Comedian Paul Merton recently told of life without a mobile phone.
Merton revealed on the One Show how he hasn’t had a mobile since the early 1990s. Whenever someone reveals living without a mobile phone, it causes a mixture of feelings from bewilderment to wonder and envy.
The phone, as with many other modern technologies, has come to seem a necessity. But there are pluses and minuses.
The modern mobile is a fantastic device, with powers to communicate via written and spoken word. The possibility to research almost anything via internet access, as well as games and entertainment.
Facilities like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter provide great ways to stay in touch.
On the negative side, we are not all becoming obsessed and addicted to phones. Constant checking of the phone for messages, hours spent literally glued to the device.
Many often feel they cannot go anywhere without their phone.
Yet, how necessary is much of what happens on phones? It must be doubtful if many of the messages being conveyed are any more vital now than they ever were.
Returning to the Merton example, there is now almost a two-track society developing: those engaged on social media and those not.
It is interesting when mixing socially with people who engage on social media and those who don’t. Much has to be explained about what has happened to those not online.
Although, often like Merton, those not doing Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to name but a few, often take a certain pride in being out of the loop. They also tend to be predominantly older.
Although technology is a funny thing, it can be liberating or constraining.
For example, take those who have decided not to have a TV. Again mixed emotions. Television can educate, enrich and entertain but at the same time a lot of life can be wasted watching absolute rubbish.
There must be a sense in some ways of getting your life back by making a decision to opt out of having a mobile or TV. But then there is also a missing out on what this technology has to offer,
The best route is probably moderation, a middle road, not addicted to the mobile or TV but not a total refusal either. That is probably where most people dwell, although polarization may be growing.
- Paul Donovan is a Redbridge Labor councilor for Wanstead village and blogger. See paulfdonovan.blogspot.com