Ok, at risk at sounding like a boomer, let me preface by mentioning a couple of things: I am in my mid 30's, and I have always hated cell phones. I hated them when they first came out, I hate them now, and I will always hate them into the future. I hate the expectation that I should be available all of the time, and I haven't owned one for about a decade.

With that out of the way ...

I was at a (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner last night. My friend had prepared a very nice dinner for all of us, and a few people brought their own offerings. They were all from a political group that is active on a local campus, so a couple of the people that attended were pretty young.

They spent about half the night staring into their cell phones, at the dinner table where our host had spent hours preparing a nice meal for all of us.

Is this considered "normal" now? I was always under the impression that cell phones should not be used at the dinner table, let alone at a fucking Thanksgiving meal. This is not behaviour that I would allow from my child let alone a fully grown adult.

Am I just old now, and is this now acceptable? Am I just being an old curmudgeon?

  • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I don't think its "boomer" to point out how the normalization of smartphone usage is overall contributing to alienation in capitalist society, and generally pretty harmful to healthy social habits.

    I hate the expectation that I should be available all of the time

    I'm a younger millennial and I hate this shit too. Humans aren't built to be so immediately connected to everyone and everything all the time, and the expectations modern society puts on us there are wildly unreasonable. I have a mild anxiety attack anytime I get a phone call (or even a text!) from a number I don't recognize, because any number of state, scam or collectors agencies can just instantly demand your attention at any time of day, 24/7/365.

    • sexywheat [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      When I did have a cell phone I would get angry that it would beep at me all the time when I was trying to focus on something else.

      So people told me to just put it on silent, so I did.

      Then people got upset with me that I was taking too long to respond, because I wasn't hearing notifications.

      So then, I got rid of it entirely and I never looked back.

      I did pick up a pinephone a few months ago because I felt like I could actually trust a proper linux phone and not have it spy on me, but it's basically just an mp3 player that takes shitty pictures and I never put in an SMS card.

      • VIPLenin [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I think as cell phone culture has evolved a lot of people have realized that it’s not cool to get mad at someone for not immediately responding to them unless it’s an actual emergency.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      scam calls can be fun if you play with them though for instance try and convince them that you also are a scam caller