manners | Ragamuffingospelfan's Blog

Recently, I have made strides in my technological awareness and hipsterness. And by recently, I mean the last two years.

First came the Sony Vaio, which narrowly defeated the MacBook Pro as my choice of laptop. And I do mean narrowly. Ultimately, the Vaio was cheaper.

Then came the iPhone 5. I thought about other choices like droids and Windows phones, but for me it wasn’t much of a contest. Most people I know who have smart phones have iPhones and just about all the ones who have iPhones love them. Case closed.

The iPad 3 came into my hands unexpectedly. I wanted to downsize and simplify my life, so I went through and picked out LOTS of DVDs and CDs to trade in at McKays. I received enough credit to get the 64 GB iPad 3 they had on display.

Actually, I had enough total credit to get two iPads. The first one, an iPad 2, I ended up giving to mother dearest, and the second one I am typing this on.

I’ve decided that my next laptop will in no uncertain terms be a Mac. I think me and Windows have irreconcilable differences and it’s best that we part ways.

I do think that as great and wonderful as technology is, it can (and should) never replace face-to-face conversations. I think we are losing the ability to be in community and to have meaningful relationships due to our unhealthy obsession with all things social media and smart phones and tablets.

It’s not uncommon to ignore the person in front of you to chat with someone via text. Social media might not have killed common courtesy and manners, but it has paved the slippery slope toward that end.

You can have up to 5,000 friends on Facebook and almost as many followers on Twitter and Instagram. The result? We take people and relationships for granted and treat friendships casually and cavalierly.

We’ve even bought into the insidious lie that you can be friends with everyone. You can be friendly with everyone, but if you want actual relationships with even the tiniest bit of depth and meaning, you have to choose a handful of lives to invest in.

I’m glad when I needed help God didn’t send a text or a tweet. He didn’t post on my Facebook wall or poke me. He sent His real-life, flesh-and-blood, one-of-a-kind Son. He took on my skin and walked around in my shoes.

Yeah, I need to put down my devices more and be in the moment. To look people in the eye and smile and say hi. In an age where communication has never been more prevalent and available, people are more lonely than ever before.

But I still want my Mac.

I have discovered the world of iPhone apps and may have gone a little overboard. Among my most recent discoveries were Fruit Ninjas and Angry Birds.

I can deal with Fruit Ninjas. It’s an easy concept that doesn’t require too much brain activity. Slicing fruit with a ninja sward? It’s a simple yet brilliant concept that kinda has me jonesing for a fruit smoothie right about now. Angry birds is another story.

Let’s just say that when you play the latter game, you feel like giving them the bird in more ways than just catapulting the little feathered fiends toward their little piggy targets. And boys howdy, those are some mean-lookin’ pigs.

I think it’s time to take a step back and not get carried away about a game where you catapult birds at pigs. So what if the game is rigged? It’s still not worth losing sleep over. The world won’t end because that one little piggy is left standing.

That’s where the Talking Tom app comes in. It’s my favorite. All you do is say something and the little tom cat repeats it. You can even rub his belly and make him purr. Or buy him hats and t-shirts. It’s really up to you.

As much as I love new technology (or at least new-to-me technology), it’s helpful to keep it in proper perspective. People still come first. When social media trumps personal interaction, there’s a problem. I’ll still take face-to-face conversations over texting any day. Even over skyping.

And there’s still the little matter of manners. As old-fashioned and antiquated as that sounds, manners still count even when it comes to social media. It’s simply being considerate and treating others how you would like to be treated, regardless of what medium you’re using.

So put down that phone and talk to the person you’re with. That text can wait, but that person won’t always be there.