02 September 2010

A Benevolent Textatorship

Call me a whiner, but I'm concerned about the people in my generation being unleashed into the working world, particularly those who are going into my field, psychology. I think about ninety percent of the psych majors I've met absolutely terrify me. Not just because they're morons, and they don't actually care about other people, but also because they just can't seem to put away their damn cell phones. The typical psych major, as well as most of my other peers, has a general lack of regard for others. They will tap away on their cellphones, whether they are alone, or in a group of friends, or in the classroom where they are supposed to be learning about the nuances of their chosen profession. What is going to happen when these people look up, and see that the world has changed around them? That they are not the center of the universe, and that the rest of Earth's inhabitants don't revolve around them?
What I'm trying to say is this: would you want to deal with a therapist who snuck glances at a cell phone when you were trying to divulge your problems to them? When they were supposed to be paying attention to only you, and not the person on the other line? And what if that other person is a surgeon, who perhaps was texting away during the lecture that taught them how to perform the operation they need to do on the human being in front of them? I don't want any doctor from my own generation working on me. I'm afraid of them, and I'm afraid of literally everyone else my age, because of this reasoning.
I have sat in classrooms when literally everyone surrounding me was texting. And the teachers, despite what they have all said during syllabus week, do nothing. It's very distracting. That little 'tick tick tick' or 'tap tap tap' of a cell phone keyboard as the texter creates some abomination of grammatical errors to send to the recipient, who is probably also sitting in class, distracting someone else like me, while another teacher does nothing. It's sick. I think I'm going to stick by my plan in high school and become a hermit by age thirty. I despise cell phones; I hate having one, and I hate using them. I hate the fact that I had to get texting back on my phone, after blissful years without it, so that I can communicate with my friends who, God forbid, hopefully don't text in class.
I probably sound insane for saying all this, but somewhere, deep down inside you, you know it to be true. Think about it: college is the time when our minds are most malleable, when we condition ourselves to become our future selves. The texter is conditioning their belief system to include an allowance for texting when others are present. In other words, their moral system states that it's perfectly fine to ignore the people in their presence in favor of a person that could be miles away, in the form of a small, technology-packed telephone. What about the people who will depend on these texters to make them well? And in the case of educators, what about the children who depend on these people to teach them? I fear that our world is doomed.

May Stephen King's glorious vision in Cell one day come true.
~Sushi

3 comments:

  1. why do 3 yr olds and i heard yesterday 18 months old have cell phones go figure

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  2. Small children having cell phones may have to do with the fact that their lovely parents are also from my generation.

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