I'm going to go against the grain here a bit and defend smart phones. ---.
I'm going to go against the grain here a bit and defend smart phones. People obviously take it overboard and smart phone addicts are in fact real yes; however mobile technology is amazing and claiming that they have "destroyed communication" downright obsurd.
"People don't communicate anymore". Really? Then what are we doing right now? People communicate far more than they ever have before, they just aren't doing it with you. At any point in time I can join a conversation with people who are talking about a subject that I want to talk about. If I want to talk about porn I can go the freeones, if I want to talk about movies I can go to imdb, if I want to talk about football I can go to to NFL.com, and so forth. Now this obviously can cause a whole new set of problems but the idea that smart phones are hindering communication is simply false.
"Yeah but face to face conversation is better, I was on the bus/train/lobby and everyone was staring at their screens..." Yes, typical human arrogance. So I hold a device in my hand that has access to pretty much all of the collective knowledge the human race has acquired yet what YOU have to say is more interesting. If you find people are constantly looking at their phones rather than talking to you maybe it isn't that they are addicted to their phones, maybe you're just boring?
"I don't even have a smart phone, I **** the things". This is obviously your choice, nobody is going to ***** you to buy a smart phone; but I'd be willing to bet you still have a regular phone. The telephone you know hasn't always been around, and you can bet that when that technology hit the world it changed the way we communicate as well.
Obviously some people spend way too much time in front of a screen and I am in no way saying that face to face communication is worthless or unnecessary. I would just be a little weary about the supposed damage you claim it's doing.
Moderation is the key I would agree. I also think texting and driving should be prosecuted harder than ***** driving, but that's a different debate all together.
Pulling up your smartphone mid conversation is rude, nobody with any social awareness is going to argue against that; but maybe you might want to self evaluate how often you are in fact the person interjecting themselves into conversation and being the rude one.
If people are always on their smartphones as you say, then odds are they were on it moments before you started talking to them having a conversation with someone else. Isn't a little rude to just burst in and demand a person's undivided attention simply because you're in the room now and want to talk?
I can't count the number of times I have snuck out back for my precious 15 break at work to get a quick cigarette and check on my fantasy football team only to have it completely derailed by some dumb co worker wanting to join me and ramble on about their surgery, ****, or some other subject I quite frankly couldn't give a flying fuck less about. Perhaps I should be more assertive but "uh huh yeah" while staring into my screen is my polite way of saying "shut the hell up and go away, I don't want to talk to you right now".
It's amazing the number people that complain about smartphones destroying communication that can't interprete such little social cues. I've seriously turned it into a game; how many times I can say "uh huh yeah" before someone realizes I don't care what they are talking about (21 times is the all time record in case you were curious). If you seriously desire face to face conversation that badly maybe you could I don't know...ASK THEM A FUCKING QUESTION as opposed to rambling on with your story. There is a simple solution that nobody thinks about.
If every once in a while somebody zones out mid conversation and starts texting that's rude. If it's happening ALL the time, odds are YOU are the problem. People have probably been ignoring you you're entire life, you're just now noticing because they have a physical device to show you they aren't listening.
To quote Travis Bickle...."You talkin' to me???". If you are, you're about as wrong as anyone could possibly be regarding how you interpreted what I said in my post (after all, you didn't quote me so perhaps you're referring to someone else. If so, please accept my sincere apology). I would say that if you and I were having an actual face-to-face conversation about this, I'd convince you pretty quickly that your hypothetical assumptions about me and the circumstances about the episodes to which I refer are way off base. However, since it's an anonymous and online dialogue only, I don't have that opportunity. I can certainly live with that and, judging by your comments, I'm pretty sure that you can too. To be honest, knowing that you like to play mind-games with others and are actually keeping score when it comes to social interaction situations, I'm not all that certain I'd like to know you at all. Anyway, good luck with your fantasy football team.
To quote Travis Bickle...."You talkin' to me???". If you are, you're about as wrong as anyone could possibly be regarding how you interpreted what I said in my post (after all, you didn't quote me so perhaps you're referring to someone else. If so, please accept my sincere apology). I would say that if you and I were having an actual face-to-face conversation about this, I'd convince you pretty quickly that your hypothetical assumptions about me and the circumstances about the episodes to which I refer are way off base. However, since it's an anonymous and online dialogue only, I don't have that opportunity. I can certainly live with that and, judging by your comments, I'm pretty sure that you can too. To be honest, knowing that you like to play mind-games with others and are actually keeping score when it comes to social interaction situations, I'm not all that certain I'd like to know you at all. Anyway, good luck with your fantasy football team.