Rant

In order to show your respect for someone while in their presence you do so by showing them your undivided attention. That being said there is nothing that annoys me more than trying to have a conversation with someone who is on their phone every five seconds. I have heard the “I can multitask”, and the “I still heard everything” justifications for rude mannerisms and that only heightens my irritation. I don't care if you think you can multitask, it doesn't change the fact that what you're doing is rude.

Last week for example I was out for lunch with my mom, but she was out to lunch with her phone. As soon as we got to the restaurant the constant phone interruptions began. We were looking over the menu for a fair amount of time, or I suppose only I was because when it came time to order my mom hadn’t even looked at it yet. That annoyed me because the whole time I was telling her about items on the menu she would like, or that looked good. She admitted to not hearing a single word I said as she was a bit “busy” were her exact words. As far as I’m concerned the only thing that you should be “busy” doing at a restaurant is ordering your food and acknowledging who you’re there with.

Once we were done eating we were having a conversation about the new cast of Dancing with the Stars, I was particularly excited about Bill Nye and telling my mom a bit about him. At this point in the conversation my mom had been on her phone a multitude of times and I could tell I was having a conversation with myself. Not only did she refer to Bill Nye as “some science guy” but she thought I was talking about one of my professors.

Those were just a couple of examples from my lunch experience and it was something that irritated me more than usual because the only reason I even watch Dancing with the Stars is because it’s her favorite show. Also, the only reason we went for lunch is because she wanted to try that restaurant out, so an hour and a half is a reasonably small amount of time to sacrifice I would say. I just don’t understand the point in spending time with someone if you’re going to be on your phone the whole time. I would almost expect that sort of behaviour from some of my friends, but not from my mother.