June 25, 2010
By Donovan Jackson

So here we are in a rather fabulously advanced age, replete with cellphones which are far more powerful and far more capable than the old Pentium IIs we used to brag about to our mates in the early days of the first millennium. There’s no question: these babies in our pockets are incredible (there is no dual entendre intended there. Promise.) We’ve got email, Twitter, Facebook, camera, GPS, the sun in your pocket and the moon in your hand as our awesome Locnville would say and quite a bit more.

Totally awesome as any ten year old would also no doubt say if they understood the technological limitations we had to deal with before they were born.

But with great power comes great responsibility. As Peter Parker supposedly said (the real origins of the aphorism are much antiquated and unclear).

Think about it. How many times do you find your attention diverted by your amazing cellphone when someone is sitting right in front of you? This observation came crashing down on me when visiting a friend who had just returned from a week in Italy. Instead of focusing on me, sitting right there in front of him with a beer, he was chatting with some punk in Cape Town on instant messenger.

What made it worse is that I haven’t met the other chap, so have no idea whether or not his conversational abilities were anywhere near as good as mine. At the time I briefly considered making my lager come crashing down on the head of my errant friend. (See what I mean about power and responsibility?)

That got me thinking further. What about driving? How often do you see that most perplexing of creatures, you know, the ones who can afford a brand new E-class Merc, but somehow couldn’t spec Bluetooth on it? So they cruise around with a cell pressed to ear.

Or you’re at dinner and the main course is out. Some clown has his eyes in his lap tweeting about how wonderful it smells. The main course, not his lap.

So, yep, indeed, we do have fantastic devices thanks to the manufacturers and the competition between them to always exceed expectations. We have superb services thanks to app developers and the networks.  We can communicate and collaborate better than ever before, with more people than ever before.

But don’t forget the person right in front of you. Sometimes it is best to put the phone away and chat.

The good old fashioned way.