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A Defense of Smartphones at Christmas
It wouldn’t be Christmas without the traditional whinging about people “staring at their screens” at the family gathering.
What a load of false-nostalgia rubbish!
In the “good ol’ days”, after family members greatly overstuff themselves with turkey and potatoes and yams and rolls (and wine and champagne and rum and beer), they would retire to the living room and have genuine conversations with each other and read one of the books they received as gifts, or play with one of their new toys, or fall asleep.
Anything to avoid having to engage in yet more conversation with relatives one is required by tradition to tolerate on an annual basis.
Nothing has changed. The only substantive difference is that rather than avoiding eye contact with loathful relatives by reading things printed on sheets of dead tree, we’re avoiding eye contact with loathful relatives by reading things displayed on a screen.
The education I get reading articles by the Cato Institute, NRO, or the Fraser Institute (or even Ricochet!) on my smartphone is much more valuable to me than the interminable nonsense that spouts from the mouth of Cousin Mergatroyd, and I make zero apologies for preferring one over the other!
Harrumph!
Published in Culture
We had my daughter and her husband over for dinner last night. After it was over, we moved into the breakfast room and talked til 11:00 (way past my bedtime). Not a phone in sight. I enjoyed it immensely.
a) You diseased maniac.
b) One might note that you checked the Internet long enough to neglect your relatives by reading the OP and posting a comment about it.
;-)
Well, I have a flip phone. The kids have smartphones, though. I talked mostly to my daughter, who’s always been enjoyable to talk to, though I don’t like her politics.
Everything old is new again.
Also, I thought it was Murgatroyd?
Lol. I said last night.
It’s a regional dialect.
You can have my beloved glowing rectangle when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Boredom no longer threatens me.
I might be neglecting my wife tonight, but she’s undoubtedly doing genealogy research, and wouldn’t appreciate the interruption.
Besides, conversation is fun (I thought about changing that to intercourse, but decided I’d better not).
Yeah…. on a smartphone.
Hard to text on a flip phone.
Don’t forget plopping down on the couch and watching an endless progression of football games on the TV. If you were male, that is. I don’t know what females did after dinner, but somehow the kitchen got cleaned, dishes washed, and leftovers put out.
This picture was taken with one of the kid’s smartphone outside of old Man Misthiocracy’s place:
Mis,
I’ve got to agree with you on this. Making the smartphone the culprit for everything that’s wrong in the American Family is ridiculous. The left and its social policy & culture have been undermining the Family for the last 100 years. If politics overcomes Family unity at the Holiday table it isn’t because of the latest gizmo. It’s because of the latest ideology.
Regards,
Jim
Agree with everyone’s arguments on both sides. But every time I see anyone in public with their eyes glued to the phone or the phone glued to their ear I still want to slap them up side the head. It is almost an irrepressible urge.
How many people do you want to slap upside the head for other reasons, or for no reason at all.
Personally, I rarely need a reason to get the urge to slap strangers upside the head. Let’s face it, we all deserve a good head-slapping for one reason or another.
In our family, some time is spent with our new pursuits, but we also play family games, often cycling other family members in and out of a family favorite 4-player, so everyone gets time alone and with family.
We watch a sports game or a christmas movie in the background.
That’s how I grew up, anyway… and it is still what christmas is like with my family. Today, I exposed my in laws to a little bit of that. They are not like that at all. Christmas is just another day for them and I really can’t stand it. Christmas Eve is their day which means no Christmas Eve service. I do think next year, my oldest is old enough for a midnight mass, so I may plan to make that happen for future christmas eves.
When I worked at K-Mart in highschoool, the security guy had that sign on his office door.
Smartphones don’t kill conversation. People (using smartphones) kill conversation.
Aside from those spouting leftist crap I rarely get that urge. But when I do it’s for a reason – even if known and understood only by me.
I’ve known plenty of people who could kill a conversation without using a smartphone.
What’s the old saying that Jonah tells? If you see a Bulgarian on the street, beat him. He’ll know why.
I also neglected to mention plopping in front of the TV to watch animated christmas specials.
I get what you’re saying, I really do, but there’s something different with smartphones. You’re right that in many situations it’s a similar replacement for a book or newspaper in the “good ol’ days” but I have never seen a couple on a date, or a group of teenagers at a local fast food joint pull out a book or newspaper. I see smartphones pulled out all the time in those situations.
Do you surveil a lot of people when they’re on dates? That’s kinda creepy.
;-)
Lol. Hubby and I have our 10th tonight and our phones will likely be out… we play the same games and talk about them over dinner when we grow weary of sweet nothings, dream houses, and how to shape our kids into perfection.
My husband often Twitters on his phone and I often read on my Kindle when we go out. He has a hard time hearing through background noise, so having a conversation there in the restaurant can sometimes be difficult.
I’ve found this to be true the older I get. I still hear fine, but I have a hard time separating out the signal from the noise.
I see lots of people walking down the street staring at phones. It’s pretty rare that I see people walking down the street reading a book.