My newest rant on December 26, the day after Christmas, is from food shopping at the store I regularly visit.  Why do people talk on cell phones constantly?  Once again I saw a mother on the phone and her young boy, maybe 3, was with her and a good little boy at that!  But Mom was busy yakking it up on the phone and basically ignoring her child.  I have seen this scenario before unfortunately.  The Mom ignores a special one-on-one time with that child to have interaction and make it a special “shopping time” with the little one.  And the child always looks so lost.  I felt bad that the cell phone had been elevated to a more important level during that shopping trip.

Which brings me to…talking on the cell phone in public whilst walking on the street or shopping in the store or riding the T, etc., is just plain low-class!  Now I don’t mean to be a snob but really!  Talking all the time in public to basically an inanimate object whilst the rest of us are privy to “too much information” is just…low-class.  What did we all do before cell phones were invented?  We talked to EACH OTHER and not a little “ear-tag.”  We made decisions by ourselves!  What a concept!  This really bugs me at the store.  People call to ask questions about pasta, whether or not they need vinegar, etc.  We spend our lives teaching our children to make decisions and then they grow up, go to the store and can’t manage…they have to call home!  Huh?!  Make that decision.  The rest of the household will just have to live with it.  We did!  And me and my brother and sister turned out to be “ok” humans.  Good God!

We seem to have forgotten manners with the technology now in our lives.  Those little black or colored things stuck in our ears or now in our hands whilst we text people…they are more important than even thanking someone for holding the door open for you!  That’s disturbing.  I have a cell phone and do a modicum of texting as well.  But anyone who really knows me knows to NEVER call me in the car…I just don’t want to talk while I’m driving unless the person is IN the car with me.  I can’t handle a steering wheel and a cell phone at the same time and I don’t think I should have to.  Plus, I DO want to be incommunicado at certain times.  I don’t think I should have to be available every minute of the day.

Everything we have in our lives has a measure of importance but none of them is more important than the human contact.  Maybe if we keep that uppermost in our minds our collective manners will improve.