Blathering idiots

I have been contemplating a ramble on this subject for quite some time. It is something that has long annoyed me in it's various aspects of use. It, quite frankly is phone usage. I am not one to talk on the phone much, a quick and succinct message or conversation is about all I'm good for. My family knows this and with my unending gratitude do not force me to drone on about nothing on a phone be it landline or cellular. Get me in person and that is an entirely different ballgame.

I suppose I think of the phone in it's many forms as a utilitarian tool. Call someone or send a message when it is important. Is there an emergency? I'm leaving work and will be home in 30 minutes (this is my usual daily call to My Beloved), after I tell her I love her, conversation over. I need help; car broke down, sick or some such message. I roll my eyes on nearly an hourly basis at the useless drivel forced upon these devices. Day after day I overhear others babble on inanely about absolutely nothing. And I mean nothing.

Has it ever occurred to you you could be waisting someones time? Of course if they are on the phone to you all the while I assume they have nothing better to do with their life either. If life ever creeps up and you continually find you don't have enough time in the day to get things done, get off the phone, off the text, off the even stupider Twitter and get on with things. I tend to find the people that get the least done are those constantly babbling about something to someone else on a phone or using another device such as email.

I performed an impromptu study a year past while driving to work. I wanted to see who talked on the phone the most while driving. I set a goal of first to reach 100, men vs women, would win, or lose depending on your point of view. It was no contest. I quit the experiment when the score was women 67, men 32. It was a trouncing of monumental proportions. Women would most likely explain they are communicating as they are wont to do as it is always assumed men are non-communicational and closed up. Bull****! Mindless babble has nothing to do with communication. If you ever wanted to know why men talk less it is because they are placing a barrier between themselves and the white noise of mind-numbing chatter. And the number of times I have had to avoid drivers who aren't paying attention to the road probably numbers in the hundreds.

The expense we now pay for worthless chatter runs in the billions of dollars. We text and Twitter and chat changing phones nearly as often as we shower. And this disease runs along all social classes. The wealthy need it for business and the poor who can't afford to feed themselves or find a job have to have one as a social statement. Are you using it to better yourself or find a job? Hardly.

I lay out a challenge for all: find somethng productive to do and throw away the phone. There is opportunity and beauty in the world and you won't find it texting your fingers into a nub. One probably won't find it blogging too much either but that is a seperate ramble.