“and I never answer the cellphone when we’re out on “date night.”
Unless I am expecting a phone call, or it is my wife or one of my kids after business hours, I never stop a live conversation with someone.
It freaks people out when I just let my phone ring and don’t answer it.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?”
“No - I’m talking with you right now.”
That’s pretty much standard procedure now. Lots of times when I’m talking to someone, and their cell or land-line phone rings, they just silence it and keep on talking to me. As if it never happened. I do it too. This is why texting is on the rise, because you can take them or leave them at will, and nobody’s insulted. It’d how busy people get through to busy people. It’s better than post-it notes.
There was this one time I took the family out for pizza to our favorite place. After we placed our order, we all sat and talked about our day, laughed and had a good time. We eat dinner together as a family every single day (with some rare exceptions.) It's the one time we have together to all talk together. For my wife and I, it's the most important time we have with our kids. They tend to tell us things at dinner that they might not otherwise. So we make it a practice of listening to them talk more than we talk.
Anyway, one time we were out for pizza and having a good time. Our order arrived and we continued talking and eating.
When we finished our meal (Pizza, salad, soda...) the manager of the restaurant came up to us, apologized for interrupting us and commented that we were the first family he's seen in a very long time who actually seemed to enjoy being together. He along with some of the other wait staff saw that we were having a good time (not too loud, not disturbing others, but all of us enjoying each other's company) and that they genuinely enjoyed serving us. As he was talking to us, I looked around the restaurant.
One father was talking on the phone, ignoring his wife who was struggling to keep their two children quiet from fussing. Another family had their smartphone's out playing games. Another couple was sitting there just staring off into space. It seemed like we were the only ones enjoying each other's company and having a good time.
As I took the bill to pay it, the manager offered us a free dessert. We passed, tipped our waitress well (she was absolutely fantastic) and continue to go to that restaurant about once a month as we have for awhile now.
What I've noticed for a very long time is that when people are "together" they seem to be occupied elsewhere. Whether on the phone, playing a game on their phone, texting, or whatever - there seems to be this obsession with interacting with someone OTHER THAN the person one's with.
What's happened to our society?