When We Fail To See the Birds Because Our Eyes are Glued to Our iPhones

I spend at least a third of my day on the internet: reading news sites, going on Facebook, and checking e-mail. I haven’t given in yet, though, to getting internet on my phone. I still have a vivid memory of my first internship as a reporter and checking my work e-mail at 11 p.m. to find a berating e-mail from a reader. It was my first really nasty e-mail and I was not well prepared for it at 11 p.m. That memory has kept me from jumping on the bandwagon. I do not want to read messages from co-workers, sources, and bosses after hours. I don’t want to know about the latest bombing in a far-away country while I’m eating dinner. The over-connectivity would overwhelm me and my fear is that I would start to lose connection with my real-world experience going on around me (another reason I don’t wear headphones walking or on the bus).

I do not think I am the norm. I was waiting for the bus the other day with a friend when she said to me, “Ben is going to New York in two weeks!” She was sitting next to me, thumbing away on her Blackberry. Meanwhile, I’m watching the cars go by, a sketchy man walk by the bus stop and stand directly behind us, a couple at the next bus stop over making out, and a flock of birds swirling overhead. What are the consequences of constantly being connected to the world around us, if we aren’t connected to our immediate surroundings?

According to a fun graphic by Flowtown, one in eight people show signs of problematic use, which includes: finding it hard to stay away from the Internet for a few days, concealing Internet use, and having a relationship suffer as a result. This inter-connectivity is being met increasingly by coffee shops, universities, and now, airlines. More than 10 airlines in North America, including American, Delta and Southwest, are wiring their planes for Internet access, and major foreign airlines like Lufthansa are introducing new technology that will let customers connect on transoceanic flights, according to the New York Times. The quiet moments of a conversation with a friend, reading a book waiting for the bus, riding a plane and even those more rowdy moments in a bar, are now muddled with news of war or of our friends going to New York. With 1.8 billion Internet users in 2010, I suspect that America is not the only country that is undergoing this change. The internet can provide a link to the world, but without moderation, can also be detrimental.

Lisa Gillespie is a former staff writer for Campus Progress as well as the Managing Editor & New Media Director at Street Sense. She graduated from the University of North Carolina–Asheville.