dinner date with a cell phone

Last night Kevin and I had dinner at a favorite spot, Keystone.

(In case you read my previous post and are wondering what I ate… it was half price dilla’s Tuesday, so I ordered a Veggie Quesadilla and only ate half of it! –The old Sarah would eat the whole thing along with a high calorie-dressing, salad).

Anyway…we sat outside, enjoyed a smooth glass of Malbec and watched the lightning off in the distance. It was the prefect late night dinner date. 

About halfway through our meal I noticed the man sitting next to us had been sitting alone the whole time. He had what looked like a glass of water, a few beers and maybe he had already eaten. 

[For the record, I have absolutely no problem with people who eat alone in restaurants, and I do it myself from time to time.] 

What fascinated me about this situation was that this man spent the entire time he was sitting next to us, looking at his phone. I swear, he did not look up once. He was laughing and showing all kinds of emotions as he spent his entire time at Keystone interacting with his phone. (which appeared to be some kind of iPhone, Blackberry or smartphone). I’m sure he was on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites. Maybe he was sending instant messages to a friend or significant other. He didn’t seem bored for a second and he looked to be thoroughly enjoying the time he had to spend-- just him and his online world.

I looked around Keystone and imagined every table to have just one person, and their cell phone. Is that what the world will look like in 5? 10? 15 years? Everyone will be in their own little world interacting with people via the internet? Are we creating our personal utopias or getting caught up in the ease of technology? 

I believe people are meant to be with other people—to be in community with others. I think online interaction is wonderful, but I won't let it replace or take away from the quality time I have with others. I can’t help but to wonder how replacing real life relationships with internet ones will affect our well-being. Everyday were replacing more and more real life interactions... such as shopping, with internet transactions. 

Who knows what we would have talked about if that guy had looked up and said hi to Kevin and me. I guess he wasn't very interested in us. So, I snuck a picture of him and blurred out his face (well, the back of his head) in case he ever stumbles upon my blog!

Maybe we’ll all be ok, or maybe we’ll all just turn into robots.