How Much Do You Phub?

On Saturday, Ian's parents offered to watch the kids while we went to dinner. We don't get out that often, so jumped at the offer. I even put a dress AND heels on. That's kind of a big deal around here these days. While we were at dinner, I was totally and completely entertained by the couple sitting next to us. Their table was mere inches from ours, so I was unable to even tell Ian what I was witnessing (he was sitting next to the lady I was entertained by) until we left. Never in my life have I seen a grown woman (we guessed this couples age to be mid-late thirties) take so many selfies from so many angles ALL THROUGH HER MEAL. Like I said, totally and completely entertaining. Needless to say, she had her phone in hand most of the time. When we left, Ian mentioned that the guy was playing on his phone for most of the meal as well. The very next day an article popped up in my news feed…about phubbing.

What is phubbing? It's phone snubbing. Playing on your phone instead of interacting with the person you are with. Shockingly (sense the sarcasm) this is causing problems in peoples relationships.

I don't see phubbing as a problem in mine and Ian's relationship. However, I have found myself annoyed with friends that can't seem to put their phones down when I am with them. Now, I don't have a problem with someone checking a text. And I don't even have a problem if they want to post a picture on instagram. It's when they want to scroll through instagram and leave me sitting there staring at them that I start to have a problem.

I can only imagine how prevalent cell phone use will be for my kids. Or, will there even be cell phones? Maybe the iring will have caught on by then…yeah, I read that apple filed a patent for a ring. Who know's how exactly that would even work?! But I digress.

At some point, as a society, we are going to have to realize those in front of us are more important than all the acquaintances we have on Facebook/instagram/snapchat. We are going to have to chose to live in the moment, rather than trying to make the moment fit in a little instagram square with a quirky saying to capture it. The people right in front of us are always more important. And now I'm jumping off my soap box for the time being…