Recently I went to dinner with some of my friends- at least I’d like to believe that I did. It began with us sitting  down at a table from walking from the car. On our way when we walked, we all were conversing amongst each other in our group. Somehow, that dynamic changed in a matter of moments when we took our seats. Within minutes of our seating, the conversations died down and all who sat around the table had tunnel vision that only tuned into their various social networking sites or texting. What just happened?

It is so easy to just glance at a text message and then become engulfed in the conversation depending on how it catches your attention. I know for me if I am in a really good conversation via text or Facebook, in the back of my mind, I am lost in a trans. The topic I am virtually included in has now grasped my attention fully. I’d like to think of dinner with an old fashion taste to it: people gathered around a table with no phones no technology; just a lively family like conversation about how our days went and so fourth. Why didn’t I make that happen? Well, I don’t think it is my place to tell my friends to stop texting- I don’t hold any authority over them nor would I want to have seem a bit weird. I just feel like my friends and I all get into our phones when given a chance to catch up with our social lives outside of our reality. But it would be nice to have those dinners where instead of being invested in our screens while with others , we actually talk and have fun lively discussions and maybe play one of those “phone at the table games.” For example, there is one in which everyone puts their phones upside down stacked in the middle of the table and whoever looks at their phone first, pays for the bill (or takes the dishes when we are in the dinning hall :D). It’s worth a try!