human beings have become increasingly dependant on a network, a simple technology of telecommunication. Through this one medium, a wealth of ways to bridge communication with another is possible. “Which method of contact is chosen will depend on the expectations and goals of the user…Compared with a voice call, and SMS message can be comparatively inexpensive, sent and received unobtrusively, used when other forms of contact are not possible, and can fill odd moments of unoccupied time,” (Reid, & Reid, 2007). According to the article “Text or Talk? Social Anxiety, Loneliness, and Divergent Preferences for Cell Phone Use,” by Donna J. Reid and Fraser J.M. Reid, the extraordinary success of the short message service (SMS), particularly among younger cell phone users, continues to surprise network operators: SMS is now expected to dominate mobile messaging in both traffic volume and revenue well into the last quarter of the present decade. In the article, interpersonal relationships are strained due to our use of cell phones as crutches. “Some prefer to text because it gives them time to think about the wording of their messages, allowing them to be more informal and candid, even with close friends. A minority even develop an entirely separate, ‘“brave SMS self,”’ which contrasts with their more reticent real-life personality,” (Reid, & Reid, 2007). These crutches form a hesitation that causes the individual to rethink their words and the image they are portraying. “Compared to a voice call, SMS enables the cell phone user to disengage from the multiple attentional demands of real-time social interaction and focus cognitive resources on the task of composing a message, even to analyze the smallest of cues to achieve important self-presentational goals,” (Reid, & Reid, 2007). This self consciousness goes unsuspected because the user feels as though an indirect social interaction is sufficient, and in fact it may be for the individual. Games, apps, phone calls interrupt real life by disengaging the individual from the “now” and launching them into cyberspace. My degree of concern comes in when humans can no longer understand why interpersonal relationships are necessary. (The fact that a mother’s interaction with a newborn predicts the future of a child’s behavior proves how valuable interpersonal relationships are.) Will these effects continue to grow as the cell phone popularizes? Will human beings find themselves alone in the world when technology fails to fulfill all desires? Only time will tell.
Reid, D.M., & Reid, F.J.M. (2007). Text or talk? social anxiety, loneliness, and divergent preferences for cell phone use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(3), 424-435.
Melisa Hinojosa
@01266697
