I've been considering my relationship with my phone recently. I'm not on it all the time but I think I rely on it for distraction when I'm bored.
Today I took Kid4 to the dentist and when I got there, the waiting room was full. Eight other people plus Kid4 and me. I got a message from a friend when we got there and I typed a response, then put my phone away and talked to Kid4, because he doesn't have a phone and I thought well, it's a bit rude to sit there on mine and ignore him.
I looked around and every other person in the waiting room was looking at their phone.
Obviously I understand the desire to do that! But out of those eight, there were two families: two parents with two kids each. All looking at phones.
It felt... a bit weird to notice that. Like in a book or film where the characters realise that something strange is going on and the whole world is in the clutches of the aliens or whatever.
I feel as though there's opportunities for connection that are being missed, and I have decided I don't want to miss them anymore.
I'd comment that both things can be true simultaneously - that the phone screen is useful and fine for killing time in a waiting-room when we're alone and bored during a long wait AND inappropriate for a parent there with a kid and thus ignoring them.
@ottaross Absolutely it can. And if Kid4 had had a phone, I probably wouldn't have thought anything of both of us sitting there, scrolling, side by side, not talking to each other. Which I realise I don't want to do anymore.
I had to wait almost 90 minutes at the GP a few weeks ago (I was on my own) and if I'd not had my phone, I would have been bored out of my mind.
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