Welcome!

It's tough to be an introvert in an extrovert world, especially in an extrovert's profession, like teaching. Through this blog, I'd like to share my own and others' reflections on being an introvert in the classroom. This isn't a place for misanthropes or grumps, though; I hope to thoughtfully discuss the challenges that introverts face in schools and celebrate the gifts that introverted teachers and students bring to the educational environment. If you can relate, please join me!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Cell phones at dinner

I'm updating my English 1C course because every four years, the publishers revise my favorite essay anthology and throw a wrench into my painstakingly revised syllabus and assignment sequence that I've finally gotten just right.

One interesting essay in the new edition is called "Keep Your Thumbs Still When I'm Talking to You," by David Carr. It's pretty much the usual cliche about how people checking their cell phones at dinner at a restaurant is so rude and that cell phones and internet in general are making us inept at face-to-face communication. Even though I am a pretty traditional person, I disagree with this curmudgeonly critic.

I think that people's urge to check cell phones in social situations is less about rudeness or addiction to technology and more about Americans' discomfort with silence.

In a social situation in an extroverted society, you can't just sit there doing nothing and saying nothing. If you're quiet, you can at least be checking your cell phone.

How many times have you heard the word "pause" or "silence" preceded by the adjective "awkward"? I've heard it a lot. It's as if in conversation, silence can be of only the "awkward" kind. The extroverted ideal of constant talking doesn't work for everyone, and some people just can't always be thinking of something clever or witty to say. So we check our cell phones.

Maybe introverts should hail the cell phone revolution; finally, there has arrived a socially acceptable way among people of a certain age group, to have a moment where you don't have to talk.

No comments:

Post a Comment