The Generation of Smart Phone Ignorance

In the last 25 years or so, mobile phones have come a very long way, as with most technology. Long ago are the days when a ‘mobile’ phone would be as immobile as possible. They’ve gone from bricks, to tiny little things, and now they’re big enough to hold all of that crazy stuff on them.
iPhones, Blackberries, Androids, HTC’s, yadda, yadda, yadda: Smart Phones.

These days you can use a phone for so much more than phoning people. As Apple claim, "there’s an app for just about anything" You can listen to music on your phone, play games, take pictures, read maps, instant chat your friends, check your e-mails, post a Tweet, write on your friend’s wall. You ask your iPhone a question, it’ll tell you the answer (providing you don’t have a Scottish accent apparently.) Don’t get me wrong, all of this stuff is amazing and seeing technology develop in such a way is fascinating. Let me know when they invent a battery that lasts longer than 8 hours… If you’re constantly connected to a plug socket, surely you’re better off with a laptop and a phone as separate entities.
I completely understand that they’re awfully useful, especially in a crisis. For example, I’m sure Google maps may be a lot more useful if I was lost, than having a battery that actually lasts long enough to phone people until they could help. And for business people I think they’re remarkably important. To keep your dates, times, meetings; even documents on.
I have a crappy Nokia. I can use WAP if I really wanted to use the internet, but I very rarely do. I can text people, I can phone people, and that’s all I want from a phone. My Nokia has a 6 day battery life, it rings loud enough so I can hear it, it's small enough to fit in my pocket, it holds loads of texts and loads of numbers. All the useful stuff that I need from a phone. 

Plus it looks so crap and worthless that if I lost it, it’d more likely get returned because no one would try and sell it on. (Yesterday I accidentally left it on a bench outside my local pub it was still there an hour and a half later.) I pay a tenner a month for all the phone calls and texts that I need, I don’t want to have to pay £30 on top of that each month for the privilege of being more likely to be mugged, and to find out things that I can generally wait to find out from the internet at home.

Smart phones have ruined conversation - Long gone are the days of debates about "Which-90’s-actor-was-the-voice-of-which-80’s-kids-tv-character?" Or "Who-sang-that-song-about-a-chimney-in-1998?" You know that crap conversation that I’m talking about: "It’ll really bug me until I find out," kind of thing. Obviously it’s a lot easier, but personally, those moments are always more of an achievement when I think of it 3 days later while making a sandwich. However, these days, you Google it there and then; end of slightly irritating, but fun conversation. (I understand I’m not going to get many people who agree with this point!)


Anyway, this blog is about what irritates me the most about these phones, and that’s the people that use them. As I’ve already said, I think they’re important for some people but what they’re not important for is this:
 “OH.EM.GEE _______ is SUCH a good night out!! Having the best time!!!11!!11one!!1”
Hold the phone (literally). If you’re having such a GREAT night out… why are you stood in the middle of the dance floor needing to go on Facebook and post a status about it? Surely you’re having too much fun to Tweet about the fun you‘re having?!
Smart Phones have also ruined table manners - Here is where the real rant starts.
I’m big on manners. No doubt someone will eventually anger me enough to write a whole blog about it one day, but for now I’m going to keep it limited to the world of ‘Smart Phone Ignorance’ as I’ve so aptly named it.

It absolutely drives me around the bend when, in company, someone whips out their phone. Ok, it’s understandable if they have plans to make. I don’t mind anyone answering a call or text in my presence as long as they can hold a conversation too. Personally, unless it’s important, I won’t answer a text, and I’ll take a phone call but always excuse myself. And I have no qualms with anyone else doing the same. It’s when people scroll through their news feed on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr in my presence. Nothing bugs me more than when I’m trying to talk to someone and they interrupt me with a giggle at something that‘s happening elsewhere. "Oh! So-and-so just uploaded this hilaaaarious photo." If I cared, I’d be sat here with my laptop in front of me instead of trying to have a REAL conversation with a REAL person…Whether in a large group of people, or one-on-one,  I think it’s one of the rudest things someone could do. Is my (or other’s) company not good enough for you? You have to trawl through your acquaintance’s mundane life updates instead of conversing with me?! 
Like I said, it’s not the phones I have the problem with, it’s the people that use them. If used in the right situation, I'm all for them. But real conversation shouldn’t have to die before your phone battery does.