In Hamlets Blackberry, William Powers not only talks about his life and experiences with technology but also the lives of a few great philosophers. Chapter 5 focuses on Plato, the same way Powers has his “Internet Sabbath” Plato also practiced ways to stay connected with people but also took the time to take breaks from the to think from time to time.
We all need a break once in a while and many of us don’t see it. We always wanted to be connected to find out what is happening next. In the book it is explained how “going outside the walls” would help with that break from people so they had time to themselves to think just as we should turn off our cell phones and computers to “go outside the walls.”
I think if we all kept the same mind set as all of these great greek philosopher then things would be more simple. Our communication skills would be so much better than they are now, we would actually be able to have conversations face-to-face with out any distractions because we would now how to keep that connection going without feeling the need to check out phones to respond to a conversation we are having with someone else via text message.
William Powers asks a very important question in this chapter, “When is the last time you went off with a friends and left the world behind?” This question really stood out to me. How many of us actually leave our cell phones behind when we are out with friends? not too many.. We are always taking a couple seconds out of a conversation or what ever activities we are doing with a friend to check out what is going on with Instagram or Facebook. To me it is really all unhealthy, it is also quite frustrating on how horrible all of our communication skills are getting. I am glad I am realizing this now and having a child soon because when my son is my age I will have had made sure he has it in him that he doesn’t need to always take his phone out, he needs to communicate face-to-face with no problem.
The Story of Nothing 