Are You in a Abusive Relationship With Your Phone ?

The following is a Terry Wise production. Hey everybody, welcome, Welcome to another episode of Wise Thoughts. Wise Thoughts is where we gather weekly around the virtual campfire and discuss what's on my mind and probably what's happening in your world as well. So sit back, relax, get your favorite beverage, pull up a spot around our virtual campfire, and let's get ready to dive into another episode of Wise Thoughts. It's all coming your way, so don't you go anywhere. Let's get into it. Shall we wearing his sunglasses indoors just because he wants to. Let's get back to the program. Here's your host, Terry Wife. Hey everybody, welcome, Welcome to another episode of Wise Thoughts. I'm so glad you're here and decided to drop by the program today. It'll be time well spent. And if you want to get in touch with me, just mosey on over to my website, Wise thoughts dot com. Just make sure you spell my name right, William wycee Wie thoughts dot com. There you can listen to each and every episode of the podcast, as well as leave comments on each show for yourself and for myself to peruse and comment on that. It's all at wise thoughts dot com. There you can sign up on your favorite podcast provider if you have not done so already, as well as a myriad of other things. I've got a blog over there called wie Life. You can there's a link to the YouTube channel over there. That all that's waiting for you at wise thoughts dot com. And I said, I do have a YouTube channel. Just search for wise Thoughts. We're on X as it is known now as it used to be formerly known as Twitter AX. Just search for at Terry Weiss and hey, follow me on Twitter. I'd like to get a few more followers. I mean, I'm being honest, it'd be nice to have a few more. I got quite a few now, but I'd like to have a few more followers. Give me a follow on Twitter. I always put up some interesting things on Twitter and also Facebook dot com backslash wise Thoughts as well. So there we go, enough with the shameless plugs. I hope everyone is doing well today. I hope that this episode finds you in good spirits, good health, and so on and so forth, and onward and upward we go. So what we're going to do first is We're going to get into a new segment that I like to call the wordsmith word. That's right, it's the words words smith word. There we go. Thank you for that. You can turn off that effective, mister producer. All right, no oh, one more time, puts me in an echo chamber. It's time for the word smith word for this episode. Hip, Hip hooray. Alright, alright, alright, so the word smith all right, that's enough. The word smith word for this episode is Kirana spelled k I R A n A Kiana. That's how you pronounce it. I'm going to put a link to this up on the website or on the episode page for your as well. Kiana. It is a What it is is a small local store selling groceries and other household items. So it's groceries and household provisions. But it's a small local store, spell selling. That's spelling spelling terry groceries, another householder. I've only had one cup of coffee today, and I did have it wasn't unleaded, it was regular coffee. So yeah, maybe that's what's throwing me off. But example sentences you can use kirana in is run down to the kirana and buy some dish, soap and a dozen eggs, or this block needs a store that sells kirana, snacks, drinks and such. A kirana's store is often the cornerstone of an urban neighborhood. You might be more familiar with the term bodega, which describes a small grocery store, especially in Spanish speaking neighborhoods or urban areas. Kirana is a similar term, and it is excuse me, sorry, I had the coffee, had to hit the cough button there. It is allergy season here in the northeast. So borrowed directly from the Hindi word kirana, which comes from the Sanskrit cree, meaning to buy. Kirana can be used synonymously with bodega to refer to a small local store that sells groceries and other various household items, but it's earlier usage was more general as a mass noun for products sold at a store. For example, I need to stop at the store after work and pick up some kirana. In that way, kirana implies any number of various items that one might get and what that might be sold at a kirana store. So there you go. Yeah, you've got it. Yeah, I have it. And that was your wordsmith word for this episode. There we go. Yeah, okay, see now you're on a producer, mister producer. Extraordinary. Good for you, Annie, Hoot. We're off to a stellar start, aren't we. How are you today? Did I ask you how you were? I think I already did. I hope you're doing well. And we are in the full embodiment of fall here in the northeastern half of the United States, from whence the program cometh. And what I wanted to talk to about today is are you in a long term relationship and an abusive relationship with of all things? Are you ready your cell phone? I know, I know some of you out there going terry, what what are you talking about? I'll ask the question again, Are you in a long term abusive relationship with your cell phone? And you're saying, what in the sam heck does that mean? What I mean by that is this. I've been doing some reflecting on this over the past week since our last episode, and I've come to a couple of very interesting conclusions. And I found out that I'm kind of kind of addicted to my cell phone. I won't leave the house without it. I mean, if I got to run down even running down to the store, running around the corner and pray, I pray, tell if I do happen to leave without it, I feel it's almost like I left the house without my keys, or left the house without my wallet. Are you in a long term, somewhat abusive you know, relationship with your cell phone, where if you leave without it, if you're somewhere that you have to be without it, or god forbid, if you are somewhere where they say please turn your cell phone off or down so you don't disturb others. Are you in that kind of do you get? Some people actually get? Now, I don't believe that I go as far as to get anxiety over the fact if I don't have my cell phone, or if I'm someplace where I don't have it. However, dare I say I get a little unnerved, maybe uneasy, or just feel like something's kind of missing, something's kind of missing, And what I can only surmise is maybe some form of neuroses. Maybe I don't know. I'm not a psychologist, but I find that if again, if I leave the house with it, especially if I leave the house with it, and I'm going somewhere and I'm going to be gone. It doesn't have to be a long period of time. I feel like I've I've left the house a little bit naked, like Oops, I didn't brush my teeth it, Oops, I didn't put a shirt on, Oops, I don't. I got two different shoes on. And I have had a few occasions where I've left without it. Forgot I was stop the door, and I turned the vehicle right around and went back and got it. Let me know in the comments section if that's ever happened to you as far as leaving the house without your cell phone, and some people out there, from articles I've read and things I've looked up and done some research on people, some people actually have a phobia and have anxiety attacks or unfortunately full blown panic attacks from being without their cell phone or if their cell phone is asked to be turned down or off. It's almost like, you know, it's it's another appendage. It's a part of their body psyche that they absolutely have to have. So again, coming back to my thoughts on are we in long term abusive, codependent relationships or dependent relationships with our cell phone? And that's what we're talking about today on Wise's Thoughts and Holy Moli guacamoli. Like I said, I started really thinking about this in my own life, going yeah, I kind of am, I kind of am, and I'm like, oh boy. And it started me really doing a lot of introspective thought on hey, I might want to really take away or cut down a little bit on the screen time. I mean, I find myself a lot of times. I don't know about you, but if I'm sitting in the living room or another room or something and the TV's on or something like that, I'm scrolling on my cell phone. I'm checking Facebook, I'm checking x I'm you know, seeing if I got any new emails, checking on the websites, you know, and checking on my other social avenues, and sometimes just mindlessly scrolling the Internet instead of maybe enjoying a telephone a telephone a television program, so I'm thinking about my telephone or a movie or a show on a streaming service or what have you, or a sporting event. Does that happen to you too, when you're trying to just you know, kick back and relax a little bit. I now now on iOS device, I e. Apple device, as they have this thing called screen time that kind of can let you know how much screen time in any given week or using or even you can drill down to it and in a day, know how much screen time you're using in a day. And I was quite alarmed because I never really paid attention to it. I never set it up, and I did, and leaderless to say, I was a little bit shocked by how much time I was spending on certain And it'll tell you what apps, et cetera. Most of my time, believe it or not, for myself here, just to give you a little bit of sharing, is spent on YouTube. I do a lot of but I do a lot of scrolling. And I'm not trying to justify this. I'm just saying I I watched instructional videos, you know, videos on how to use software, you know, learning videos from musical instruments and such. And I do watch the occasional Goofycat videos, et cetera, the comedy videos, et cetera. But I do like also history. I like to research some certain things around YouTube about history. There's documentaries et cetera, et cetera. And there's other people do that I too, follow as well commentators, social commentators, industry commentators and things of that nature. But I spend a lot of time on YouTube in any given day, and I know what some of you out there are thinking right now. You said, Terry, you know you've had past episodes where you've you know, pretty much preached to us brother about kicking back and pulling away from the electronic devices and you know, being present and in the here and now. So yeah, definitely, definitely I have done that, and I am not practicing what I preach. I guess would be for lack of a better vernacular term, So it has made me more aware. It's something I might suggest to you as well, is just look at what you know, think about what you're you're you're spending your time on your screen time and what have you. And you could say, oh boy, yeah, and you know it's easy. Now. There was a special on Netflix about Facebook and social media, but directly kind of taking a shot at Facebook about how they hook you and their algorithms and show you things to keep you scrolling and scrolling and spending time. So you see ads on Facebook et cetera, et cetera, and there's things like clickbait, you know, where you get this incredible, incredible headline, you know, and you're like, oh my god, so and so did this or that or this happened, and you click on it and it's a story from like five years ago that you may have missed or something. And it's all a lot of psychological warfare, you know, psyops, I guess would be. And I'm not trying to sound like a crackpot conspiracy theorist. You know, I'm not walking around with tinfoil in my head or you know, facing southwest at you know, twelve fifteen every day, you know, and laying down on a on an elvis velvet painting, you know, worshiping that way. I believe me, I'm not. But when you see patterns and you look around you and your own personal experience leads you to certain conclusions. Well, you know what they say, it is what it has is, what is it? What it is? It is, what it is, it is what it can be. You know, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, well, by golly, it's a duck. And yeah. The other thing too, is I used to work many, many, many a year ago in the cell phone industry. I was a phone repair technician for a while, which means people would come in and I've got a problem with my phone, the software, I'm locked out, et cetera, and or it is damaged, it needs repair or replacement, and I could, boy, I could share some tales of extreme behavior by you the general public, especially in the United States of America, obviously because that's where I live. But boy, I could share with you some tales of people that lost their freaking minds. And it's not just the young uns. It was older people, middle aged people that I think, we're just literally mentally addicted to their cell phone and when something happened to it, I mean, they lost they lost their shit. I mean, there ain't no nice way to say it. They lost their shit and would just act and such what some whould deem irrational ways. They had, just patterns of irrational behavior. We've had people, We had people when I worked in that industry, many many a year ago that physically had to be escorted from the store by security police authorities. Law enforcement was called on a few occasions during my tenure of almost a decade in that industry for people of all backgrounds, all ages, and all backgrounds that just you know, mentally lost it because their cell phone was broken, inoperable, they weren't able to get one on the spot, what have you. And I could believe me, I could regale some tales from you, the people that got on the verge of and some did get violent, you know, just trying to destroy instore property, ranting and raving with profanity, making physical, outright physical threats, direct threats to store staff, or innuendos of a threat to store staff and organizations and buildings. So I you know, that kind of rekindled my experience back then too, when I was thinking about this on and off over the past week. I think that a lot of us, and I'm throwing myself in this category, we are in an abusive, compulsive, dependent relationship with our cell phones. Now, I'm not here just to bash cell phones and say they're all bad and we ought to go back, to throw them out and go back. No, I mean they do serve a lot of good purposes. I mean, you've got you've got instant communication, you have instant access to authorities, law enforcement, what have you, or relatives, friends, loved ones, which is great, okay, to an extent, to an extent, it's good also have instant access to information from around the world, whether it be for shopping, entertainment, educational, or just some ways to fill some time or you're sitting in a office somewhere waiting for an appointment, or you know, getting your car fixed or whatever. So there's lots of benefits to the cell phone. You know, it's a portable TV studio. It's a portable portable photography studio because you can capture those movies, movies and memories by photo too as well, and make your own movies, you know, shoot your own video for archival purposes, good purposes, or if you see something nefarious or something criminal or suspicious going on, which is good, which which kind of makes me laugh because you've got a lot of criminals out there, and it's like, man, people have a portable television studio right on them, nine or sent of us? Do children, all ages, okay, all backgrounds have this, and you're gonna do something stupid that somebody's going to film you on, I mean, come on hello. But that being said, you know, there are some good, you know, purposes for cell phones. However, I grew up in a time where when I was a child cell phones were not around. They were not a thought affordable phones that you could carry around in your pocket, your your hand or on your back, you know. I mean I grew up in an earlier age. They just started coming around, you know, from for at least my recollection is like in the mid nineties or so, you know, and early to mid nineties those started coming out. I mean you had your hardwired phones in the vehicles, you know where you had to take them someplace and pay thousands of dollars to have a telephone hardwired into your car. Then you still held it up and looked like a chord and the end of a phone with a cord, and you had to have this big, big old antenta on your vehicle. But as far as something portable carrying around like on you know, Star Trek, you know, that's the size that could be small. Or now they're going big again because people want to watch things on them and use them for filming and photography and what have you. But I think there's a point where it gets to be an obsession and a lot of us are there. And again I'm throwing myself right in there. I'm not standing on a soapbox saying I am better than anyone. I'm right in there too. I'm dependent on my cell phone for a lot of things, and you know, texting and messaging and emailing and what have you. You name it, I pretty much do it on my cell phone. A lot of us do banking on our phones and things like that, and ordering food and picking it up and what have you. I mean, there's what's what's that? What's that? One of the one of those sayings that's been around for a while. There's an app for that. Well, yeah, there's pretty much an app for everything. But part of me thinks, too medically, how much radiation are we being exposed to by having these things near us all the time and near our heads and what have you, because they throw off bluetooth and wireless signals. I mean there's wireless everywhere now, I mean, you can't avoid it unless you go live in the mountains where there where there is no wireless signal, and some people do. But for the most part, we are surrounded by cell towers and wireless signals and bluetooth signals and microwaves and gamma rays and you know, the rays of the sun, et cetera. I want you know how much radiation on our bodies getting and it's sometimes hard to find out the actual, you know, proper information there was I saw over the past week or so. I remember an article that came out that, I believe it with the iPhone twelve over something that it was emitting supposedly more radiation to the human beings. Then was you know, recommended or safe? Excuse me? And then then of course Apple countered with everything's safe, our products are safe. Well, of course, any not a knock against Apple. Believe me, I'm a big Apple fanboy. I've got ninety nine percent of the products in my home or Apple, so this is no knock on them in any way. But any company, any corporation, any big conglomerate's going to say when they get you know, some question of you know, impropriety or what have you, or there's some question about the safety of their products, right away they're going to rush out to defend because you know, there's millions of not billions of dollars at stake. Because think about that, if something came out and said, hey, cell phones are really unsafe, probably a good majority of us out here was still use them, but we would maybe think twice about buying it from X Corporation or HY Corporation or Z Corporation. If it was something came out that said, you know, these are more harmful to you than this other type of phone, there would be a certain segment of the population, probably around the globe that would go then you know, steer themselves away from that product for health reasons. That's why health is very important. Man. You gotta take your vitamins, get your exercise, try and eat right as much as you can, get your proper rest, get your mental health, everything all in order, get your whole house in order, as it were, and you know, take care of yourself because our bodies, I think, are bombarded with more chemicals definitely in our food and water and even in the air, but definitely chemicals from the products we use too. I mean, it's just it's just common sense, folks. It's just common sense. But a lot of us out here have that dependent, abusive relationship with our cell phones. So that's what I that's what we were talking about today on white Thoughts, and that's kind of what I wanted to to, you know, talk with you about maybe I just give you a little food for thought to say, Mmm, Hey, Yeah, you know, I do have that kind of relationship with my cell phone, and maybe because I know it made me more aware, maybe it's time to just put it down once in a while. You know, one thing I definitely do is when me and the wife go out to dinner, or if I go out to lunch with somebody or you know, with the kid, I turned that sucker on mute and I put it in my pocket and I'm not messing around on it. I'm you know, I that's the table time out of the home and everything that I do sacred. I try to enjoy the atmosphere and the ambience. But I'm going to definitely take another hard look at how much I am using my cell phone and maybe cut back a little bit. You know, I don't maybe need to be on Facebook every minute of the day, or on X every minute of the day, or on Rumble or you know, Tumbler or whatever you know these other things are. And you know, just use YouTube a little less, you know, to use it for what I need it for and then just boom, step away, sit on the back porch and have a beverage and relax a little more without the vices being around. But just some food for thought on this episode of White Thoughts. So yeah, wait you think about that. We'll see what happens, you know. But you know, as I say you, your mileage may vary and it's totally up to you. But I just was sharing with you some thoughts on all of us that seem to be in that dependent, abusive relationships with our cell phones. Hey, thanks for listening to the program today. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there, and remember, to see a change in the world, you have to be the change in the world you want to see. It all starts with you, a person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss. Let stop by the website Wie thoughts dot com just to make sure you spell my name right. Wysee Wie thoughts dot com, and hey, leave us a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast provider. Won't you tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about White Thoughts, And I look forward to gathering yet again around the virtual campfire with you real soon. Take care. I was t I was trenger. I was trenger, I was streng