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Last month, I was blessed with a free ticket to see a Broadway show called Relatively Speaking. Cool Mum was out of town with the boys, so I went by my lonesome. Not only was the price right, but so was the seat: orchestra middle right, just 5 or 6 rows from the stage.
Women Texting by Simon Doggett via Flickr
During an intermission, a woman leaned against the stage and surveyed the audience milling around. Then I heard her declare to a bystander, who may or may not have been with her party:
“Look at everyone, just texting, texting. Stupid world! Texting, texting.”
As she made her anti-technology rant, her cheeks seemed to flush almost as red as her fuchsia shawl. She was genuinely upset. I looked around and confirmed that about half of the audience was occupied with their phones. In the middle of checking Twitter myself, I was already thinking of how to report the situation in 140 characters.
But then I recalled an event that my band played at a few years ago. I had already moved to NYC, so this was a sort of reunion. During lunch, a few of us were checking our phones, eager to divide our attention between the here and now and the elsewhere and now.
One of my bandmates called us out on it, and I’m glad that he did. It’s something that I often remember when I start wandering online instead of focusing on the present. I still need discipline in that area. Or it’s just that I’m making sure to get my money’s worth for my data plan. Yeah, that’s the ticket…
Do you text/tweet more than you should during social gatherings?
