A number of years ago, The New York Times reported about a group of sociologists who decided to meet at the Grand Canyon to separate from their cellphones and see what happened when they did.

As I remember the account, some participants were against detoxing from the phone and others were for it.

It took 3 days to detox.

Three days before they started talking to each other like people again.  That is, even without a signal, it still took 3 days to get used to being social again.

Some liked it and some did not.

When we decide to rejoin life and our families and put our cellphones in their proper place, it takes time cold turkey to give up this addiction, which of course, it is.

Cellphone addiction is becoming more of an issue in our society today and peer pressure is making perfectly good parents rationalize why it is important for their young children to be connected.

It’s the reverse.

Do not allow a child to have a cellphone until he or she is socially mature – mid-teens — and then peer pressure be damned.  Your kids will be the lucky ones in the end.

In the end, no one will ever regret spending less time with their smartphone and the social media contained within but they will regret all the lost moments that would have been spent with people they care about.

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