In my blog post the other day, I mentioned being at the local gun show. Well, while I was at the gun show, someone helped themselves to the new Samsung Galaxy S5 that I had only gotten about three weeks ago. I laid it down and was chatting with the guy at the next able and, when I turned back around, I found it gone. [sarcasm]That’s what I deserve, I guess, for leaving it laying there and tempting someone like that.[/sarcasm]

It is something I can’t understand…why can’t folks leave their grubby paws off stuff that’s not theirs? Part of me says, “if ya gotta steal it, you need it worse than I do.” But another part of me says, “I’ve worked for what I have.” Neither one of those responses are entirely accurate though. God has blessed me with being able to take care of and enjoy what is His to begin with. I guess you could say the statement meant as sarcasm above is the most accurate of the statements so far. But I digress.

When it was evident that I hadn’t just misplaced it, we called Verizon and reported it stolen. Verizon then sent a signal to the phone to disable it. To my understanding, they dropped the electronic version of a low yield nuclear bomb on it. Any sensitive data on the phone is now kept out of the hands of those that might have malicious intent. The phone would be useless to anyone and, if they went to a Verizon location and tried to use it, it would be flagged as stolen when they checked the phone.

We paid the deductible and Verizon began the process of sending me a replacement phone. Being as it was a Sunday, the phone would not be shipped until the next business day, being Monday, to arrive the following business day on Tuesday.

I was sans a mobile phone type device for two days…the horror! It is a curious thing to find out how dependent we have become to things like this. It really didn’t bother me all that much other than having to go pick up dinner for us and not being able to pick up the phone in the drive-thru and ask my wife if she wants regular or large curly fries.

What struck a chord with me through this who experience is the comments and such I got from others who knew I was without my phone. The comments varied a little but most of them were to the effect of , “how you makin’ it without your phone?” I would just laugh and say, “I’ll have my new one tomorrow.”

Some people are totally lost when they don’t have their mobile device of choice on or about their person. It’s like that thing is their brain. Maybe it’s just withdrawal symptoms from not being able to play their Candy Crush, I don’t know. It is curious none the less.

Maybe the zombie apocalypse may be upon us, it’s just taking a different form than we expected. Next time you go to a restaurant to eat, look around. If you see a family of four at a table, chances are that you will see three of them on their mobile devices.

I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”
– Albert Einstein

Makes you wonder what it will be like in about ten years. I mean, ten years ago, we could call and text on our phones. Some of the higher end phones would surf the web but, it was so clunky, it was more of a pain than it was worth. Now, you can order Taco Bell from your phone…and get this! Taco Bell will start making it when your GPS signal shows you are such and such distance away and it will be ready for you when you get there! How crazy is that?!

Technology makes things easier in alot of ways…but is easier necessarily better? I mean, with every app out there having spellcheck functionality, we don’t really need to know how to spell anymore.  I am afraid we, as a generation, are letting technology dumb us down. Technological innovation is what everyone wants. But it is the self-thinkers that come up with those innovations. What happens when  the minority self-thinkers realize they can manipulate the dumbed-down masses using the innovations the masses are dependent on?

Things that make ya go hmmmm.”
– C&C Music Factory

How ya like that? I went from quoting Einstein to quoting C&C music Factory…talk about dumbing it down…