Did you say something?

I sleep with my cell phone on because I've received several late night calls from friends in trouble. That can say several things about me: I might love to help people; I might love the thrill of being pulled out of my sleep; I might have the notion that I always need to be available. I am going to have to go with the last thought. I honestly wouldn't know what to do if my cell phone were turned off. The same goes with my computer when it comes to Instant Messenger and e-mail.\nThrough instant messaging, away messages and e-mail, we will suffer a huge communications crash in society. So, the power of communication has evolved in the last six centuries. It would take months to get a message across the ocean and now it only takes a week. Now, we can contact anyone in a matter of seconds - but we aren't necessarily communicating any better.\nLet's realize the most unrecognized evil force in our communications: instant messaging and away messages. I remember being in middle school and thinking that Instant Messenger was amazing because I could talk to my friends every night. Now, I honestly don't know how many people I actually have conversations with online anymore. Instant messaging has evolved into how good you can make your away message. Why has this happened? It's because of overkill. No one ever signs off and everyone always has an away message up ... so the standard of Instant Messenger is that you don't talk to people, you talk to people via the power of your away message.\nI honestly check my e-mail maybe three or four times an hour if I am near a computer. I feel as though I must constantly be in touch with people in the event that they need me, but why has it become this way? With such simple access to e-mail, if a new message goes without a response for two hours, is that bad etiquette? If I don't answer my voice mails within thirty minutes, am I incorrectly using my cell phone?\nWith that constant access through e-mail, cell phones or AIM, we can reach people anywhere, anytime. That "emergency cell phone" your parents bought you has become an, "it's an emergency, I need to talk to my friend right now," cell phone. And have our lives become easier because of instant messaging? We can easily contact people and we might talk, but are we ever actually saying anything? Complexity is essential in our lives. You can't have complex communication if you don't even take the time to actually say something.\nRealize that communication is essential to our lives. Don't take it for granted, but if we are going to talk to each other, let's make our conversation meaningful. This is the technology era and soon I imagine that robots a la "The Matrix" will be taking over our world, but let's have a revival of our natural ability through forms of communication that don't involve looking at a computer monitor or speed-dialing our friends.