Sunday, June 14, 2009

Antisocial socializing


I can't believe that we are closing in on the one-year anniversary of TOR and we still have not addressed my NUMBER #1 Pet Peeve. Obviously we have written about large umbrellas, smokers who litter, people who use their Blue Tooth in the mall, the idiocy of having to take your shoes off at the airport etc. But there is a topic which must be addressed as I think it's part of the downfall of our civilization.

now before I begin, I must confess that years ago I was probably the biggest perpetrator of this offense, so before you give me any crap understand that I fully recognize the irony of me being the person who brings this to light.

I've done my research and have found there is nothing more antisocial than answering your cell-phone while at a dinner. I cannot imagine how this can ever be justified as I equate it to basically telling your dinner guests that they are a bunch of losers and that that the person on the phone is more interesting, they are more important to you or their stories more entertaining. The funny thing is that this isn't something that only happens with people who have questionable social skills because some of my more sophisticated friends are the biggest culprits.
Just yesterday a buddy answered the phone in the middle of dinner to talk about the Met game, honestly he may as well have taken out his little winkie and peed on the table because he was basically telling us that we were not worth his time. If you prefer to have a conversation with somebody on the phone then make plans with him or her. This is yet another example of how technology has stripped our society of decency.
I can't decide for sure but what is almost worst is people having a texting conversation while they are hanging out with you because nothing in a text can be all that important. I am the biggest proponent of texting, I prefer it to talking, emailing or any other way to communicate using technology but I there have to be fast-hard rules when you have to put the device away and having dinner with friends is one of those times
This thought that now it's socially acceptable to multitask through your relationships is reprehensible.
Now i am sure there are certain exceptions but they are few and far between, so don't give me any feedback about some emergency or exceptional situation, I'm well aware that this can't be a 100% rule but it should be about 99%.



9 comments:

  1. i totally have texting conversations while out to dinner with a group of people. and i'll text for like 45 minutes & sit there and read them and laugh out loud at funny replies. and you're right, they are never important texts at all. i'm just texting mass texts to 10 people like, "hi mofo, i'm eating a crab right now and i'm deshelling it and it's unpretty. i'm drunk too". i wrote that last night during dinner from city crab.

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  2. did you go to the puerto rican day parade?

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  3. i was hoping you had a new post this morning. i'm waiting for spin class to start in 10 minutes. i hate waking up to work out in the mornings. i used to do it a lot when i was younger so i could go to happy hour at 6pm. today i'm just doing this cuz last night i was eating dinner at wolfgang's and i had a steak and then 2 strips of the bacon and then a hot fudge sundae with schlag. i felt really disgusting so i need to work out. i actually considered calling in sick today to work out all day. isn't that really f-cked up? i've done that before. ok have a good monday. i'm depressed that the weekend went by so quickly and now it's pouring outside. p.s. there's a crazy woman spinning in class already alone.

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  4. lmfao that i'm the loser who posts first AND then i have to post so many comments

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  5. is my excessive posting making other ppl not wanna post cuz they don't wanna come off as loserish like me? ok i will try to control myself this week & be quiet.

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  6. i think you should lump in call waiting at any instance with this category. it is basically saying, let me see if the other person on the other line is more interesting than you while you hold on.

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  7. Amazed this is the first time this has cropped up but glad it did!

    Totally agree - this is one of the rudest thing people can do at dinner. It's like going to a concert and listening to your iPod. If you didn't want to hang out with me, you should have just said so!

    I dontnknow why but I do think it's ok to text when at a bar but not if there are only two of you there

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  8. love the IPOD at a concert analogy

    at a bar it is a bit different but when it's just two guys hanging out there has to be some limit to how much texting that is acceptable.

    If the texting is somewhat interactive (i.e. both people at the bar are kind of following the conversation, that may also make it a bit more acceptable.).

    But I still don't think that if you and I are stting at a bar that it's cool for you to spend the entire time texting some other dude.

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  9. we have a lot of type A's on here.

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