Why don’t people take the time anymore to pick up a phone and call those they miss to say hello? I’ve been pondering this question a lot lately given the number of times I’ve had different friends text me saying hello and that they miss me, yet rarely, if ever, are any of them taking the time to pick up the phone and do the same with me.
Honestly, it’s really hard for me to even consider any of them a friend when this happens, especially after I try calling them as soon as I receive their text and get nothing but their voicemail. For awhile I didn’t have texting on my phone enabled for this very reason. But now that I do, I find this to be a growing trend with many I know, as if more and more are withdrawing into themselves and making less and less personal contact.
Maybe this is why our world is dealing with so much depression, anxiety, loneliness, and despair? Is our technology leading us to become more selfish, thinking only of what we need and want, rather than what others do?
I don’t have the answers to this, I only know how I feel when I receive these types of text messages and it’s never good. I usually wonder when it happens if these people are just checking a box to say they reached out to me.
While I may use texting to confirm appointments and other engagements, I try to never use it for the purposes of reaching out to someone I haven’t spoken with in a long while. Because the reality is that there are people out there who treasure hearing the voice of those they care about, much more so than getting a few digital words on the display of their phone.
So the next time you find yourself thinking about someone you haven’t talked to in a good while, do me a favor, please, pick up the phone and call them. Take five minutes of your time to verbally tell them you were thinking about them and know in doing so, you’ll probably not only make their day, but you might just feel a lot better about yourself as well…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson