It's a safe bet you've noticed just how detached and impersonal life has become since cell phones and social media began inundating our daily lives over a decade ago.
Our culture has been flipped on its head by hand-held instruments that distract from others around us along with most of what's happening in the real world beyond our eyeballs and fingertips.
We've become conditioned to instinctively reach for the device whenever it beeps or rings, regardless of what else is happening at the moment, including conversation with actual friends rather than the impersonal, far-removed Facebook variety. I know I'm guilty, even at the fellowship table where real friends have invited me for a pleasant evening of conversation and a meal.
That's happened to me several times when I've been at a dinner gathering and the hostess shoots me the evil eye should I dare reach for the cell phone. She now flatly prohibits them from being anywhere near the table.
The harsh truth is we Americans have become addicted to these electronic diversions in short order.
And the addiction is taking a toll on everything from nurturing our authentic relationships to simply paying attention to what matters during our brief lifetimes. You know what I'm talking about: The sounds, sights, smells and experiences that truly enrich existence.
Cartoonists are having a field day with this condition that threatens to supplant our personalities and damage the quality and depth of our very spirits. How are we supposed to learn our life lessons when every challenge can be overcome by ignoring it? And just look at how social media today is being used to encourage and promote the recruiting of evil worldwide.
A valued reader named David Hudiburg sent along a chain of editorial cartoons that, while funny, also are directly in line with my point.
One depicts a sad young man standing alone on a soccer field with his foot on a ball as his teammates, staring into their cell phones, line surrounding benches.
Among my favorites is of a grandfather sitting in an easy chair as his three grandchildren plop at his knees to ask if he will tell them what life was like before everyone had smartphones.
Grandpa is anxious to explain how much simpler life was then because, regardless of whether people were at home, at the park, or pretty much anywhere, they conversed with each other. He told how he and his friends regularly let their minds and imaginations wander and roam free. They were contented and put time and energy into building lasting relationships with those they considered true friends. They played outside until after dark and made up games they all could enjoy together.
When he's finished ruminating, grandpa opens his eyes and looks down to see all three kids with their faces buried in cell phones.
Another drawing depicted a wedding cake with a bride and groom perched atop, each staring into cell phones.
In another, one young woman seated across from her date at dinner asks: "Do you mind if I strap your phone to my forehead so at least I can pretend you're looking at me when I talk?"
Then there's the frame of several people using walking sticks for the blind to feel their way across an intersection as they're engrossed with the other hand holding their cell phones.
In another cartoon, St. Peter explains to an angel as a group wanders aimlessly outside the Pearly Gates that these new arrivals are incapable of conversation. Instead, he says, "they just stare into their hands in despair."
Next, beachgoers are seen strolling into the surf with sunburns everywhere except for the white outline on their stomachs of two arms holding a cell phone.
Finally, a young man tells his girlfriend he's not addicted to his cell phone and social media because he has an app to alert him if he's becoming an addict and "it hasn't gone off yet."
I also received another humorous (yet most relevant) message the other day that said this person was desperately trying to make real-life friends outside of the thousand or so he'd listed on Facebook.
He said each day he'd been walking the streets telling all passers-by what he'd eaten, what he'd done the night before, his plans for the day and his personal thoughts and feelings about most everything. "I freely spout my political views without regard for theirs and show them unsolicited photographs of my kids and grandkids, my dog, vacations, gardening, spending relaxing time in my pool and at parties with friends.
"I also listen to them and often even tell them I love them. So far it seems to be working because I already have three people following me: Two cops and a psychiatrist."
What's that they say, my friends, about the richest humor being grounded in truth?
You suppose we each might be best served by remembering these vignettes the next time we (yes, me too) feel compelled, driven, pulled or inspired to take out our phones when there is so much else of genuine consequence happening right before us? Just a thought.
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 07/26/2015