It's New York Fashion Week, people, and you know what that means ... The glitterati are out in droves, mugging for the cams and gluing their eyes to the latest and greatest designs to trot the runway. Some of them are even making headlines for their own spectacles -- like Arianna Huffington, who appeared to be spending the majority of her time in the front rows of Nanette Lepore and Ports 1961 shows looking not at the clothes, but at ... you guessed it, her BlackBerry!
The media mogul is the ultimate woman about town, so I understand she likely had very important business to conduct, but it still sort of stinks that she missed all those lovely fashions traipsing across her field of vision in order to deal with emails, BBMs, or what have you. Sadly, though, Huffington seems to have simply caught a bug affecting many, many Americans today.
They don't call 'em Crackberries for nothin'! But it's not just BlackBerry owners whose thumbs, forefingers, and faces are permanently stapled to their smartphones anymore. It seems like we're all hell-bent on missing out whatever is going on in front of us -- even if it's crossing a dangerous intersection, watching a movie, enjoying a romantic dinner ... DRIVING! The compulsion of checking email, texting, playing Temple Run trumps any of that for some people, and you know what?
Depending on the context, it's really sad, worrisome, rude, or all of the above.
I'm usually the first one to roll my eyes when I hear spiels about "living in the moment," because I really have a lot of difficulty with that myself, always planning ahead, looking at my calendar, setting alarms, etc. But now I'm not so sure. Now, it feels like we all need a collective societal shake now to remember there's ACTUAL LIFE taking place in front of us! Things we have to enjoy, exercise caution with, or engage in. (No, I'm not talking about that new email that just buzzed into your inbox -- put it down!) Unless we really don't mind morphing into this terrifying depiction of humanity in the future, we might want to reconsider just how much real life we're okay with ignoring for the sake of our smartphones.
Does it drive you crazy to see people on their smartphones instead of paying attention to whatever else is going on in front of them?
Image via JeanbaptiseM/Flickr
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Comments 4
They don't call it a Crackberry for no reason.
We actually had to make a rule in our house of "no phones at a meal", because we would have friends come to visit, and they would sit at the table, conversation happening around them, and be texting the entire time. I found it incredibly rude. These people are not major business moguls, they don't have jobs that *must* be done right-this-second, they're not even parents of very young children. They were just oblivious to the rudeness of their actions.
I also get irritated when people at movies are texting, etc. Why would you pay the ridiculous movie prices (or I guess, concert or play prices), and then ignore what's going on for the phone in your hand??? And the screen-light is tremendously distracting to those around you.