I love my phone. And when I mean phone, I clearly mean my cell phone, or as Europeans put it, my “mobile”. How else would I be able to draft this post during my lunch break? Or message my best friend who lives and works across the world in San Francisco?

I also hate my phone. It distracts me from work, I feel pressure to respond to messages right away, people bump into me because their eyes are glued to their screen; sometimes I want to take my phone and throw it away into the ocean, or more dramatically smash it onto the floor and stomp on it.

Why has our generation become so addicted to their phone? I long for the days where if anyone wanted to reach us they would have to call us at home. Remember those strange objects with spiral cords? And if you weren’t home, they would leave you a voice message, and you would call them back at your earliest convenience. I even remember I had a pager for the longest time. I thought I was the coolest kid in town. What happened to those days?! Steve Jobs happened, that’s what happened.

Now not only do people use their phones to make calls but they use them to work, connect on social media, message friends and family around the world, take pictures and videos… I can actually count how many real phone calls I get per week. I sometimes don’t recognize my own ring tone. People don’t call anymore, they’ll “what’s app” you. Oh and they get so offended when you don’t respond within the hour.

What I hate most is when I’m out with friends and everyone pulls out their phone. Why are you with me if you’re busy chatting to someone else who is clearly NOT there?! Just go home and sit on your couch and message on, will you! Ok, I’m guilty of this myself. Fine, fine. Sometimes I just feel like the odd one out, everyone chatting away on their phones and I look like the only one without a virtual friend to talk to. So I pull out my phone, ok? Or sometimes my mom panics and needs me to respond right away…. Conclusion: we’re all guilty of using our phones as an extension of our arms and remaining surgically attached to them when out in the company of lovely individuals.

There are however times when I think we should seriously put away our phones:

• At business meetings: what kind of impression do you really want to make? Think about it.
• When out with friends for dinner or drinks. If you take two seconds fine, but being glued to your phone is just plain rude. These people made an effort to come out and see you, not your forehead.
• At the movies: you really can’t live without your phone for 2 hours? Unless your wife is expecting and she may go into labour at any given minute, I don’t see any valid reason for using your phone during a movie.
• When driving: I think we’ve all seen the don’t text and drive commercials.
• When walking: seriously people, it’s dangerous!

Ok, gotta go, just received a ton of what’s app messages.