Is there anything more annoying than that person standing ni front of you in a grocery store or checkout line babbling away on a cell phone while a kind salesperson is trying to help them? The cell phone person nods and points directions at the clerk while enjoying a riveting conversation over nothing. There is nothing more annoying and we won’t even discuss people who miss green lights because of their nonsensical cell phone ramblings.

Turn off the cell phone and turn off the laptop and any other portable device you may be carrying with you. There is a certain amount of excitement and adventure in being inaccessible. It can be a little bit scary at first, not being on the grid, not being in constant communication with everyone on the outside world, but it is necessary to do once in a while to regain your sanity.

People have become so reliant on today’s new technology that personal communication has dwindled to nothing. How many times are you on vacation and someone has to dart back to the hotel room to check on the laptop to make sure no important messages were received on the e-mail? There’s a reason to take vacation, but now the new term is “working vacation.”

If you can just stay away from the cell phone for a few minutes, take a walk around the mall and you will see how many mindless drones are babbling away on their cell phones or texting their friends who are likely in the same mall at the same time. It gets to look ridiculous. If you invite friends with kids over to your house, place a ban on use of your computer or they will just sit there avoiding family time to message their friends.

Everybody needs some time to themselves and nothing short of an emergency is worth so much that it can’t wait a few hours. If you check your Facebook pages, chances are that 99 percent of the messages are just gibberish being written by people with nothing better to do. Take some time away from technology and enjoy life.