Walking and Texting

The saddest thing we saw was two nice looking young people at dinner in a nice restaurant, each one texting!!!!!!! when of course they should have been talking to each other. We will all lose the art of simple, personal, conversation.

I have lost count of the times that I have been walked into, or almost walked into, by people walking and dealing with their phones!

Bloody annoying, and unneccessary.

Do the young talk to each other nowadays.I was on a bus recently three lads sat at the front of bus on seats facing, were texting each other when the messages came through they looked up from their phones and nodded not a word spoken !!! in twentyfive minutes.Silence is golden ?

Another of my pet hates especially on the concourse at Euston station! Add them to the wheelie briefcases, the backpacks that get me in the face when people swing round or step back in the lift, the t***ers who think their briefcase is entitled to a seat on the train and now the texters.
Well I've got a little list and they'll none of them be missed when I achieve world domination

I've noticed more and more people (not always young) using zebra crossings while texting or with i-pods plugged in - they don't even glance at oncoming traffic!

And teenagers may set their phones to silent in the cinema but that doesn't stop them texting. Drives me mad seeing those screens lighting up suddenly. downright rude and too distracting.

Yes! That happens in the theatre, too - and your eyes are drawn to those blue screens involuntarily....

There is a lovely theatre story Anagram - Al Pacino was in a play on the London stage. Someone near the front row's mobile started ringing. He paused in his act and demanded that the phone be given to him. Whereupon he said to the caller ' Your friend is listening to me perform at the moment and will call you back later on' and handed the phone back. I am paraphrasing his words but that was the gist of it - would loved to have seen it.

I had to tell DD off a few wks ago whilst at her house, her and SIL were sitting on opposite sides of the room playing a game between themselves on their iphones which went on for 2 hrs !!!!

Excuse me mother here !!!!

nina DD been told off for similar when I went to pick up DGCs for school and was looking for PE clothes for DGD,the end of my conversation was "if you have time to text at this time if the morning you have time to take the DGCs to school yourself " never had the problem again after that little exchange of words.

Ans what about the cyclists who are plugged into their headphones? How dangerous is that? Why is it that everyone seems to want to zone out what is actually going on around them? Why are they not engaging in life in the moment, as they say? I think the government needs to step in and ban all mobile phones. After all, it butts in to every other aspect of our lives

ninathenana I had the same at DD1's house - the four of them on sofa, each busy with a screen of some sort!

It took me and DD2 to actually put our coats on to go out without them, for them to see reason and acknowledge that we were there!

A 16 year old boy from round here was hit by a car and died after getting out of his father's car and going to cross the road behind the parked car. He didn't hear the other car coming and the driver didn't see him as he stepped out, dreadful! And people who drive and text or talk on the phone really make me cross I was waiting to cross the top of our road (a t junction) when a friend tried to turn in to our road whilst on the phone and smoking. She couldn't manage to wave to me as well.

She could have set her hair on fire!

What was she steering with? Her knee?

I saw a cyclist today with his ipod plugged into his ears, very busy road beside airport. Not five minutes later I saw a young woman jogger with her earphones in, I know they all do it but what if someone came up behind ?

baNana- I agree that baby and toddler development may be affected by the constant use of mobile phones because the parents chat on the phone rather than speaking to their children. When i used to be out with my children in the pram/ trolley I always chatted to them in fact so much so I sometimes found myself talking to an empty trolley when I had left them at home with dad! They all grew up to be chatty and articulate. I have also visited mum and toddler groups in the course of my work where I see the individual mums are sat texting rather than starting a conversation with each other. I think this is such a missed opportunity as I am still friends with some of the girls I met at toddler group over 30 years ago. It is a standing joke that our Christmas night out is still referred to as the "toddler group do" even though our children are mostly married with children of their own!!