Quote:
Originally Posted by elchivito
Yesterday, after spending some hours working outside at the vineyard I'm associated with I went inside to see how things were going in the tasting room.
The main bar is a rectangular affair that will accommodate about 40 people on four sides. It was packed. I was chatting with a couple I know, both of whom had their phones out and they were scrolling or texting or doing something with them the whole time we talked. At one point I looked up at the bar and at first couldn't believe what I was seeing. At that precise moment EVERY PERSON at the bar had a phone in hand and was doing something with it, but NOBODY appeared to be actually making a phone call. It was almost surreal. In a group of several dozen people, all at least a bit relaxed from tasting wine, there was virtually no human to human interaction taking place.
If I'd had a phone, I'd have taken a picture of it. 
I wonder how many of these people would claim they think using a phone in social situations is rude? |
I have been observing this phenomenon for years. I got my first car phone in about 1987 I think. I would rarely use it with a passenger in the car because I thought it was rude. My first handheld was one of the bricks a year or two later. I was embarrassed to be seen in public with the thing, much less use it in a public place. Not long after that point, after the handhelds got smaller and more widely seen, I started seeing people that seemed to go out of their way in a restaurant to annoy everyone with the thing.
As they became more widely used I got used to all these rude people in public, but refuse to use one or even answer a call unless it is something absolutely necessary and it doesn't rise to that level very often.
I read not long ago something that was written by someone who had recently been on a cruise with her spouse. She said that they befriended a young couple that were on their honeymoon. She wrote that the couple rarely even spoke with each other. All they did was sit and text, or whatever, on their phones. Hard to imagine much hope for that marriage.