The world is full of mobile phones (though Americans call them cells) and more and more of them are now smartphones, these are grown-up mobiles with a screen full of little coloured objects called apps. People site on the train, in buses, restaurants and at parties that are going off the boil, and whisk their fingers to and fro over the screens in a strange ritual. Sometimes they stare intently but briefly at the screen, sometimes they poke their fingers in the process of making a message. This is communication. But it is not communication with you. Even if you sighed heavily with your last breath and slumped to the floor you would probably not be noticed. You no longer need to work to avoid eye contact with your fellow computers as you can check the app for the Hubble Space Telescope (oh? Not one of those yet?) or the stock exchange prices (if you’re a masochist that is).
It’s all right carping about how the ubiquitous mobile has become welded to the ears of young people unable to be out of touch with anyone at all, and how all this communication does not seem to have generally contributed to face-to-face communication skills or clarity of speech, but it is a lost cause. Modern communications and social media and networking has been let out of Pandora’s box and will not go back again. It’s a new and fascinating world of communication and we do well to join it and work with the advantages.