Has The Smartphone Killed The 3-Day Weekend? [Opinion]

3-Day weekend, Memorial Day Weekend, how many times have you checked your e-mail? Yeah, me too. The average smartphone user will check his or her device 150 every day. That means days off too.

My wife told me last night that I was addicted to my phone. How about you? Can you actually put your phone down and leave it alone for an hour? How about a day? We took a vacation earlier this year and I was on a cruise ship with no service for two whole days. It just about drove me crazy.

Smartphones have made everything an emergency haven't they? Do you remember the days of actually having  to wait for a reply the next day? My message box at work used to be filled with tiny slips of paper telling me who called and why. Now my phone is filled with text messages and e-mails from people telling me they need an answer now.

Is this really how we want to live? Do we need to be in touch so closely via our phone that we are losing contact with those in the same room. Here is an observation I invite you to make, look around the restaurant, bar, festival or waiting room. How many people have a telephone out and are totally ignoring the person next to them?

Do you remember going to concerts and actually watching the show as opposed to watching the show on the tiny screen of your telephone? I remember that and it wasn't that long ago.

So the question I ask of you is this, has the smartphone killed our ability to relax and relate on a personal level? Will we slowly lose connectivity with those we need and want to touch because we are so consumed with those that are not there? It is a slippery slope we are dancing on and I wonder exactly when we will all lose our footing and become hermits in our own homes connected by a bomb that we placed in our own pocket.

Your thoughts? Agree, Disagree or enjoy irony at its finest? You can e-mail me your thoughts (see the irony?) or just tell me what you think the next time we see each other.