Donny, you may be headed there, but I know I sure won't! My current cellular telephone rarely gets turned on when I'm on land. When I'm in the boat, it sits in a small pocket in the cockpit so my wife and children can call in an emergency. I DO NOT have cellular telephone internet access, and to be honest, I really don't want it.

A few days ago, my wife and I were in a restaurant, the place was packed, and nearly every person under age 50 had a cellular telephone in their hands, texting, scrolling, ets... None were actually talking on the phone, just other things. No one paid any attention to the person sitting across the table from them, no paid attention to their children - they just punched away with their pudgy thumbs, never looking up. I see the same thing in the super market, every kid on the school bus is doing the same thing, people walking down the street never look beyond the phone/pad. To me, it's such as waste. There is so much more in this world beyond that stupid-phone. Notice I didn't call it a "Smart Phone."

From my perspective, it has dumbed down another generation of young people to the point that they no longer know how to communicate with another person without the phone in their hand. And, more often than not, and this is something we see all the time on the internet, that person that no one can see will say things on the internet they would NEVER say in person to another human being.

Young children no longer interact on playgrounds, go camping, fishing, boating, hunting, hiking, play hopscotch, or do anything creative. At best, some will become active in organized sports, little league baseball, football, soccer, but those numbers seem to be dwindling. I no longer see young school aged kids involved in gymnastics. Music and art classes are being dropped by the school systems, claiming the expense is too great and the interest level has waned over the years. I would bet my bottom dollar that every kid from age 10 and up has a dumb-phone, though. I would also bet their parents are the same ones I see in the restaurants, walking down the street and in the stores, all glued to the tiny screens and never looking up.

Yeah, technology is great, but it sometimes comes with a big price-tag. In the case of the dumb-phones, it apparently is more addictive than crack cocaine to the general population. Don't think so? Look around you!

I, unfortunately, saw my 7-year-old grandson headed in this direction. He has a pad filled with games, my daughter was going to buy him a cell phone, said it would be a good thing to have in case there was some sort of trouble and he needed help. He was always glued to that pad, at least until I took him fly fishing for bluegills in a local farm pond. Now when he comes to visit, the first thing he asks is "pop-pop, can we go fishing today?" You betcha! Oh, and he loves to go target shooting with pop-pop's pellet rifle. He's learning a lot about the outdoors and the world around him, all of this without that pad in his hands. He's seeing the world of nature right here in my back yard, and he's loving the hands on experiences he now enjoys.

Sorry for the rant,

Gary