I understand that it’s rude if you’re already having a conversation, but if I’m standing in line at the post office, talking to no one and having no interaction with the people in line around me, who am I being rude to if I take out my phone? Similarly, if I’m sitting by myself in a restaurant or at a bar, is it any ruder to be looking at my phone than it is to be reading a book?
I totally get that carrying on a forty-five minute text conversation with someone while having dinner with someone else is rude. I’m not saying it’s not. I just think that the lady next to me in the waiting room at the DMV would rather not hold a conversation with me if she didn’t have to.
This is the most frightening development I think I’ve ever seen (and, yes, I AM OLD).
I have no idea how many FB/Twitter/Email “Notifications” you get, but to feel compelled to check every 5 minutes?
What is your position in the world that requires you to get “News” updates every 5 minutes?
The POTUS gets a report every morning. Is your position more critical than his?
I played with the idea of a poll to see how many would accept (for themselves and/or newborns) a skull implant which would run on neural power and connect to the Web.
With both a GPS receiver adding lat/long to the continuous date/time feed. It would also be connected to your Optic Nerves and transmit everything (and every thing) you see.
But you could check news/FB/Twitter - the whole WWW with just thoughts.
But I decided the percentage of “Hell Yes!!!” would be even more depressing than this…
This thread is a perfect mash up of “Get off my lawn!” and “Stupid Luddite!”
Anyway, my phone stays up if there’s a possibility of conversation with anyone. Hell, even when others have theirs out, I’d rather talk. But if I’m only amusing myself, than as soon as I realize that.
Huh? The question is about idle time spent waiting on something. Browsing my phone is just a way, sometimes semi-productively, of whiling away a few minutes. Certainly beats reading ancient copies of Woman’s Day in the dentist waiting room or staring at the walls at the DMV.
If you see someone reading a book at the doctors, do you huff “Are you some important movie producer or playwright that you need to read stories?” or do you understand that it’s just a pleasant diversion while they wait? Because there’s a good chance that the person trapped in the Orwellian horror of looking at their phone is… reading a book.
Some of the people in this thread seem to think that the only things you do on a phone are look at Facebook or text.
Why is it ok to read a book while waiting in line, but not to read this message board on a phone? Why are you wasting your time reading a book anyway? Apparently you are supposed to sit quietly doing nothing when waiting for something.
Just because you’re sitting quietly not staring at a phone doesn’t mean you’re not doing anything. I mentally balance my checkbook, make plans, and have composed entire reports in my head while waiting.
I find it kind of odd that people can’t manage to get through a whole minute without required some kind of external stimulation.
That’s fine, I promise not to judge you for it because I guess I don’t care what other people quietly do while sitting around.
On the other hand, some people are FAR too interested in judging what others do while sitting quietly. Which I suppose is something you can do when not on your phone: sit and mentally sniff derisively at everyone else who isn’t as evolved as you are.
Thoughts From a Waiting Room
Person A: “Let me respond to this email real quick…”
Person B: “Oh, Karen has vacation pics posted…”
Person C: “New polling from Wisconsin? Neat…”
Person D: “This novel is pretty awesome. Let me buy the rest of the series.”
Person E: “Look at those people wasting their lives on their phones. They’ll never know the quiet pleasure in sitting and silently judging others. I wonder why they don’t want to have a ‘conversation’ with me. Probably because they don’t even know what one is, they’re so pathetic…”
I’m very much more likely to pull out my kindle than my phone. Still, that’s under 5 minutes.
I find it a little odd to mentally compose reports or balance a checkbook when we now have the tech that would allow actually composing those reports and balancing the checkbook on a smartphone.
Is it more satisfying to do those things twice (once mentally in public and then for real in private) rather than just doing it once? Especially w.r.t. the checkbook - I would assume that having the transactions in real time would be much more accurate than remembered numbers.
This is a generational difference I’m sure. For me I’m pretty much on my phone as soon as I sit down at a place. For one, I really don’t like talking to people unless they are close friends or for business. Secondly, the time that I spend waiting can be doing something more productive. Time is worth more than ever these days and every minute spent wasted is a loss of productivity.
There’s nothing wrong with just patiently waiting and daydreaming though. I’ve certainly done it before myself when my phone is dead.
