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?
As a youth, I stand by you. Phone bad. I had a moment recently where I received a very emotional letter from my grandfather and it made me start weeping uncontrollably in my apartment. I had been very numb and stressed for a while, and that spike of pure love and sadness just broke me, which only got worse when I realized that I was alone in my room, and that the people walking up the stairs could definitely hear me but don't care because the modern world has destroyed any sense of community empathy we have left. The whole moment compelled me to start calling my once close friends who I hadn't spoken to in a while and tell them how much I love them and how much they matter, but the second I picked up my phone all the emotion just left my body. Phones are like a neurological pacifier that give us an artificial sense of comfort we need to give up. Phone bad.
:fidel-salute: