One day while I was in my car heading out to dinner, I saw a large truck pass me by, on the rear of the truck was a yellow bumper sticker saying how am I driving, call 1-800 “yadda yadda yadda”, several minutes later I was cutoff buy this non-driving so and so for lack of a better word, causing me to suddenly apply my brakes. That’s when I thought there should be on the rear of every automobile a bumper sticker that says, “how am I driving”; call me in my car, with their phone number in big bold letters. I’ ll bet that would change some driving habits.

I am on the subject of cell phones because there is a new evil in the world, ok not an evil, but a new breed of people, I like to call them cell phone junkies, remember several years back, when there was no such thing as a cell phone? If you had to make a call you ran to the back of the restaurant and put 20 cents in the public phone, and talked for about five minutes. Not anymore, now everyone has a cell phone, everywhere you go, everyplace you look; someone is on the phone; as soon as someone invents a waterproof phone the skies the limit. You wonder how we ever survived without them. Now we can be reached anywhere, anytime, even at the dinner table.

Fay Gougakis / Guest Column

With today's fast-paced lifestyles we have given up a lot of our humanity. At 45, I don't feel comfortable in the world anymore. I miss the days when I could find a quiet place at the coffee shop and read the paper or talk to someone without having to compete with a cell phone or laptop. It seems inhuman to see people walking around with gadgets in their ears talking to themselves. Cafés now sprout laptops with heads buried in them. These new gadgets have created the “Me” generation, with selfish habits that intrude into someone else's space. There is no thought of safety, etiquette or how these habits are changing our lives.

We are creating a world in which humans are alienating themselves from true personal relationships and from their physical surroundings. We are disconnected from the damage we are doing to our planet as we are from the people around us.***