This evening I walked to the grocery store, and it was beautiful out, sunny and mild. I waited on the corner of Aurora and Winona, a busy intersection, and I watched for a good two minutes while across the street stood a young mother with her baby in a stroller and dog on a leash with rush-hour traffic whizzing by. She glanced up from her phone exactly three times very briefly to check the light and then right back to her phone -- the whole time. When the light turned green I was halfway across the street before she realized it had changed.
And APPARENTLY it would be rude to say something like, In the time you took reading your phone you could have kneeled down and interacted with your baby. You could have smiled at your dog. Hell, you could have even pet your dog. You could have looked up to see me watching you in sad amazement, or you could have looked up to see a bright blue sky with pink and orange clouds.
Apparently that’s considered rude; she certainly would have thought so. I came *this* close.
Then, as I walked out of the store returning home, there was a guy pulling into the parking lot off of that same busy street, and he was so engrossed in his phone conversation that he couldn’t take the phone away from his ear while he maneuvered a sharp turn out of traffic into a narrow parking lot with a small boy in the passenger seat.
People need to get off of their cell phone, not only because it’s dangerous to others, but because there are so many moments we miss when we’re wired up. There is so much eye contact that does not get made. There are real moments of talking with a child, smiling at a stranger, greeting a clerk, noticing birds soaring overhead, and smelling the flowers along your path. Stop using the phone as an excuse to hibernate in broad daylight and in public view.
Remember what life used to be like? I’m glad I still do. If I’m standing in line at the post office, I’ll read my phone. Otherwise, I’d rather live.
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