Yesterday my partner and I went to a nearby restaurant for a leisurely lunch. Directly across from us were two men waiting to be served. The waitress brought their food but was clearly having difficulty trying to put it in front of one of her customers since he was totally consumed with his cell phone. He finally put it aside long enough to take a couple of bites of food. However, after a few minutes he returned to what appeared to be an obsessive need to make sure he had not gotten any new messages. Now you might be thinking “why am I not engaged in eating my own food and paying attention to my mate, instead of preoccupied with another diner with a cell phone addiction”? Well, more than likely it’s because I am still at the place where it is hard for me to understand how we arrived at the place where some people believe it is alright to ignore who you’re with in deference to being with someone whose somewhere else. I am still in awe of how and when it became acceptable to ignore the people we’re with so that we can scroll, and troll the tech highway for voicemail or texts. Perhaps he was an emergency room physician or a CIA operative waiting for news on a possible plot to take over the restaurant. But then there must be thousands of individuals with similar job descriptions because the behavior I witnessed is rampant. I felt badly for his companion who kept trying to engage in conversation but could not seem to get through his friends need to be connected to his Smartphone, which in this case made him appear stupid. He finally gave up and simply focused on his food which I’m sure was more exciting than his lunch mate. I really think that eventually people will be making reservations at restaurants for themselves and their cell phones. Maybe they’ll be a small high chair designed just for the phone so that it doesn’t get any food on it, or perhaps they’ll be booths that are soundproofed so that you can talk as loudly as you want and chew your food at the same time. There are so many possibilities! Who knows perhaps we’re in the middle of the “Twilight Zone” and cell phones will reproduce themselves and kill us off. But then, who would be left to say “Can you hear me?”. Now I’d miss that, wouldn’t you?
Dr. Kaku says we will have implants to connect us directly to the internet .. No Thanks! I don’t have a cell phone, smart or otherwise. I want to See Hands moving, talk to me the Italian way, be animated. I’m getting picky about who gets my ear. Conversation can be a lot like food, considering how I feel after taking it in..I want Quality! :o)
I think you are on to something.
When did it get to be ok to be rude?
We really gotta treat others better, especially the young, so they get used to it and carry that forward.
I’m trying hard to treat people better. When calling to complain to Dish today I had to take a deep breath so not to vent my dislike for the company on to the person who took my call.
The machines that take the calls make you crazy before you get to a live person. Feeling sorry for them for working for Rupert Murdoch gave me a way to humanize them.
I wish you’d run yourself thru a copy machine and send a few thousand of you to the west coast. I’d love it if more people wanted to have fun while waiting in line 🙂 ..Last time I was in Costco the line took so long I broke open my beverages and shared them 🙂
i wish restaurants and businesses would institute a ‘no cell/moble phone’ rule. aren’t there devices that can block them? i work as a retail clerk and there is nothing more annoying than a person on their cell in front of me paying for their purchase. one of these days, i will just walk away from the register and let them know that i will give them my full attention when i have theirs. unless they are curing a fatal desease or bringing about world peace, get off your phone!
Reblogged this on Ten Thousand Soapboxes and commented:
Fey and I were having hibachi with four strangers a week or so back–every one of them, including the child, was glued to a cell phone instead of watching the guy tossing knives around and playing with open flame? Have we lost all sense of self-preservation? 😀