PHONE AFFLICTION

My husband Steven and I were both in our living room, each of us quietly scrolling through our phones.

“I just sent you an e-mail of a link I thought you'd like to read.” Steven said as he continued scrolling.

“Oh!” I clicked on my e-mail. “What's it about?”

“Read the link.” Steven repeated.

“But you're sitting right here! Can't you just tell me?” I was feeling a little annoyed.

“It's a pretty long article.” He looked up from his phone. “I'm in the middle of answering an e-mail from one of my clients.”

I began reading the article, which was about an app that tracked the amount of time you spent on your phone. It was written about the president of Apple who had decided to put it on the next upgrade for the phone. But before he released the upgrade he decided to use it himself and was shocked at the hours, per day, that he was on his device.

I looked over at Steven shaking my head. “How could he be shocked? We all live on our phones! Between messages, e-mail, Facebook, Goggling things, and playing Solitaire I wouldn't be shocked if the app told me I'm on my phone 8 hours a day!”

“I've got you beat!” Steven had paused his texting and looked over at me. “I bet I'm on my phone a good 10 hours a day with work!”

Just then Alex walked into the room, catching the last part of Steven sentence. “What do you do 10 hours a day?”

“I'm on my phone at least that much every day!” Steven answered.

“That's unbelievable!” Alex stood there shaking his head. “You two spend way too much time on your phone's.”

“Apple is going to tell you exactly how much time you spend on your phone.” I looked over at Alex. “It's just not our phone's they can track. They can also track how much time you're on any device.” I had to smile. “Like how much time you're on your computer.”

“That's not fair.” Alex objected. “I work on my computer.”

“Well, I work on my phone.” Steven added.

They both looked at me. “Well, I sometimes work on my phone.” I shrugged my shoulders. “A little.”

They both started to laugh.

“Wait a minute!” I cried. “I have an idea!” I looked at both of them. “Why don't we try not to be on our phone's at dinner tonight?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “That's a easy one for me.”

“Me too!” I agreed, then looked over at Steven.

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. I'll give it a try.”

A short time later, dinner was on the table and we were all sitting down. It didn't take long for Steven's phone to chirp that he'd gotten a text. He glanced at his phone, than over to me. “So, how was your day?”

I had to smile. “Pretty good...” I was ready to tell a story that had happened at work when Steven's phone chirped again.

He glanced down then back at me. “That's nice.” His phone chirped a third time. “I'm sorry, but I really have to take this.” He picked up the phone and got up from the table. “There's a problem at one of my job sites and it has to be dealt with right now.”

“Fine.” I sighed.

I could hear my phone ringing from the other room. “It can go to voice mail.” I said as I looked over at Alex. “So, how was your day?”

“Pretty good.” he was about to continue when my phone started to ring again.

“Hum, two times right in a row. I'm not going to answer it.” I said as I got up from the table. “I just want to check to see who it is.”

“Sure.” Alex called. “That was a fun experiment.”

“Okay, I admit it!” I cried. “Your Dad and I are addicted to our phones!”

Alex just nodded his head. “The first step is knowing you have a problem.”