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Shut Up, Put Up, and Get Some Quiet Back
When firestorms raged across Southern California and land lines
were down, having a cell phone to call my family was a blessing.
When I could sit in my ocean front garden and use both hands
while talking to my Mother in Florida, I adored my cell phone.
After getting lost in a jumble of streets, a cellular call
helped me find my client. It's become my everywhere companion
and yet, I am aware that we might just have too much of a good
thing.
We've all become incensed at the loud boors who turn public
places into phone booths where we're bombarded with information
we don't want, don't need, and probably shouldn't know. But now,
we're entering a second stage in the cellular age where this
amazingly portable device can actually disrupt meaningful
face-to-face conversations, the privacy of precious vacation
time or the silence of reverie and deep thinking.
This tiny (and getting tinier) device has become the metaphor
for our 24/7 culture. It has become almost unthinkable to turn
it off or plain not answer. In short, the phone controls us
rather than visa versa.
We live in an age of omniaccessibility according to Fordham
communications professor Paul Levinson. Like Pavlov's dog, we
jump every time the cell phone rings, waving off friends, family
or kids just to answer the call. We hang this device on our
belts, in our pockets, or around our necks, ready to pounce when
it rings. As Levinson states, "the notion of being unreachable
is not alien to human life." That's why there are "Do Not
Disturb" signs and offices with doors. Freedom, he claims, comes
in simple rebellion. To reclaim our private time, according to
Levinson, "there must be a general social recognition that we're
entitled to it."
What would happen if we shut our mouths, put the phone away, and
then concentrated on whatever was before us: a place, a project,
or-even more importantly-a person? Think of the connection that
is made when someone has our undivided attention! And, miracle
upon miracles, what if that person was actually ourselves? What
if we had uninterrupted time with ourselves? Might we discover a
chance to slow down and breathe? Might we discover a small voice
that's been trying to be heard above competing ring tones?
Try it. Shut up. Put up. I think it will make our next cell
phone call more meaningful.
(c) 2005, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to
all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact
and all links are made live.
About the author:
Named by Executive Excellence Magazine as one of the top 100
thought leaders in business, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE authored
one of the first books on work/life balance. Eileen is an award
winning professional speaker, consultant and facilitator. Find
free articles, surveys, book reviews and more at her professional speaker
website.
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