Cell phones: Is a day of reckoning coming?

In dinner situations, very simple ... check the phone when you step away to use the restroom. Or when the person you're with heads to the restroom. I've grappled with the whole getting too attached to the phone thing ever since getting an iPhone back in March. lt was bad at first, but after a month the novelty wore off a bit. I'm definitely guilty of checking the Orioles score too often now, but other than that, I can disconnect when I'm out in social settings.

 

And for a drunk driver to spend one night in jail would have been a tragedy because . . . .

I'm not sure why we do this --- to make ourselves feel more important, perhaps? --- but these examples we use of what WOULD have happened if we hadn't been so close to our phones are simply minor inconveniences.

 

I think Baltimore just hit another homer.

 

I guarantee I give no shits about what you do with yours.
But if you're gabbing on that in a Michelin-rated restaurant and disrupting my meal, I may need to shove the thing up your ass.

 

Smart phones are fantastic. They also are the worst thing known to man. They're something in between.

Like anything, the reality is what the holder makes of it. Someone who can use a smart phone to get his or her bearings in an unfamiliar city with a phone's GPS would find it invaluable. I get turned around A LOT. If I didn't have a smart phone, I would never have made it down to Jiffy Lube Live. Instead of guessing an answer and letting the question eat at you, you can Google the answer. If you're expecting an urgent e-mail, you can check it on your phone.

However, if you're sitting and chatting with someone, you'd better leave that phone in your pocket or on your belt. Staring at it while you're ostensibly talking to someone is rude as all hell. If you only feel a need to call or text someone, the smart phone is superfluous at best and a wallet drain worse than your money-grubbing ex at worst.

I think people who don't demonstrate the social restraint needed to not look at their phones every five seconds when they're supposed to be at work or hanging out with a friend and conversing will face some kind of reckoning. People who can use it for its intended purpose and respect others won't. It's really that simple.

 

Interesting observation by columnist at the DNC convention.

"Concession lines were overwhelmed, as people snapped up $7.50 cheeseburgers and $8.75 beers after standing in lines that were often 30-people deep. The most-desired freebies were the free cellphone charging stations. People plugged in their phones and watched them longingly, like parents lingering at the hospital window to see their newborn child."

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/07/3510822/obama-asks-america-choose-the.html

 

1. if you bothered reading what i actually, ya know, wrote, i stated that i didn't talk on my phone in a restaurant, but it didn't bother me to text, which kind of makes your internet tough guy routine look a little idiotic.

2. that's the thing about phones these days, you don't have to scream into them to have a conversation. so even if i did choose to have a phone conversation at my table, it would be no different than speaking to the person who was across the table from me, so again, this pretty much makes your internet tough guy routine look a little idiotic.

3. you're internet tough guy routine is a little idiotic.

 

You were the one who said fuck you, peacemaker.

 

maybe you should worry a little more about yourself and less about other people who impact your life in no manner.

sorry people who use their phones in public piss you off ... wait, no i'm not. get over it.

 

Knowing what I know now of the accident, it really is for the best that I was not personally a part of the few hours when they didn't know if she was OK or not. I still believe that it was the angels that kept me from remembering not to turn my ringer back on that one night.

Hindsight, of course, is always 20/20.

 

Paul Krugmab today: "Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to avoid actually speaking to or even looking at whoever they're with."