Hissy Fit - August 2025 - Too Much Ringy: Makes You Dingy

August 2025 Issue
by Elizabeth Skenes Millen

 
I love having a cell phone, although its appeal is waning, the cons are starting to outweigh the pros. I’ll admit, it’s wonderful to be able to call someone to keep yourself company on long trips, hands-free of course. It’s also convenient to simply text someone to ask them a quick question or to pick up milk or bread on their way home. But lately, I’ve noticed I’ve started carrying my cell phone with me from room to room when I’m at home. For instance, if I need to switch the laundry, the phone treks down to the laundry room with me—unconsciously—which is a bit scary.

It has become a bad habit, to say the least, and a total addiction at its worst. I’m not the only one, it has clearly become an epidemic. Teens have full-on mental breakdowns when a parent attempts to take their phone away. People absolutely freak out if they arrive somewhere and realize they’ve left their phone at home. When’s the last time you pulled out of your driveway and realized you forgot your cell phone? I bet you either turned around or pulled right back in to get it because, for God’s sake, what if you have a heart attack on the way to the post office, and it’s the one time you don’t have your phone with you? Or, worse yet, what if you get to the grocery store and the kids can’t text to remind you to get chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream (as if you would actually forget to buy ice cream). That would mean you might have to drive back to the store, which I know for many is possibly as far as one or two miles away, or the poor, deprived little children might have to do without until tomorrow. Bless your heart and theirs; that would be a horrifying burden.

Don’t get me started on children having cell phones. It’s tragic to see a young family out at dinner and their toddler is glued to a phone or tablet. Phones are purposely programmed to be addictive. Seriously, there was a segment about it on “60 Minutes.” It’s become so bad, I equate it to big tobacco knowingly lacing cigarettes with addictive substances. Mark my words, there will be a huge class-action suit one day on how cell phones or apps have destroyed the mental well-being of humanity.

Back to the toddler glued to the tablet—these little ones are being programmed at an age when their brain doesn’t have a chance to beat the addiction. Imagine if an alcoholic told you he started drinking when he was 18 months old. And that his parents were the ones who gave him the booze. You’d be appalled. I’m pleading with you to have the same level of disgust with cell phones. Parents are stealing their children’s window to the outside world! The phone is a massive chain keeping all of us oblivious to people, places, and all the things going on around us in real time. In fact—hello!—if you’re staring at your phone, you are missing out on life—maybe that’s why it’s called a cell phone!

Everywhere you look, people are on the phone; at the beach, at a party, at work, at the mall, at the grocery store, at dinner, pumping gas, even while driving. I saw a women power walking down a bike path at 7:07 in the morning…on her cell phone. Who do you call at 7:07 in the morning, and what is all this chatter about anyway? We have become a society that talks incessantly, yet says nothing.

The phone has become another method in which we numb ourselves from dealing with ourselves. Just like television, it is another vast void to fill our time so we don’t have one minute of quiet to actually ponder the state of affairs brewing in our own hearts and heads. It’s another electronic form of Valium to take us away from the hassles of real life, and yet, all it’s really doing is inducing more and more stress drop by drop. Yes, we now can connect whenever and wherever, but it is costing us our freedom to be independent, present, and actually engaged in life.

It’s OK to not be readily available to the world 24/7/365. Get off the phone, people! Let your poor retired mother sleep in for heaven’s sake. She does not need you calling at 7:07 in the morning asking her what she’s doing. Let me clue you in right now: She’s trying to sleep but her cell phone keeps ringing and waking her up. Besides, you just talked to her at 11:00 last night, not much has changed since then.

You know what else? I find it difficult to tolerate when people bring their cell phone into a meeting. And if you are having lunch with me, please keep your cell in your purse. It’s a choice: Have lunch with me and let’s talk or have lunch with your cell phone and whoever the poor soul is on the other end listening to you ramble on with your mouth full. Do we even know anymore what we ordered for lunch? Poor servers have to read distorted lips and head shakes just to get a drink order because we can’t put the phone down long enough to properly address them. Are the words rude, selfish, oblivious, self-important registering right about now?

I have made a commitment to myself to cut back on my cell phone usage, but it will take a valiant conscious effort. It’s a terrible habit, possibly addiction, that nearly needs a 12-step program to break. I mentioned those NYT games I play in the mornings in this month’s publisher’s note (page 10), well, even though they only take 15 minutes, they are the portal to the first daily dive into the phone. From there, it just keeps rolling to checking social media, to the bottomless scroll, and next thing you know, you’re down the rabbit hole.

I’m serious about getting this under control before it is in full control of me. I hope I’ve evoked some thought in you to make changes, too. This doesn’t mean you won’t ever see me on the phone, it means I’m making a conscious effort to hang up and get back in my life.

With that said, I just pulled in the driveway. I’m at home now. I’ll talk to ya’ later…Bye.