Okay, at the risk of alienating some of my wife’s friends, I am going to rant and rave about one of my pet peeves: Having our time together disrupted by people bing-binging her cell phone with text message pictures of foods they are eating either prepared at home or served at a restaurant. I certainly am happy that they are enjoying a meal but why do they feel the need to share this via text messaging someone else with their pictures? Why are they not simply enjoying this experience to the persons(s) they are with?
I will expand this discussion to other arenas of life that we all witness: People constantly on their cell phones either talking, texting, looking at their social media feeds while they are doing something else. Often that “something else” is a wonderful experience and would be enjoyed/appreciated much better if the person was engaged with activity as opposed to being focused on the phone.
And a more dark aspect, inspired by a news event that occurred this week: A woman riding a NYC subway was set on fire by a man for no reason whatsoever. The people witnessing the event were captured taking cell phone videos and no one rushed in with towels, fire extinguishers or other help for the woman that burned to death. How often do we see videos of people fighting, getting hurt while a bunch of people are taking videos with their phones as opposed to trying to help?
John Lennon, in his song “Beautiful Boy” wrote: “Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy making other plans”. I will amend this to the following: “Life is what happens to you while your busy on your smart phone”.
Put the phone away and enjoy the people, places and activities that define who you are.
Enjoy the late John Lennon.
