St. Albert is set to bid adieu to its last payphone next month. Gazette reporter Kevin Ma's piece in today's paper explores the history of payphones in our city, and how the world's reliance on cellphones has led to the demise of their less-than-portable ancestors.
The payphone's gradual disappearance is no surprise. What's amazing is the last one standing at Grandin Medical Clinic made it to 2022.
While much of the planet is focused on high-speed access for all, what's disturbing is how our dependence on our handheld wonders has made it almost impossible for us to slow down.
In 2013, 21 per cent of Canadians used a cellphone as a sole communication tool, according to data from Wireless Warehouse. By 2021, data from Statistics Canada showed 86.1 per cent of households owned a smartphone, with Alberta at the top of the list at 93.4 per cent.
What the numbers also show is that Canadians are turning away from their desktops and landlines, and toward mobile devices for work and personal communication, often to their own mental-health demise.
Data from Statistics Canada from 2018 found that 56.1 per cent of smartphone users over the age of 15 checked their phone before going to sleep, and 20.6 per cent admitted using their smartphone during dinner.
Yes, developments in cutting-edge tech have led to discoveries in many fields, life-saving efforts in health and sciences, and have completely revolutionized how people do business.
The double-edged sword is that for all these devices add to the lives they seemingly enhance, they can take so much away.
Welcome such repetitive stress injuries as text neck syndrome, trigger thumb, and cubital tunnel syndrome; blue-light-related illnesses, including vision damage; and distracted driving and walking.
What's worst is, in our rush toward the latest in cellphone technology, we have left life balance in the dust.
Our brains and nervous systems weren't wired to be reachable and fully plugged in 24/7.
Apparently, the open door to social media hasn't made for the most positive of effects either.
A Statistics Canada study released March 24, 2021, examined six outcomes attributed to social media use among users aged 15 to 64 over a 12-month period. It found 22 per cent had gotten less physical activity; 19 per cent had lost sleep; 18 per cent had trouble concentrating on tasks; and one in eight users (12 to 14 per cent) reported feeling anxious or depressed; frustrated or angry; or envious of the lives of others.
Perhaps our goodbye to the city's last payphone, and the nostalgia it inspires, will nudge us to look back at lives once stripped free from such heavy distraction.
Its demise can serve as a reminder that, once upon a time, we ate supper together every evening without cellphones at the table; drove more safely without their distraction; slept sooner and more soundly without the draw of a tiny screen.
Employers had more respect for boundaries between work and home life; people spent more time outside; were more present with strangers and service staff while on errands; and we all spent more time less touched by the thoughts, lives, and opinions of others.
Leaving our landline ancestors behind doesn't mean their message must be lost along with them.
Editorials are the consensus view of the St. Albert Gazette’s editorial board.
