By the end of the month most schools will be in session and family life will change.  The activity of the family will be centered around school.  As we enter another year, our young people are faced with many social problems which distract from learning.  One of the many technical developments that have distracted our present-day students is the cell phone.

If it were just a cell phone maybe it wouldn’t cause so much disruption, but as you know it serves as a variety of things.  Thus, drawing the interest of the young student.  

I live in an apartment building with people who remember the phones of yester year.  How many rings was it for your call?  In fact, I grew up in town without the use of a phone.  My grandparents had a phone.  The only one in the neighborhood.  When needed, a neighbor would come over to use the phone.

Today our culture has changed so much that giving a child their own cell phone may by need of safety a necessity.  Now because the cell phone is made up of many different attractions it takes maturity on the part of a young person to use it appropriately.  

To help the students gain control of cell phone usage during class time rules are made to limit time or appropriate times to use the cell phone.  It seems we are always trying to catch-up on technological developments.  This is called “Cultural Lag.”  

Use of any technological device is a real advantage, if using helps people.  A simple thing as checking on spelling a word.  Looking it up in the dictionary become a chore.  Asking “Siri” on your phone is quick and easy.  If we apply Einstein’s idea to not commit to memory things we can look up, the cell phone is the answer.  However, Einstein was a genius.  

Knowledge is information that has deep quality.  Study, research, and reading develop quality knowledge of any topic for discussion.  Just asking your cell phone for an answer will not give you depth to your inquiry.  Maybe it’s enough information to wet your appetite to seek more detail.  

The next thing in the technological world is “AI” or Artificial Intelligence.  We will be creating machines to act and think like humans.  So how do we live with a machine that can compete with us or tell us what to do.  

The cell phone and all its features will be a small problem to deal with by comparison.