Cell Phone Abuse

I have recently become more aware how commonplace cell phone abuse has become. And I am getting upset, not mad, just alarmed.

We had a Christian girl work PT for us, did an excellent job initially, then slacked off because of cell phone use and charged us for the time. When confronted she did not deny it but then neither apologize either.

My SIL is addicted to the blackberry. It interfered with her family relationships, social relationships. Wherever she goes, there goes her blackberry. She will lock herself away from the family to talk on her cell. She is texting while in social groups - she is not with it when with people - they have that distant far away look in their eyes, like someone high on drugs. Now she left my brother, she and her blackberry.

My cousin has a wife who left him - she was so caught up with MySpace, spent hours on the computer with her email friends... among other things.

I did a brief search on "Cell phone abuse" on the web and google has 16,400,000 references to it and the first few pages were mostly secular sites. If secular folks are alarmed why are not Christians?

I am alarmed with the rudeness displayed by Christian people in its use. Is this not a poor testimony? If you use it much for personal use on your employers time, that is stealing. The KJV calls it purloining.

Or, when you are with people in a social setting, is it not rude to allow yourself to be distracted to answer a casual call? Where are the manners of folks?

Then there is texting...heard of people doing it in church services...is God pleased, do you think?

And there are parents who will buy their little children cell phones and you see them as a family in town and they are hanging on it - how can families communicate with children who are always on the phone?

I have concluded that males are tempted with internet abuse by going to porn sites. I am convinced females are addicted to the social networking offered by these social internet sites. And that both can be equally destructive.

What do you all say?

ginnyrose

What do you all say?

You hit the 'nail on the head.'

We do not have cell phone service, except a TracPhone we use when driving in case of emergency.

We had signed up for service and bought phones over a year ago, only to return them within 2 weeks and cancel the plan. What the sales person told us and what we actually were charged was not even close.

I am glad God saved us from becoming entangled in that trap. That is exactly what it is, a trap.

I'm glad you brought this up. I am sorry to hear of the family troubles resulting from it.

Kindest regards,
white stone

I agree with you. Call me old fashioned but it's like a slap in the face 20 times a day. It is hardly an exaggeration to say you can not have a 5 minute conversation anymore without the other person slavishly surrendering to every voice and text message they get. They say the same thing everytime..."Excuse me, I need to take this."

It's undisciplined, rude, and even hazardous in some circumstances..but it's the norm today. :-(

MC

It's interesting, once I worked for Cingular Wireless for a couple weeks as a salesman (sales wasn't my thing to say the least). One of the classes I had to take at "Cingular University" was a class on instructing users on proper cell-phone etiquette. Blackberry users tend to be the greatest abusers. Some people don't call it a "Crack Berry" for nothin'.

In uptown Charlotte, where I work, most restaurants have a sign either reminding you to turn your phone off when ordering in line, or, saying they will not serve you if you are on your phone.

Cell phones, especially amongst teenagers, are the new internet chat rooms. Especially considering you can get most of your instant messaging services piped into your cell phone in one form or another.

I know the late Art Katz took time in one or two of his sermons to offer some criticism in regard to folks who had their cell phone glued to their hip or head. I'm not so sure I understood his logic, but in it he saw some sort of "soulishness" with the constant need to be available by phone. Granted, sometimes Katz is what I like to have thought of as an "old fuddy duddy" with how he saw some things. But he might be on to something.

Personally, as a young man, I can't imagine life without a cell phone always at my disposal. I've always been within an arms length of one since I was 16 when I started driving, as my parents wanted to keep tabs on me in case I broke down or went wild. Though, as it is, I don't like to talk on the phone much, as I'm much for face to face conversation myself. In fact, since moving out on my own, I don't even have a land line in my apartment. I only have one phone, and that is my cell phone. I do such mostly because it's economical. Land lines are a rip off.

I do think that it is easy to get caught up in over use of the cell phone and the internet. I know a lot of people right now that are really into the twitter thing. I know one person that twitters about everything they do pretty much. If they go shopping they have to stop and twitter about it. If they go to a movie they twitter about it. If they go out to eat they take pictures and twitter about it. Some of the stuff is so pointless and way out there. It never seems to stop and there are many people doing this.

I do have a cell phone that I keep with me so family can reach me when I am out. I do not talk on it though when I am driving, or when I am dealing with other people.

I am not saying that cell phones or twitter are bad just that they, like anything can be abused. I know both have their good uses to.

rdg

rdg,your mature attitude towards this issue is gratifying.

I do have a question: what is the motivation to tell folks your every move? I care absolutely nothing about trivial things...are people so bored they find this entertaining? And do you know that every conversation spoken on a cell is recorded and kept on file by your provider? How do you like the idea that someone can go to that file and check out all your conversations? The son of a friend of ours told his parents his company has a couple of people working full time just to retrieve these files .....

Cell phones are among the most useful inventions around. We have two and plenty of minutes. It is essential for our business (we have no land line phone there) and it also helps us to keep in contact with our children and siblings who live out-of-state. Since it is so helpful, I am appalled how some are abusing it. One can rightly argue that it is not the technology that is wrong, but the misuse of technology.

Since some Christians do not seem to have the insight into how it is being misused they are ruining their testimony. Or maybe - all they have is religion? Stealing from your employer is sin -as is stealing from anyone. This is cut and dried - no argument. But what about family relationships? How can one ignore your spouse, your children and feel justified in doing so? Are people that ignorant? or are they too selfish, thinking only about their own pleasure, thinking they are more important then others? Seems to me Christians need to become more vocal about its abuse and become aware how cell phone abuse is tearing families apart, just like porn does.

(Our SIL told me how they limited internet use in their family and the difference it made in how they related to each other: the children read more, played with each other more. It allowed more time for family interaction which was edifying.)

Blessings,
ginnyrose