Too Much Communication

There was that famous line in the Paul Newman movie “Cool Hand Luke” where the prison official kept saying, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” I think what we have today is too much communication. With everybody having a cell phone, it seems that the mindset is that they have to be in communication with someone at all times. I see groups of kids and half of them are on cell phones. They are in a group, and yet they have to call someone? Aren’t the people they are with good enough?

I see people texting in class, at events, and just about everywhere. What is so important that it can’t wait until later?

I believe there is too much inappropriate use of the cell phone and texting, even among adults. I’ll give you an example. A colleague and I were going to the same meeting, which was about an hour away, so we decided to carpool. I drove, and on the way to this event we talked, plus he took several cell phone calls.

On the way back, he immediately checked his messages and began returning phone calls. He did that for most of the hour ride back home. So what was I, his chauffeur? So there I am, stuck listening to his conversations, and I can’t turn on the radio because I felt that would be very rude. Rightly or wrongly, the message to me was “I’m too busy and /or important to talk with you. I’ve got more important things to do, like check my messages.” Needless to say, we never carpooled again.