Questions and Thoughts on Alcohol.

Hi folks. In my last post I said ask me anything. One should always be careful of what they ask for, right? Okay, today’s post is dedicated mainly to responding to one reader’s question. Here’s the question in his own words.

Talking to Ourselves

We talk to ourselves; this is what we have come to in the electronic age. It all began with the magic of the pager. Important people began to wear pagers. (Doctors, lawyers, politicians, police detectives, etc.) Soon everybody wanted a pager so they could feel important too. Some young men were known to have carried garage door openers in their pockets. They’d take them out for a glance then pop them back into their pockets. This was supposed to make the girls believe these fellows were indeed important. Sad really. Tee hee

The next step was the cell phone.  As soon as they hit the market the whole world went nuts. Everybody and his dog wanted a cell phone. A cell phone meant you were important. Suddenly people were talking loudly in grocery store lines up, in their cars, in restaurants, cafes, sidewalks, etc. if a member of your lunch group got a call on the cell; everybody had to be quiet so the important person could complete the call. If you tried to speak, even softly, the person on the phone would raise a hand, finger extended, to silence you.

That wasn’t the end of it though, not by a long shot. Soon the cell phone morphed into a multi-use device. Now you can make a call, send a text, check your mail, take a photo or video, cruise the internet, play games, read a book, and a thousand other things I know nothing about.

So now we talk to our phones instead of the other people around us. We talk to ourselves instead of to the others in the room. I watched a young couple in a café. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and bored to tears. He was busy on the phone re-hashing a hockey game with his friends while he ignored her. I doubt he got lucky that night.

We also behave like drunk drivers. Everybody knows the results of driving under the influence, but stop and think. Are you any less impaired when you fumble with the phone or try to send a text, or try to see the GPS on the phone while driving? I’ve seen all that and more. I’ll confess to taking a call while driving, then suffering a beating at the hands of my conscience.

Please weight in on this one folks; I’d really like to hear from you on this one.