Use Your Phone, Kill Your Brain

From the looks of my most recent google image search "Smart Phone Ecards" it is pretty clear to the world that smart phones are making us dumb, anti social freaks. I do not intend to write what we all are thinking or have already conclude about the world of the smart phone.  Rather I hope to approach this topic from a new level: Smart Phones the demise of creativity.

Hundreds just like this one.  Google it!

Before Thanksgiving break I was teaching my Psychology class about thinking and creativity.  I love my students, but they are some of the least creative people around.  Part of it is because they are international students and English is not their first language, part of it is because they were not taught how to be creative. Instead they memorize thousand of things.  Writing a create story is so much harder for them than having to recite the dynasties of Ancient China.

In my little experience of life it seems that the ability to think creatively and problem solve is a lost art.  When kids have issues in life they grab their cell phone to find the answer.

If you get lost on the freeway your google maps will either help get you out of a jam or will get you even more lost.

If you do not know what to write for a paper just google good paper topics and you will find an array of previously written essays on any topic.

Looking for tips on how to ask that hot coed out?  Just find a YouTube video of your "new best friend" who will teach you the tricks needed to hook a hottie.

I think that growing up without a phone that had me constantly connected to the world was one of the greatest things about my childhood.  When a problem came up I had to figure something out to get myself out of a problem.  When I got in a fight in the middle of Jack in the Box with two of my best friends I had to ask the manager to use the phone there to call my mom and ask her to pick me up.  If that happened today I would have called my mom and saved myself from embarrassment, but not from a great story.

And they were dang great at their life!

On that note I think that smart phones are robbing society of rich story telling.  Let me illustrate with an example from my personal life. 

My first two years of high school I was in marching band.  I know that is already embarrassing.  I actually loved playing in the orchestra and marching band was just something to get through before I could sit in a chair and play my oboe for a few months.

One day during practice on the field our band director was not pleased with our marching or or playing or something nerdy.  He freaked out and started to yell at us, maybe our lies were off and we looked like an octopus, I don't remember.  He then thought he was a drill sergeant and told us we had 10 seconds to place our instruments on the sidelines and get back in place to try it again.

We all took off running.  I looked to my left and to my right and saw a few of my friend slip on the field, did I mentioned it rained the night before and the field was still wet?  A thought crossed my mind Wow, they look silly.  I sure hope I don't fall.

And then I fell.

I fell fast and I fell hard.

When I realized what happened I tried to get up but I could not.  My knees were in extreme pain and I could not move.  I had hurt my knees so many times in my life that I knew what was happening and I knew I would be OK. I hadn't dislocated my knee this time so it wasn't that serious of an injury.

I was not getting off the field so my director and band leader came  over to see what was going on.  I told them I couldn't get up on my own and they helped me get off the field and sit on the bleachers.  I told the band leader to call my mom and she would come get me.  It wasn't that big of a deal and I just needed my knee brace and some Advil.

He ran off to the office to call and about five minutes later I heard sirens, and watched as a police car, ambulance and fire truck pulled on the track right behind me.

At first I thought someone else at the school was hurt and I was instantly concerned for their well being.

The EMTs ran out of the ambulance and yelled, "Where is she?"

I looked around for their victim and was shocked when they said I was who they were looking for.

They rushed over, took my pulse and decided that my heart rate was high and I could go into shock or something silly.  I told them to call my mom and they could leave.  They said she told the school to call 911 and I had to go to the hospital in the ambulance.

It turns out the band leader had someone in the office call the school nurse who then called my mom.  By the time the message got to my mom I was lying unconscious on the field, hemorrhaging blood, and would forever live without the use of my legs.  Of course she wanted the school to call 911.

I was then wheeled off the field and strapped down on the gurney.  I waved to my classmates and took of in my chariot.  The bell rang and everyone at my school got to try and look in to the ambulance to see what sucker was being taken to the ER.

This story is one that followed me all through high school.  People thought I made up an injury for attention and others thought it was funny.  I thought it was funny and it is a great story from my high school days.

It is a story that I would have never had the opportunity to live and tell if I had a smart phone.  I would have just called my mom told her what happened and she would have come to the school and signed me out for the day.

Although, it was not fun to have all that attention and go to the hospital I had an experience.  I have a story to tell and I am glad that it happened.

My encouragement for us to to use our phones wisely but not to miss out on exciting life events that might happen.  To enjoy the developments of our times and to continue to live simply.  Put your phones away and get into some trouble, find a way to solve a problem that only involves your brain, write a creative story, unplug and look out at creation.  Do something that you will remember years from now because I am pretty sure you are not going to recall all those great time you had refreshing your Instagram feed 1, 5, 25 years from now.

You should also check out this giveaway on Rachel's site over at Postcards from Rachel. It is open internationally and closes December 18th.

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