To think smartphones are a blight on our society?

[WhoDaresWins]

Took DC to the cinema yesterday and we sat down with about 20 mins until the film started.

It was quite full and as I looked around, the most common sight was a parent tapping away on a phone while the kids fidgeted. One particular parent didn't exchange a single word with her son for the whole time - she was tapping, he sat in silence.

Now I'm not holier than thou in this regard, I probably do it as much as everyone else although I'm aware of it and try to catch myself. So I'm not judging as I would be judging myself.

But as a society, we need to kick this habit don't we?

I agree and I am also a culprit of texting/reading mnet when I should be concentrating on other things. It's like an addiction

yabu

YANBU. And I say that as someone who is on my iPhone far too much.

Hate smArt phones at cinemas etc as their screen so bright. Dh and I often see families with both parents on their bits of plastic etc ignoring their toddler who trying to get their attention. I love my dumb phone as a patient informed me it was called. It texted, telephones and that's it. Cost me approx £10 per month and I charge it every couple of weeks.... Dh the same.

It's the zombie apocalypse in a fashion. Everybody has the exact same expression when starting down at a screen and you see it everywhere. Double chins have probably shot up in the general population

Yes, I have actually had to stop myself looking at the phone while eating with the DC

They turn me and the DC into uncommunicative zombies. I am turning over a new leaf and actually talking to the DC

Have you seen this? Really makes your point well!

Yanbu. I am not addicted to my phone and I look down on people who are .

Yep.
And I'm getting stabbing pains in my neck from looking down all the time.
It's hard to be present with an iPhone to hand.

YABU.

The problem is the people, not the technology.

YANBU to say people using their smartphones inappropriately are a blight.

But the phones themselves are not. They are the future.

My smartphone was wonderful when bf in the early months and when I was breast pumping at work. I love the sat nav and camera and mnetting at lunch at work. It is an invaluable tool IMO.

I don't use it in company though and do judge the parents I see on my walk at lunch time walking along ignoring their dc while using their phones etc a bit so I think it is the people that are the problem not the phones.

I don;t give a monkeys as long as the users aren't walking along at speed while they stare intently at the screen.
Yesterday a woman walking through the shopping centre with her earphones in (so not listening) swiping away at her screen (so not looking) and had it balanced on her arm (very safe )

I carried on walking till she was nearly collided with me, her face was
I usually say "Look where you're going" but I was really annoyed that she was completely oblivious. Had I been partially sighted or poor mobility , I'd have been on the floor.

Secretly, I wanted her to drop the stupid thing on the floor and break it.

Mmmm could be (I;m sure Dynamo claims to do magnetic things with spoons and he needs a good scrub with a soapy flannel )

No yanbu. I bloody hate them.

You're not supposed to talk at the cinema though. Or text.

You're not wrong, I was on a course today and at lunch, instead of people chatting and getting to know each other, everyone sat playing on their phones. Made me feel a bit sad

The fact my battery had ran out so I couldn't join in was irrelevant....

yanbu I love my phone but there is a time and place isn't there I was at a show last year 2 stupid women in front of me on their phones all the way through it taking selfies and just being a PITA with it, my moans about phones are endless

Saw a thing on facebook the other day

Pub Blackboard, No we dont have Wifi talk to each other

I stayed in a Youth Hostel last year with 50+ Young Fulbright scholars- the brightest and the best from around the world. They'd only met each other a few days before but it was noticeable how engaged they all were with each other. So noticeable that I asked the organiser whether they'd been told 'no social media' nosy old lady!

Yanbu....

Had this in cinema last week with dd. woman in front was with her child constantly lighting up her phone and it got really irritating. For goodness sake can't some people cope without a break from their phone?

Yes I think it's really sad.

I don't use my phone for mumsnetting and the like as I prefer a full sized screen and a keyboard.

I do find having a smartphone useful for apps like the Kindle, camera, flashlight etc and I have got myself out of a pickle with being able to look for addresses and at maps.

I don't get this obsession with being contactable 24/7. When I am with my family I don't even need to have the phone switched on at all. Being an old gimmer we still use our landline so anyone who had urgent need to contact us would ring that anyway.

I think it is the height of rudeness when you are in company and you spend your time on FB, texting non urgent conversations etc. Luckily my friends think the same way we do and don't do that.