The Emotionless Date

A few days ago I was at a restaurant with a few family members and friends and we were having a real nice time enjoying some Italian oven Pizzas when I happened to notice a beautiful couple walk in and realised that I knew the guy. He was an acquaintance; a new college kid who had just joined work. It looked like a date and I really didn’t want to intrude by walking over to say hello, so I pretended I didn’t see him.

They were seated at the corner table for two, a nice cozy spot away from all the noise that we were busy spelling out. We got busy with our meal when a few friends had to leave and it was three of us who were left at my table. As my friends were busy eating and I was already done, I happened to notice the couple trying to place an order and were busy with the menu. They placed a quick order and after exchanging a few smiles and an eye contact, got busy with their cell phones. As the guy had his back towards me, I could see his phone – He was on Facebook. For a moment I was like, he might have received some important notification that required his immediate attention but after about 15 mins he was still on the phone and so was she. Their food arrived, they ate with their attention engrossed in the phone and food. Spent about a total of 10-15 mins talking to each other and left.

The Heartless Friend

It was Friday at work where I was a bit relaxed and went for a coffee break where I spent 20 mins alone thinking about ideas and innovations that I spend the weekend building or writing about. That is when two women walked in the cafeteria and got themselves some sandwiches and stood on the south side of terrace of the building (which by the way has an excellent soothing view). As I was seated nearby and there were hardly any people, I caught onto their conversation.

The first woman was talking about how work has been lately and she hasn’t been getting time to finish the risk assessment document which needed to be sent yesterday. That is when the other woman gave her tips on how she could balance between her priorities and work on the weekend to complete it as it would help her in her year-end review. At this point – I was just about to leave knowing that it was wrong listening to their conversation, when the first woman started telling her about how her mother has been ill since a few days and that she had been totally busy with trips to the hospital. She looked towards the sky while a tear rolled down her cheek and in a suttle manner reached for a hanky from her purse and turned her face towards the other woman only to see her busy on the phone. The first woman wiped her tears away and when the other woman snapped out of the cell hypnosis said, “I guess its getting late, you wanna talk on the way back home about your work”.

Conclusion

There are endless such incidents that I encounter myself where I observe individuals so obsessed with today’s social demands and the need to update their status, remain connected to the world, be updated on the latest events; that they usually forget the importance of where they are and with whom they are and in the process end up creating an impact on others.

Yes technology does have its benefits and surely we should be socially connected with acquaintances and updated with latest events, but at what price? Do we really evaluate when its time to keep the smartphone away for a while? Do we?