This week has been interesting, don’t you think? Monday, I talked about my binge watching ways of The Walking Dead episodes from AMC. Wednesday, I wrote about Rick Grimes, a small town sheriff’s deputy who finds himself in a real-to-goodness zombie apocalypse. And today? I’m not sure. Perhaps I can talk about zombies, but I have something else on my mind. Forgive me if I go off on a tangent for the next few minutes. Bear with me, folks.
Freedom Friday wouldn’t be the same without me observing something and not telling you about it.
Recently I took the train into the city from my own small town, and although I’ve noticed this before, I’ve never written about it. Seems this is common, and since purchasing an iPhone 6, I’m finding I’m doing the same thing. What am I talking about?
Heads down.
You know what I’m talking about.
Walk into any coffee shop, bus station or simply sit on a park bench. It’s there.
Heads down.
Terrible, isn’t it? There was a time I could stand in line or sit in a waiting room at the doctor’s office where I could strike up a conversation with someone there, talk about the weather, the latest sports scores or anything really. Not anymore.
Heads down.
Even going out to have a meal with the family. Instead of folks paying attention to their menus they’re doing other things that have nothing to do with either the meal or the conversation at hand. In an effort to remain connected, have we disconnected? Well?
Heads down.
I used to love sitting in a movie theater before the feature presentation. I went through the rite of passage of easing the seat back, putting my feet up, and joking with my friends about the silly, stupid things in life that makes us who we are. Hairstyles. Clothes. Talk.
Talk. Talk. Talk.
Not anymore.
Heads down.
It’s silly, isn’t it? We’re living a world where never have we had it so easy to talk with someone, yet we’re still alone.
Train ride. Coffee shop. Bus station. Park bench. Standing in line. Waiting room. Eating out. Movie theater.
What about it? Did you have your head down while reading this?
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Have you noticed it, too?
Looking to God 
Yes Jack this is so true. The thing that boggles me though is That kids today have so few social skills because of our wonderful tech. My18 year old daughter, who is literally glued to her phone and spends most of her day texting, tweeting and posting on Instagram, hates talking on the phone! She spends most of her day with the device in her hand but watch her leg it out if the room if it rings so she doesn’t have to answer it in front of anyone!
We’ve all become too dependant on our phones. x
Unfortunately, this is all too common, Emma. Wish there was a way to go back twenty years before any of this was invented.
I have read this post several times and have started a blog project called “37 days without Facebook”, and while my results will not be published till after 4/2 I am looking at some of my notes for the first 7 days of the project, and I am embarrassed and ashamed at the way I have behaved with my phone. It is horrible to think how people like myself have let modern tech rule there lives. It reminds me of the people on the animated movie Wall-E (2008)
Completely agree with this point. I’m as guilty as anyone else. Trains is where I’ve noticed it the most and it means I no longer find myself making random conversation with strangers (whether that is a good thing or not).
I think this is such a relevant observation! I posted about the impact of this kind of behaviour just yesterday. While I get sucked into the behaviour from time to time, I’m always reminding myself to value real engagements over virtual ones. Thanks for the post!
It’s sad but “heads down” is becoming more and more prevalent in my part of the world. I’m happy just to keep a basic mobile phone in the boot (trunk) of my car for emergencies and hopefully I’ll never be afflicted by this syndrome.
Blogging is my only technological vice.
So true. Keeping it for emergencies is the ideal.
I notice this. I also get those ‘looks’ when I actually make eye contact with someone and my head is not “heads down”.
I get annoyed when at the dinner table the phones are on it and someone is swipping through, as if the phone has something more interesting or important than having conversation with the people who are there. (I want to say, “Should we have left you home instead or not had you out to dinner???”) Big UGH!
Was I heads down while reading this post? -Nope reclining, recouping in bed a few days after surgery.
Great post Happy Friday!
Yes! I notice it a lot when my family is together…both of my parents and my sister will be on their phones, and then I’ll get bored and start on myyy phone… x_x
You have to hang out with old dudes. They are always doing the eye contact thing. Can’t avoid them now that I’m old.
its so annoying, the art of conversion is lost and no one seems to have mourned its passing, to busy txting I suppose. what happened to talking to the people around you?
It’s very sad. Even though I have a smart phone I’m not one to have my head down. My son on the other hand is different. On holidays I ban him from any devices so he actually can interact with family and he has a good time. I keep a picture of Einstein up at work with his quote “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” I too fear this!
Einstein was a genius!
It’s sad, isn’t it? I am an exception to it as when I am with someone I put my phone in my purse and forget about it. Mind you, the other person often remains glued to the phone. It’s about priorities, I figure. Why would I worry about what someone is texting me if I am with a friend in person? Heads up, people. Oh and happy Friday!
You’ve summarized my thoughts exactly, Christy. It’s all about being in the moment–not on the phone. Happy Sunday!
Phones at the table is the worst. I find it so offensive and rude yet I have too many friends who think it’s completely acceptable. I understand when it’s the babysiter or something equivalent to that, but otherwise no. Not okay.
Keeping the phone respectable, within limits and within boundaries is what it is all about!
Alas, yes, I did; in my defense, I’m sitting in my truck, alone, prior to work for the day. XD But it is disturbing. More disturbing to me is the way people look at you – even friends and family – when you break the code of silence and actually initiate a conversation.
Had my head down only because of the angle. I see this all the time and I’ll admit to doing it myself. Though I always had an aversion to eye contact, so my feet tended to get my attention. An odd thing now is that you get strange looks if your head isn’t down. People think you’re up to something or you’re plain weird because your attention isn’t locked onto a device. Kind of creepy.
That’s because the machines are programming them to spot “deviants” who might prove a threat to their eventual domination. Sort of like the Body Snatchers remake, soon they’ll be making that weird shriek when they see folks not attatched to their devices. 😉
I think they already do that. Ever see a teen drop their device or lose an Internet connection? It’s like they were tossed out of an airplane without a parachute. 🙂 Seriously though it’s a rather disturbing thing to see another human freak out because they can’t check a text or take a *shudder* selfie. I shouldn’t have been eating when I wrote that word. I feel ill.
It’ll be alright; that’s just the machines purging your organic food so you can subsist on motor oil like a good minion. XD But most “net-speak” and social media buzzwords promote a similar reaction in me (though I’m more tolerant to words that are at least whole words, or spelled correctly), so maybe they’re after all of us.
Hope they remember to put something in the oil to improve the taste. Like chocolate or vodka.
Not sure what drives me up the wall more. Selfie or when someone says the word ‘hashtag’ as if they’re talking in tweets. Maybe the zombie apocalypse is happening and it had nothing to do with the undead.
Reminds me a bit of the premise of Stephen King’s Cell…
Resistance is futile. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Next they’ll install something similar to an ” emotional inhibitor ” like they implant in the Cybermen in the Doctor Who series.
I can only hope; there’s quite a few people I know who could stand to have their emotions tuned back a notch or two…
I can think of many. Mostly extremists on the Right, the Left, NRA, Vegans, Earth Firsters, Rush Limbaugh Ditto – heads, extremists. They could all stand to dial it back.
I had my head up, eyes on the monitor, except for typing this.
Texting is a different matter entirely. I can see why texting while driving is banned in the U.S. & hopefully other countries.
Texting while driving should be a felony.
It’s supposed to be, IIRC, but enforcing it is like nailing jello to a wall at times.