Twice in the past week I've been amazed at the sheer bad manners of mobile users.
Scenario 1
A couple of a certain age, with (presumably) their twenty-something son, out for lunch. Couple sit almost in silence, watching son, who texts or checks his phone throughout the meal. I wanted to dunk his mobile in his drink, though of course it was none of my business (what stupid parents to put up with him. Though I suppose they did once try to bring him up, and so are partly to blame),
Scenario 2
Young couple out for lunch. Very much in luurve (by their amorous gropings), but BOTH on or looking at their mobiles ALL the time. We were with my son (his treat, in case you think we eat out every day). I'm proud to say that his mobile was not in evidence.
What is the world coming to? Sigh.
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Oh, those long forgotten days when one had to go to the red phone box on the corner. Now it just an empty faded metal box which people past by talking to themselves.
ReplyDeleteAnd button A and button B....those were the days, Paula!
DeleteIt is normal behaviour for a lot of people now, not meant to be rudeness. It'll pass, as all fads do. Having had lunch out with my son today, we were far too busy chatting to check our phones until the end when we looked at the time - because neither of us wears a watch or keeps a paper diary any more - to see when he had to get back to work.
ReplyDeleteBut that's part of the trouble, Z, isn't it? People don't seem to want to speak to the people they're actually with!
DeleteIt isn't just young people. My husband (who is even older than I am) is so tied to his cellular phone, I'm surprised there's no umbilical cord, even though everything is cordless these days. We can be watching TV together and he'll be "just checking my e-mail" or "just answering a text" or something. It makes me crazy. I have a cellular phone which is seldom activated in the house, and then only to see if it needs charging. It is used when I'm out for making phone calls to (a) ask for help (b) ask for directions (c) report where I am, if traveling. In actual fact, those three should be the other way around, but the phone was originally purchased after I fell and had no way to summon help.
ReplyDeleteSoon the grandchildren, grandnieces and grandnephews will start becoming teenagers and I guess we'll be watching them playing with their cell phones.
Sigh.
K
Kay, like you, I have mine for necessary/safety things - driving and riding - (and I have to admit for texting; people are often too busy to answer the phone, and that way you're not interrupting them). But my eldest son, stuck in a time warp, refuses to text, and even asked for a downgrade when his contract ran out, he was refused.
DeleteWhen I was a child at my maternal grandfather's table I was not allowed to speak unless I was spoken to. I'm sure my grandfather regarded my parents' encouragement of conversation including the children at the dinner table to be a considerable deterioration in manners. I am umbillically tied to my iPhone but wouldn't contemplate using it at the table as a rule. However a number of times recently conversations have ranged far and wide and someone has said 'Graham please Google that". I'm afraid that the reality of life is that society's view of what is and what is not acceptable changes and we either accept or reject that change at our will. One thing is certain sure though: we will not stop it.
ReplyDeleteI don't object to mobiles per se, GB. I just find it amazing that people choose to be with their friends/family/lovers, but then spend the time speaking to someone else while they're with them.
DeleteI have mixed feelings. Sometimes when having coffee on my own (in a cafe) I will text a friend or family member if I can't be with them and want to catch up. But thankfully when my daughter, granddaughter and I have lunch together, we are too busy chatting. And yes I would find it very rude if they were more interested in their phones than in me. However, I have a friend who is a technophobic and rarely switches her phone or computer on, so a phone call or a letter is the only guarantee of reaching her. Nothing wrong with that, but texting keeps me up to date. After all, our ancestors did have several postal deliveries a day, compared to our one - if we are lucky.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fine when you're alone, Maggie. It's when you're supposed to be enjoying (?) the company of others that it seems so odd!
DeleteI think Z is right that many consider this normal, not rude (if they consider it at all) but I don't like it. I wonder if when they meet up with the people they were texting, they start texting the people they never got to talk to while they were dining with them?
ReplyDeleteI love that, Patsy!
DeleteWhat worries me is the age at which parents allow their children to own one. As an electronics engineer I can assure everyone there IS a possibility of affecting brain tissue using these things. Something to do with breaking down the proteins in the blood vessels. I understand the electronics but not the biology. Please use the actual voice phone function sparingly.
ReplyDeleteI'l pass this one on to children/grandchildren etc, Keith!
DeleteI was sitting in a coffee shop this week whilst on holiday and a young(ish)couple sat opposite each other with their elbows on the table and phones at identical heights as they were texting. It was almost like they were mirror images - it looked so strange and rather sad.
ReplyDeleteI think they're all living in little cyber capsules, Wendy. One day, they won't be able to address each other directly at all. Sad...
DeleteWhen I am on the train, I am always amazed to the amount of really very private information I can involuntarily gather from people's mobile phone conversations. Some years ago, I have discovered that I can pull the shutters to my mind when I read a different language than what they speak, which means I usually read English when I travel in Germany and German when I travel in England.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the shutting out does not work when someone talks very loud or has a really piercing voice.
I'll just have to learn to read fluently in two languages, Meike. Should be a doddle...
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