If there's anything that reminds me that a sistah is headed towards 50 (in five years and some change but still), it's my relationship with my cell phone. Although I do indeed have one, only three people have my number. Everyone else (or those I don't mind having my phone number)? They have the digits to my landline.

Whenever someone even hears that I have a landline — whether they are younger or older than I — they tend to look at me like I should be an exhibit in a museum. But since I grew up with a landline in the house and the world wide web came to be when I was a junior in high school (which is truly unbelievable), I know what life is like without a portable phone or a handheld computer, which is basically what a smartphone is.

More and more, I'm seeing that is a good thing too, because since I'm not uber-dependent on my cell, I'm OK when I leave it in my car while heading out to meet with friends and there is no urgency to text whether I'm driving or even in the bathroom (yeah, don't even act like some of y'all don't do that…we all have at one time or another).

I don't feel like I'm gonna die without my phone.

And, as you'll see in just a moment, it's a beneficial perspective because although smartphones are mad convenient, too much of anything tends to have some downsides too. Here are some ways that your cell may be affecting you without you even really knowing it:

Your Level of Compassion

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Whenever seniors talk to me about how crazy the world is compared to how it used to be, the first thing I do is remind them of how King Solomon once said that there is nothing new under the sun. Then I follow that up with something along the lines of, "The world's been crazy. The internet just makes us aware of all of the craziness that's happening at once."

That said, I remember exactly where I was when the Columbine high school shooting happened 20 years ago this year (April 20, 1999, to be exact). I also remember that it ran on television, non-stop, for a couple of days. These days, mass shootings happen so much that they barely get a full write-up. Emotionally, we seem to move on within moments after reading about them. And the desire to do something to help (which is what compassion is all about) escapes far too many of us. Y'all, that is nothing to be proud of.

Believe it or not, our smartphones have something to do with it. Because we're in a constant state of information overload, it's making us numb to tragedy and pain. Don't take my word for it. There are studies that indicatecell phones are making us less empathetic.

If nothing else is disturbing about this article, that should be.

Feature image by Getty Images.

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