We've all been there - the date where the other person takes out their phone while you're telling what you think is an important story (apparently not, since his phone just made his face light up as if something just saved him), or family/friend outings when you have people down your back about continually checking sports scores or e-mails on your phone.
After all this time, you think we would've gotten better with handling social situations with our cell phones. Instead, society has gotten worse. Although it's not your fault cell phone companies like Apple come up with extremely addicting apps that make you feel like an app-addict, there are ways that you can save yourself the lecturing and still manage to get your phone time in.
Here are a few tips. Spread the word. We need to save ourselves.
OFFENSE: The ill-timed Foursquare check-In
Don't panic, you can still check in while you're on this date. Don't ruin her moment of thinking you guys have a special spark by starring at your phone. Chances are, she wants to look her best. This means when she takes her trip to the bathroom to "powder up", you'll have enough time to get out your phone and do a specific task. She won't even know. Want to get more brownie points? Give her a big smile while she's on the way back to the table. You're in.
OFFENSE: A bright cell phone screen makes the movie theatre light up
No matter how bad you want to escape the movie or check who texted you, other people didn't pay to see Tom Cruise sprint in his fourth rendition of Mission Impossible so you could ruin it with a loud ringtone or bright screen. Check your phone before you get in the theatre and put it on vibrate. That's a must! Next, if you think the chances of you checking your phone are high, you might want to decrease the screen brightness on your phone. Or, sneak out to check your phone. The same feeling of "I can't stand it - I need to check it" might be mutual to a black-belt karate champion thinking "I can't stand it - this guy's toast."
Look at your audience. Most of your friends are going to be more accepting of you looking and messing around on your phone since they probably do the same thing. Even in this case, they deserve your attention. LIVE IN THE MOMENT. Set yourself a time of how long you want to stay away from your phone. Going to dinner? Watching a movie? Set your phone on silent and put it in the kitchen while you go lay on the couch. People will live if they can't contact you in a two-hour period. Remember back in the day, when we didn't have cell phones? Exactly.
If it's family, you're most likely going to get a mad look or a lecture of some sort since their generation doesn't understand our obsession. Best way to handle this- check your phone when you take trips to the kitchen or bathroom. They might not even see you and you can get a lot done. Perfecto!
OFFENSE: The too public phone call
Just because you have a phone doesn't mean we want to hear why you went to the Doctor yesterday. If it's extremely personal and there's people around, be thoughtful and send the information in a text or something more private. Even though we have access to our phones basically anywhere we want at anytime we want, doesn't mean we want to hear your personal drama.
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