JOURNAL #2:What is Communication Worth?

 Five crisp Benjamin’s are laid on a table in front of your face; they practically smell of the press they were minted from. What stands between you and an easy $500? Give up your smart phone/ cellular device for a whole month.

Well, I could lie and say that is the easiest $500 I could ever make.  But I for one do not have the discipline to put down the communication for a month.  If it were as simple as just giving up my iPhone I’m sure I could break the cynical stereotypical American obsession with Apple products.  It would feel like I'm dumping the most attractive girl of my life and it might hurt like hell at times but I'm sure I could do it.  How?  I would use my laptop and the infinite information and communication of the internet as my rebound girl.  It sounds like a bad drug addiction but in all honesty if you have things you are passionate about it is hard to just ignore the mediums you surround yourself in the other eleven months out of the year.

When I originally responded to this prompt I wrote there was no way I could give up my form of mobile communication for a whole month.  But, now the longer I thought about it the easier it became to just let go of the aluminum glass rectangle of addiction.  The more and more I thought about it the more I realized I wasted time I could have used to be more productive or for sakes meet and talk to another human being face to face.  Yes, my phone is important to me for work and staying in contact with coworkers and people in the industry.   Honestly I have more resources to utilize than just a phone.  So maybe it is about time I put down the poison contributing to my solitary laziness. 

With that being said, will I actually just give it up for a whole month?  Ah, no, not unless there is in fact a small pile of $100 bills laid out in front of me.  Until then I will continue to use my mobile devise and contribute to the death of interpersonal contact, but I will fight its extinction by keeping my device in my pocket a little bit longer each and every day.  Maybe I will even muster up the courage to talk to one new person every day for the rest of the month?  In fact, I challenge everyone to make this a daily goal.  I’ve been told it will make existence a little more meaningful and I bet everyone will make a new friend. Scouts Honor.