Dinner time

I've spent a lot of my time waiting tables, observing families who come out to eat, and the one thing i will never understand is technology out, when you are out with your family. The occasional glance at the phone when you get a text is totally acceptable in my eyes. We live in a society, where everyone should be able to be gotten a hold of. What I can't get past, is children playing games on phones and hand held nintendos, or two people on a date surfing the web on their phones. Have a conversation! I don't mean to sound like that old man yelling to get off his lawn, but this has to stop. Life is that thing that happens when you look up from your smartphone.

When I was a child, going out to eat was a serious rarity. It was always quite similar to dinner at home, except we didn't have to do dishes. So it was basically the best thing ever, and it was almost always a reward for school work, or somebody's birthday. My brothers and I knew we were to behave like angels if we wanted to stay. We were to use please and thank you to the server, and if we weren't sitting, we were on our way to the restroom. Now parents give their kids these games to play to keep them from running around causing havoc, and get in the server's way. I know this, because that is what the kids who aren't holding games are doing. This directly correlates to my last blog about ADD and ADHD. We, as a society, are stimulating children too much, to the point where sitting still, talking to their parents or siblings is simply not stimulating enough. As I mentioned before, it isn't just the children. I've waited on Couples, young and old, glued to their phones the entire time, crushing candy, and doing god knows what.  Why not just look up... say "Hi there, person I'm on a date with, How was your day? Oh... you spent it sitting with your friends in a room playing candy crush? awesome!"

The worst part of this whole thing is I'm a huge hypocrite. I can't help but take my phone out and use it, because I'd rather do that than look at the person I'm spending my time with do it. It's like second nature, "oh everyone's phone is out, guess I'll look at funny cat pictures too." It is so bitter sweet, because as much as I hate when people use this technology during social interaction, I love it for literally everything else. I can learn so much in an instant with my smart phone. if I'm bored and alone, I can listen to music, or look at funny pictures, or read interesting articles online. If I am in class, I can pull up the article we are discussing in class to more easily follow along, and not use printer money. If I'm eating dinner though, in a restaurant, or at home, I can keep that damn thing in my pocket.

Are my views on this too old school? Should I just buy a cane, and bifocals now? I feel like I am just saying "Back in my day yadayadayada..."

Should I get with the times and accept that this is how we interact now? (I don't think I can)

How can we bring back the old school way of interacting with people, while still keeping this technology at the palms of our hands?