This is the Modem World: I'm giving up absolutely nothing

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

She looked at me, then at my phone and back at me. She was not pleased. Her eyes darted around the restaurant. They surveyed the other husbands, boyfriends and fiancés: Were they too ignoring their dates, checking sports scores, texting their buddies? Is my husband a jerk or is this a social pandemic?

"What would happen if your phone didn't exist and you had to talk to me?"

"But I am talking to you."

"No, you're looking at your phone."

"Right now, I am saying words to you. How is it that I am not talking to you at this very moment?"

I wasn't going to win this with semantics. No, I lost the moment I decided it was an appropriate time to grab my phone. And, to be fair, I was being a jerk. We were at a nice dinner and I should be into her, not my email, sports scores or Reddit.

So I put the phone away. I promised to not take it out for the rest of the night, a promise I kept. And we had a lovely evening.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Misc

This is the Modem World: I'm giving up absolutely nothing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.