Cell Phone Etiquette

I grew up in an age where not everyone had a cell phone. Only the really rich people in Hollywood had them and they were the size of your head. I must have been around 16 when I got my first cell phone and I was one of the first kids in class to have one.

My father worked for the railroad as an engineer and was gone more often then he was home. As a result a family dinner was not an every night thing and even when he was gone we only ate out maybe once a week.

Even when dad wasn't home we would set the table and eat in the kitchen. We didn't get to eat with the TV on much either. If we were in front of the TV and the big old yellow rotary phone would ring we could answer it but if we were at the table you let it ring and the answering machine could pick it up. Yes, there were answering machines and those where also really big, too. Our first answering machine took full size cassette tapes.

Here we are in 2009 and when I go out to eat I see other families eating and here are the teenage kids texting away. Every time my ex would take me out he would start texting with people. DRIVES ME NUTS! When you get a chance to sit down with your family you should enjoy it. People don't realize that it might be the last time they see the. And what are they doing - Playing with their phones. How romatic is it when you go out to eat with a significat other and the both of you spend the meal talking and texting other people.

Is everyones' lives that important that they can't take a few minutes out of the day to be here right now with a real live human being. I can't believe the lack of respect in the yonger gerneration. OH YEAH I SAID IT. I don't really mean that though. The young have never known respect and I didn't know what the word ment either a few years back. Then I learned that I will for the rest of my life be learning how to be respectful. It is a never ending process.

I guess the big bugger for me is that I love technology and love to use technology and think it is really cool all the things and posiblities that technology holds. I love that technology is changing so fast that we don't know what the future holds. 10 years ago Wired Magazine made some prodections about the futre of the Internet and technology. Some were compleatly off and some were on the right track. We just don't know and sometimes our wildest imaginations can't do what really happens justist. Oh, how I love technology.

But there seems to be something missing. The human connections, the human network. I miss sitting down to dinner with my family and knowing that our time together will be just for us. Why can't my sister give me 30 minutes of her time when I only get to see them once every couple of months. She talks and texts on her cell when we go out to dinner. I try to remember to turn my ringer off when we eat but if I forget I would never answer it.

I miss people. I miss all people.