Yesterday in the crowded doctor’s waiting room, I looked around and discovered that Patty and I were the only people there not peering into a hand-held electronic device. Literally everybody else was.
Worse, I had brought along a legal pad and ballpoint pen so I could work on my Newswithviews column. I could hardly be more out of step if I’d showed up in doublet and hose with a line of Shakespearean puns.
No one was talking. No one was reading any printed matter. Just all peering intently at these tiny screens.
Made me feel kind of funny, I must admit.
But not funny enough to join in.
What always puzzles me is the way people in my apartment building stare into those little devices all the way through the lobby, into the elevator, and up to their apartments. What in the world can be so urgent that it can’t wait two minutes until they get to their apartments?
I think it is just a diversion. Nobody wants to relate to the present here and now when they can zone out into …whatever.
You may be onto something, Erlene.
However, I must dissent slightly. It’s rare for me to be more than a few feet away from my iPad, but in my line of work, it’s an astounding tool. I can literally, work on a network on another continent from my iPad, from anywhere where there’s a mobile phone signal. My job involves networks on four continents and I can reach three of them without getting out of bed. When the phone rings at 2 AM with a problem in Australia, that’s a nice ability to have.
The post “Great Commander and Savior” has comments disabled.
You read it before I was finished working on it! That happens a lot. I wonder how.
Love this post, the staring into the phone thing has become ubiquitous.
I went to my good friends funeral today. There was a huge turnout. After the church service and burial we all went to the fellowship hall for food and desserts. One of our past pastors was there at a table of folks and I went over to say hi, but he was looking down between his legs at his phone, so I went elsewhere to fellowship.