Out of touch

I feel our society has reached a collective state of nomophobia, a fear of being out of electronic communication. Think about it. What's the first thing you do when you get home or have a free moment? Often I find the answer is checking e-mail, phone messages or your social network of choice. We fear missing something or being left out of a virtual conversation. But can you really blame us? It's our nature to be social animals. We just happen to have the ability to have a conversation with anybody at any time now. The issue is there isn't a schedule for this anymore. It percolates into every moment of our daily routine. In the past you could anticipate communication at certain times. Communication is so interconnected into our lives now, which ultimately will advance our culture and our ability to do more with less time. In the same breath you can't help but mention the anxiety this puts on many and the distraction from productivity it gives some.

In short, we still do stuff. We still work, have to drive, play with our kids, go out with friends, work on our houses. This 'stuff' is full of many more interruptions than before, which transitionally can be rough but in the long run we adapt. We develop methods to more quickly process information and alter our attention from one thing to the next. Interruptions are something we can deal with. What we have trouble with is the insecurity the expectation to constantly be available creates. While we're taking part in other activities we wonder what else is going on in our virtual world. These thoughts can create anxiety if an activity takes too long or we suspect we're "missing out". What if we actually cut ourselves off from communication for an entire day. I wonder if this would increase anxiety or create peacefulness akin to meditation. Either way, we should all just relax and free ourselves from the pressure to always be in touch. I'd rather have quality over quantity any day.