A Relic

The other day I was slapped in the face with a startling revelation:  I am a pre-geezer who is out of touch with the modern world.  That slap happened when my wife and I joined a few of our younger friends for drinks.  At 9:00PM, the pub was full of people, members of the younger generation.  When we settled in, we tried not to gawk.  Everybody in the pub, with the exception of my wife and I, plus the two bartenders, had smart phones in their hands.  Those folks were either texting someone else, surfing the Internet, or taking/making a call.  The only people who talked to another person were my wife and I; we talked to each other.  And, those people with the phones were not huddled off in a corner by themselves.  They were in groups, a drink in one hand and operating a smart phone with the other.  During the time we spent in that pub, we noticed very little real social interaction between people, like speaking to another, with the required exception needed for ordering drinks.

Can anyone please tell me why people need to be so 'connected?'  Why must people check their e-mails and text messages every other minute?  What the hell is so important on the Internet that it cannot wait until tomorrow?  Do people realize that today fine dining does not include a damned phone ringing every ten minutes?  It appears to me that people spend so much time being 'connected,' that we miss out on real people to people, person to person contact.

If one day the lights went out and all the batteries were dead, what the hell would most of those 'connected' people do?  I remember life very well before all this 'connectedness.'  I remember because I was there, and could easily do it again if the need arose.  But, I guess that's what makes me a 'relic.'

                                                Copyright @2012 Terry Unger