Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009, • Going gonzo for gear and gadgetry

Publisher’s note: This My Turn originally appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Part of our jobs as reporters for this newspaper is to observe the world around us, in as much detail as possible, be it the nuances of a football game, a board meeting or the scene of an accident.

For the purposes of this column, I’m going to make an observation of what we are seeing more and more of in our day-to-day lives; I’m of course talking about smart phones. You know the ones I’m talking about; Blackberries, iPhones, EnV’s. It’s no secret that nowadays it seems like the last thing a person is going to use a cellphone for is to actually place a call.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but it certainly seems that during a time of economic duress, people don’t seem to have hang-ups about augmenting their personal electronics budget.

I recently went down to Southern California to visit with some family and friends. While I was down there, I took it upon myself to observe as much as possible. And what I saw was simple: iPhones attached to the head of virtually every person I saw in public. People were very open and cavalier about it too. Like it was some sort of corny status symbol.

The whole point of this is that in this massive transition from an analog to a digital world, where electronic devices are becoming so prevalent, what happened to the norm of basic interaction? When did sending a text message to someone become more appropriate than a quick phone call?

It seems like basic, old-fashioned  communication is slowly falling to the wayside. When keeping in touch with friends and family means updating your status on Facebook, I wonder if society in general is taking a step forward or a step back.

Even as I sit here preaching, I admit I have no pedestal to preach from. I’m getting more and more used to the convenience of modern communication.

Being able to link up several devices so you check your e-mail is pretty neat, as is the ability to have a personal translator, a search engine and so many other useful tools. My roommate was telling me that you can plug a Blackberry into a laptop and make it act as a modem to allow you to access the internet from virtually anywhere you have phone service.

For those of you who don’t understand the technical aspect of what I’m talking about, that’s a pretty nifty trick for a phone.

Maybe telecommunication advancement isn’t the end of face-to-face talks and good old fashioned phone calls. Maybe it’s part of our evolution as multitasking human beings.

That being said, I do believe moderation should be stressed. More than ever, we all have to be willing to unplug ourselves from the rigors of social networking and exercise some moderation.

Like virtually anything these days, it can become a very expensive vice that can cause social and psychological issues of not used properly.

With great bandwidth comes great responsibility.