A Conversation Too Far?

Cell phone use has become rampant in almost all areas of our society, slowly but surely.  It became such a problem on the road that in most states, cell phone use while driving has been made illegal.  In one recent article available on Yahoo, a man playing in an amateur soccer game stopped playing the game so that he could answer a phone call.  This seems to be a bit ridiculous to me.  The fact that a man stopped in the middle of the game, without a sub, to answer a phone call just shows that in our world we have placed more of an importance on virtual communication than face to face communication.  Although cell phones' ease of use has increased our ability to communicate with one another, it has also lowered the quality of our communication with the people who are right in front of us.  We can be found at restaurants eating together, at movies, or walking to and from places texting or otherwise plugged into our phones when we could be plugged into the world around us.  It has gone a bit too far when we are using our time with people who are present and in front of us to communicate with others who are probably asking a simple question or with whom we are carrying on a substance-less conversation with.

The question then becomes, what can we do about this now that cell phones are so common in our culture?  The answer to this question will not be easy to find.  So many of the current generation are content with their current modes of communication that no public service announcement or civility campaign will change their mindset.  There must be some sort of conscious effort by the phone companies with their ad campaigns or something of a similar affect in order to shift what the public perceives as appropriate use of cell phones.  Without this, we will continue to turn ourselves into a society which is content with placing more of an importance on virtual conversation.