I can remember a time when people were not completely connected to their phones. I grew up in a house with seven people and one “count it” phone that was actually attached to the wall.

Granted, we would sometimes spend hours hanging on the phone, listening to our boyfriend breathe, but we only had one phone.

No call waiting, so if someone else wanted to call, they were just out of luck.

We actually shouldn't call the devices we carry everywhere phones. They are more a personal computer than a mere phone, for with them we can check the weather, the news, our electronic mail, or the name of the actor who played the priest in Fleabag.

Oh, and calling people is far from the most popular way to contact people with our “phone.” Texting is actually preferred for most purposes. No need to actually speak, exchange pleasantries, or pass the time of day.

Just a quick text will serve the same purpose without the need for actual human contact.

“Movie tomorrow?”

“Sure. What?”

“Downton Abbey?”

“K”

“C u at 7”

“K”

Done and done. Efficient. You can talk to your friend when you're sitting at the movie with your phones silenced.

We've gotten used to being told to silence our phones. We are always reminded at movies and plays, for there is nothing more obnoxious than hearing someone's cellphone go off in a theater. It usually happens after intermission, when folks have checked their messages and forgotten to re-silence their phones. I remember seeing “Long Day's Journey Into Night” with Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy some years ago and hearing someone's phone go off during Redgrave's soliloquy. OMG, as we might text.

And speaking of OMG, there is a great book called “Because Internet, Understanding the New Rules of Language”, by linguist Gretchen McCulloch.

She helps guide us through the evolution of language online. Language has always evolved, she observes, and we just have to understand the how and why. Don't judge; don't bemoan -learn.

I'm also reading “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport. Its subtitle is “Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.” Newport feels that our addiction to our phones/the internet/social media is detrimental to our actual social, emotional, and intellectual life and is a poor substitute for human interaction. He suggests removing Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms from our phones and restricting our intake of social media. He also notes that many of these applications were truly designed to be addictive. So, yes, we are being manipulated and Mark Zuckerberg and all his minions are intent on keeping us captive.

Our portable personal computers (aka phones) are a wonderful tool. We just have to remember that we are in charge of it and not the other way round.