 September Buzz
Recently I was at a local restaurant and looked over
to the table next to me and saw something very, very sad. There was a mom,
having dinner with her teenage son and they did not speak to each other
the whole time because he was too busy texting constantly. The mom was
eating her dinner across from, what I consider, a very rude person. Apparently,
she didn’t
seem to mind. I know I will risk sounding like some anti–technology
freak, I’m really not, but all these inventions in this new age have
put a damper on proper etiquette rules.
Oh. Who am I kidding? Etiquette has been MIA for some
time now. We have our own, revised, rules of behavior. Cell phones have
given us more freedom but at the same time, more constraints as well. Honestly,
do people really think the rest of us standing in line at the coffee shop
want to hear about their hook-up possibilities for the night or how much
they can’t stand their mother-in–law? Or how their boyfriend
had lunch with his ex-girlfriend? Or how their spin class went that morning?
No, we really don’t.
I especially love blue-tooth people. I was waiting
to board a plane recently and this extremely tall man was talking a-mile-a-minute
quite loudly so that everyone could hear. I so wish I had taped it so he
could see how entertaining he was for the rest of us. I even wonder
if there was anyone on the other end of that line. Maybe he was just faking
the whole thing so he could sound important on his “business call”. You
know people do that, right?
Last week I was in Vegas for a furniture trade
show and as I was touring around the city during some free time, I noticed
tourists everywhere snapping as many pictures as they could of absolutely
anything. There was a light show down in “Old Vegas”, and there they were, snapping
away. Had they considered just enjoying the show? There were even tourists
snapping pictures of other tourists! What were they thinking? “Here,
stand by this trash can next to the casino, honey. That’ll make a
great shot!”
Watching all this reminded me of one of my favorite
scenes from the movie Parenthood. Steve Martin was in the audience
at his kid’s school recital and when the camera panned to the audience,
instead of all the parents enjoying the show, most of them were totally
engrossed in recording the show. How many times have we all witnessed that?
At a party, a wedding, a concert. People forget to live in the moment and
enjoy these events because they need to have it on video. How much do you
wanna bet, most of the time, no one ever looks at those videos again? I
have never understood why people take pictures of the fireworks and not
just stand and watch in amazement. Myself? I want to enjoy the moments
while I’m living in them, I can always ask my friends to send me
a few pictures. Then again, I do take lousy pictures!
I found myself dining
with colleagues on this past trip and even when we were engaging in conversation, I notice that
people still have their I phones on their laps and are constantly checking
and texting. These furniture guys never answer my calls so quickly, so
what is SO important they can’t leave it behind for a dinner?
Hey, this
is the new world we live in. Do I need to write a new rule book on etiquette?
Maybe some people will read this blog and recognize this behavior in themselves
and think twice before taking the phone out at dinner. I just want to add
that I intentionally did not allow myself to have the kind of phone that
receives e-mails (or sends them for that matter) because I may just turn
into one of those crazy, obsessed people. I
will stick with my basic, run of the mill, totally outdated cell phone.
At least it doesn’t come in a bag with an antenna!
Peggy Burns
Queen Bee
Previous Buzz issues
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
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