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?
Why would people go out of their way to go to a small social event when they can stay on their phone at home.
It's baffling to see this "people have free will, just ignore them" shit on a forum where 50% of the posts are calling out otherwise chud behaviour. To top it all off, this isn't about what they should or shouldn't do, it's that the OP themselves feels bad for them doing it, the actions are not bad in a vacuum. If one of your friends was really bugged or hurt by some thing that to you was mundane would your reply be "free will brah"?