Commentary by Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



In this age of technology, we have picked up quite a few new habits to go along with our new toys.

I was noticing the other night as I typed an e-mail to a friend, that I make facial expressions as if she were sitting across the table from me.

I had to laugh because no one was around and there I was with my brow bent in deep conversation with myself. It’s not like she was there to agree or disagree with what I was saying, but my expressions continued as though she was. It was at this point that I thought about all the ways that society has changed because of new gadgets that keep us continually connected to each other.

There are cell phones in every purse across America and I’m grateful for that. It really does come in handy when your car has problems and you’re stuck on the side of the road. On the other hand, cell phones have been the cause of countless wrecks over the past few years.

Cell phones have evolved from just a phone to a personal hand-held computer in your pocket. They have music, Internet, cameras, calendars, and let’s not forget the power of the text messages. When I was dating Todd, we loved to text each other. It is a convenient way to get a quick sentence or two to someone without having to interrupt their day.

I see the beauty in the text message. What I failed to see was that little $.15 charge that came along with each message sent. You can imagine our surprise when our bills came in and our little one line flirts came out to over $300 on each of our bills. That was the end of texting for me.

Teenagers love this new-found way of communicating. I have a few friends who work with their youth groups at church and they say the only way to get their teens to connect with them is to text them. My parents should be very happy that this wasn’t popular when I was a teen because I think I would have happily jumped on this band wagon and rode it all the way to high bills land.

This technological age has its ups and downs. The up side is that we are always connected. I can e-mail my brother-in-law in Afghanistan and it doesn’t cost me anything. The down side of this technology is that people don’t find as much time to get out of the house. When you can shop, date, read and buy groceries on line, what is the point of getting dressed and driving to the store?

There is a balance that needs to be reached. You can’t spend all of your time tied to your e-mails and phones. You must make time for the living people who are around you. So put down your phones, log off your computers and take your kids to the park for a technology-free day… Then rush home and see how many messages you’ve missed while being gone for two hours.

The World Wide Web misses you too, you know.