Recharging the battery.

So I was having a conversation with a girl at work today about how addicted I am to my phone and how I'm finding that it's actually causing problems in my relationships. I rarely talk on the phone (other than to my mom, of course!)as my communication of choice is either facebook or text. I would rather gouge my own eyes than carry on a lengthy conversation with someone on the phone.

With that said, I am seeing how complicated "texting" relationships are. Not only do you miss out on the facial expressions and the different tones of a person's voice, but you also lose the anticipation of getting to talk to that person. Sometimes I just feel like "oh, it's you" when I see someone because I've already been "talking" to them all day via text. Remember the good ole' days of coming home from school (or work) and waiting by the phone for your friend/boyfriend to call?! There was such anticipation and anxiety (the butterflies in your belly kind of anxiety) about the conversation! Nowadays we're chattin' it up with our friends all day long that it leaves no time to be excited to see them or talk to them.

The other MAJOR (and I mean MAJORLY ANNOYING) problem with texting is that we can't truly "hear" the tone of the person or the true intention of the person. Without adorable smiley icons (thank you Spell Number app) or a million exclamation points, texts just lose their emphasis and come up short.

My co-worker was talking about how they're working on a series at their church called the Blueprint for Life. This week they talked about needing to "recharge" and that God designed us to be able to be alone, and that we are so bombarded with communication (enter Gretchen's obsession to her iphone) that we fail to seek our "recharging" time. I couldn't tell you the last time that I left my phone OFF for an entire day or night. I almost want to challenge myself to "recharge my battery" both figuratively and literally (my phone is ALWAYS dying!). I think it would do me (and my relationships) well to recharge temporarily. I'm fine being with just me (in fact I love it most days!), but I guess it's because I'm never truly ALONE. I always have my phone, and thus my multiple texting conversations...Here's to recharging!