I heard about a game: a bunch of people hang out and have dinner. Everyone at the table should hand out their phones (mostly smart phones). No one is allowed to check his/her phone during the dinner even if there is texts or phone calls. And the first person who breaks the rule, he/she buys everyone drinks, even the whole dinner.
Bloody Brilliant idea. But hard to execute!
Have you ever paid attention on how often you check your phone? I bet many people do that every three to five minutes during date, dinner, meeting, movie, even when they are at Disney Park.
I am one of you.
Good or Bad? Fifty-Fifty.
Most of time when I bring out my phone, I check my emails first. Many of them are commercials. But the other ones are important and work related. So if you hear someone said I am responsive, it is just because I check my emails often and I usually reply them soon enough.
If I have more time or bored (my friends, I love hanging out with you!), I will check my Facebook, Twitter, Chinese Twitter (Sina Weibo), LinkedIn, etc. And you know what? Since most of my social sites are connected to each other--For Example, every time I Tweet, it will post on my Facebook as well; every time I post on LinkedIn, the content will be tweeted automatically that it will show on my Facebook meanwhile--, I actually just need to update one of my social sites and the rest will all be updated!
If I really don't have much to do, I click APPs like LivingSocial, Groupon, MyHabit... (None of the names I mentioned pay me, I swear)
You see, I can do most of my social-related stuff on my phone without seeing or talking to anyone!
So convenient and tightens me and my world up.
However, every time when I see someone checks his/her phone, I wanna say, "hey, it is me who is talking to you. Look at me!" I bet many of you have the same feeling as me: why would you "catch up" with people you don't see while you are actually "catching up" with a real human being? Or I should ask myself: " why would you do that to your friends? That is rude."
Virtual social life can help you "tighten up" with people, it can definitely make you distant to people who are actually around you too.
I don't think we should give up social life in the virtual world though. It is a huge component of contemporary society and if you don't talk about social media at all, you are left behind. And in many times, it does help people with social networking, life sharing, business developing and family connecting. But we need to remind ourselves "when shall I check my new emails or Facebook comments" and "when you are hanging out with people important to you, focus on them, not your cold hard smart phone".
Summer Fang
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