Huh!!

Your post made me laugh, ReadyMeals, because my DH has an old Nokia phone, which only does calls and texts. He often doesn't have it with him, or it's not switched on. If we communicated by text at home, it would take hours as he's a very slow texter as well.

Just had my son and his family over Easter. They live abroad so rarely see them. He spent all his time staring at his phone. Was pretty cross but I said nothing.

I have a friend who would constantly ignore me during coffee dates to chat to others on the phone until one day in desperation I just got up and left. After an honest discussion about it she stopped doing that but I could tell it was just killing her not to pick up the phone if it rang. It was always inevitably her adult kids with some petty drama anyhow.There would not have been any issue from me if it was something that needed immediate attention

Our church has a sign politely asking people to turn off their phones during services. It seems awful that they even have to ask! When our gr.children stay with us we have a rule 'no technology (phones, tablets or laptops) allowed for more than 2 hours a day' otherwise conversation would be non-existent!

This morning there was a boy - probably 7 or 8 years old, playing on a phone during Mass. In the mornings I walk against the river of students walking to university, probably 99% are staring at phones or wearing headphones (what do they listen to?). No good talking to them at the bus stop. Sometimes the students are in pairs but staring at phones. Maybe they are texting each other to save breath.

While sitting in the hairdresser's, a woman of about twenty five came into make an appointment for herself bu the girl didn't seem to be able to do this for herself and so her mother booked the appointment for her. Okay, she may have been silent for a lot of other reasons but it really did look like she couldn't handle the responsibility and it did make me think of how texting now seems to be the (only) way of communication.

I am a beauty therapist and often have treatments disturbed.
C= client
M=me

I’ll set the scene- C is having a facial, everything quiet and relaxed.
All of a sudden a cacophony of sound emanates from the other side of the too.may.
C- oh , oh dear I thought I’d turned that off, oh dear.
M- do you want to answer it?
C- no , I’m not expecting anything important.
M- sure?
C-yes.
We settle down.
Two mins later.
C- perhaps I’d better check it it MIGHT be important.
So I stop, get up, wash my hands find the b phone and present it to her. Then I go back and rummage through her bag for her glasses.
Now we find that the call was from husband so better just check that a catastrophic happening hasn’t happened.
Well guess what, it hasn’t!
Now I have to wipe the phone and glasses because now they are covered in gunk( otherwise know as nourishing face gel!)
One day I will announce that I’ve run out of time and leave one of them to go home with the face mask on.?
I think I’d better change my name now!

petra I agree. However, it's really nice to see some of the boys just blooming in this different regime and even wishing that some classes went on for longer. You can see that their lives will change such a lot for the better. Its a pity about a couple of the others though who just don't seem to get it.

No, Jane10, you are by no means alone. I'm decidedly frustrated by some of the boys' attitudes. Having said that, I'm also a bit disappointed in that they are sometimes allowed to compromise the rules. Didn't realise what a hard liner I must be. Just feel it somehow insults the other pupils when exceptions are allowed. I follow this with interest. Have pretty much already decided the outcome so wait to see how much egg I end up with on my face!!

I travelled on our local heritage steam train yesterday. The family on the next table (who would have just paid £42 for a family ticket), spent the whole time with their noses buried in their tablets, playing games. Not a single glance at the scenery, or the carriage. What a way to waste your money, and life!

Chances are they've forgotten how to communicate correctly, as there's not a lot of it about these days, is there?

Here is a new TV idea: Parents’ School. It doesn’t even have to be in India. I wouldn’t just watch it, I’d go.

That's a comment on a parent's negative attitude, from a Guardian review of that programme.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/29/indian-summer-school-review-five-terrible-teens-are-sent-to-indias-equivalent-of-eton

Jane10
I watched the programme, cant wait to see the outcome as I'm really routing for one of the boys.
Am I alone in being embarrassed/ ashamed/ angry at some of these boys attitude towards being given this wonderful opportunity?

BlueBelleI was and still am sometimes, the same! It drove my dad crazy, I always had a book beside me at the table, trying to look as if I wasn't really reading it. Now I always read in the loo! I suspect my friends and I would have been avid texters had we been given the chance! Now I hardly remember where my mobile is once I am indoors, to the irritation of my children of course. But then I've always been weird - about writing letters even. I tend to live in a world of my own. I don't defend it and I make no excuses, indeed I'm very bad and a lost cause.

If I were you, Sunseeker, I would warn my great niece that posting anything that clearly states you are away from home is an open invitation to burglars!

To me texting, phoning, going online are the same as reading a book or a letter. In other words, not activities to be carried on in company. When its just DH and me sitting in the sitting-room the one of us DH may be watching TV while the other (me) is reading, but we are still old-fashioned enough not to do so when we have visitors.

sunseeker maybe your great niece and friends had just sat down after a wonderful country walk or after a struggle to put up the tents?
Maybe they messaged each other and posed with phones for a laugh?

I don't mind someone having a quick look at their phone when I'm with them, but not looking at it all the time, or keeping it on the table.
Luckily no-one I know does that.

In defence of the kids here referring to the headmaster banning phones in the school They get very mixed messages, in some high schools they often have to look things up for class work on their phones then get told off if they use them in class
I m thinking a lot is a generational thing I was always getting told off for having my head in a book even at the table if I was eating alone ( no siblings) and always took my book to the loo and under my desk if the lesson was boring I agree that it can be out of proportion and I hate all the bullying that can go along with it all but they can give a lot of information and learning too

Oops message.

My local cafe/ garden centre has this mess on a board ' We don't have wifi. Try talking to each other. '

The rule in my house. Please come for lunch but phones are not allowed at the table.

On the way back from town, 19/23 people walking alone were looking down at their phones. The sky was blue, the trees beginning blossom and the flowers beginning to grow. All missed.
My other concern is that these people will have posture problems-and it won’t just be in old age either.

I was watching that programme 'Indian summer school'. The headmaster, who had previously worked in a large school in UK, has completely banned mobile phones etc. He said that 80% of all the problems in his UK school experience was due to what he called 'gadgets'. Any pupil would automatically pay more attention to their phones than a teacher. All hell would break loose if they were confiscated.
The indian boys got used to phone free life within a week. They have a 100% pass rate in exams...
Interesting programme if anyone is looking for something to watch.

In Hong Kong there are signs on the underground telling people to look up from their phones so they don't bump into people. What is the world coming to???

Also reminds me of a Pinterest quote I sent to my eldest GD “ I broke my phone so had to talk to my family .... they seem like quite nice people “ she did laugh !

My husband and I communicate by text about 80% of the time even when we are both at home.