Phone Intrusions

Okay, I feel the need to tell you one of my pet peeves. It’s talking on your cell phone in public places. Everywhere I go there are people talking to other people on their cell phones. It’s as if we can hardly interact personally with those around us when we’re out in public. If you go into a store you’ll see two people walking together and one or both are on cell phones with someone else.

I used to like to talk to people around me, while standing in line. But it’s difficult to do that now because they’re often on their cell phone.

Public Restaurant

When you go into a restaurant you often see two people sitting together with one or both talking or texting on a cell phone. They’re abandoning the opportunity to interact with the person they’re with. The title of the one song comes to mind, “Love the One You’re With.” There sure isn’t as much of that going on in recent years. This brings me to a point I want to make in this Marriage Blog.

It drives me almost insane when I go into a public place and I see a couple sitting across from each other and they aren’t really being present with each other. Instead there is some type of technology dividing them. I want to go up to them and plead, “Please be present with the one you’re with. Interact together rather than cheating your spouse of this intentional time!”

Talk with others later when you’re not stealing away this precious one-on-one time you have with your spouse (or child or a parent or a friend, etc).

Dave Boehi made a great point in his Familylife.com article, Setting Boundaries for Mobile Technology (which I recommend you read).

He recommends:

“No phones at the restaurant.” He told of someone he found out about through the ministry of Family Life Today, “’My husband and I have made a deal for date nights,’ wrote one wife. ‘He is way too plugged in to TV and his phone. Therefore when we are out at restaurants we are not allowed to use our phones unless it is a call from the babysitter.

Also we do not go to restaurants that have televisions because he will be too distracted, and I will be mad that he is not totally engaged. We all need to find time daily to disconnect from all the information and reconnect with our families with good ‘old fashioned’ conversation.’

“‘Another reader said she and her husband leave their cell phones in the car before they enter a restaurant.'”

I totally agree. Be intentional. Love the one you’re with. Don’t allow technology and the convenience of being in touch with someone else grab your attention away from those you should be with in an intentional way.

“Thanks to cell phones, we can always reach out and touch someone. But, is that touch a caress or a slap? When we need them, cell phones can literally be a lifesaver. At other times, they create an unwelcome interruption.” (Lynn Jordan) 

Please be considerate and be with the one you’re sitting next to or across from, and talk on the phone at another time.

Cindy Wright of Marriage Missions International wrote this blog.

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