Social "Not-Working"

This weekend my husband and I went out for breakfast at a little small town cafe not far from us.  Our efficient hostess seated us at a small table in a little area that had about four other tables in it.  After perusing the menu, we each made our breakfast choices and then settled back to visit and do a little people watching while waiting for our waitress to come take our order.

There were only three other people seated in this area with us; a man sitting alone at the table next to us and two young women sitting at one of the other tables. It was these two women who caught my attention. They had arrived before my husband and me and were already comfortably seated by the time we were shown to our table.  There they sat, facing each other from opposite sides of the table...both totally engrossed in their own smart phones and completely ignoring the presence of the other person! I nudged my husband and whispered, "How sad is that?" 

I know I'm climbing up on my soapbox here, but I'm so tired of how cell phones, tablets, computers and the whole technology thing has turned us into such rude, inconsiderate people. Somewhere along the line we seem to have lost the skills of face-to-face social interaction.  We spend our time catching up with other people on Facebook.  We are even getting to the place where it's too much trouble to place a phone call so we can actually speak to another person.  Instead we send texts back and forth, and back and forth. 

I am saddened by this turn of events and I fear for the future of interpersonal relationships.  You'd think that with the popularity of places like Starbucks that seem to be all about getting together with friends, that social interaction will remain as strong as ever.  But if you take the time to look around a Starbucks, a large percentage of the people there are absorbed in what's on their laptop or their phones.  Of course, there's some visiting going on, but it's often interrupted by someone constantly checking their phone.

This phenomenon has certainly made its way into the workplace as well.  I can't remember the last time that I was in a meeting where at least one person didn't pull out their phone to read a message they had just received, as if the world would come to an end if they didn't check it immediately.  It's rude and insulting to the people with whom you are meeting.  The worst example of this that I have witnessed was when a high ranking manager, who was welcoming a group of new employees, stopped mid-sentence to check his phone that had buzzed.  Really?

I'd like to say that I haven't been sucked into all of this, but I'd be lying.  My cell phone goes with me where ever I go and I check it frequently.  And to my shame, I have been guilty of ignoring the person I was with in order to read a text that just buzzed in on my phone.

I know that tweets, texts, blogs and Facebook walls are all suppose to be the modern tools of social networking.  But to me, it's social "not-working."  I am going to make a concerted effort to be more deliberate in how I interact with the people in my life.  I want to enjoy them.  I want to be available to them and I want them to know that I value them...more than my cell phone.

Okay.  Would someone give me a hand? I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.