Take a Close Look

There’s that oblivious kid in the crosswalk again, looking at his device instead of both ways at the traffic like his mother taught him.

Right on time: there’s the incredibly rude customer, carrying on a phone conversation even while ordering his food at the counter.

He will no doubt head back to his table at the coffee shop and proceed to talk too loudly on his “conference call.”

There’s the traffic light turning from red to green, but we can plainly see the driver in front of the lineup is eyeballs deep in Facebook.

Meanwhile, on another part of the road, we see the rushing commuter fumbling with his earpiece instead of keeping his eyes on the carpool lane.

There’s the whole family, glued to the tee vee instead of to stories about each others’ days.

And now here’s the boss, holding a conversation with her employee, but stopping to answer texts, look at incoming emails, and to answer the ringing phone.

Look, there’s the worker checking his email for the 25th time today.

There’s the parent, checking in on some work email via the mobile app, even as her child is a mere half hour away from bedtime.

And there’s the child: paying very little heed to the in-person interaction, because the text conversation is just so compelling.

Where did she learn this behavior?

Take a close look…

It’s you.

It’s me.

You and I look just as ridiculous when we consume our digital media mindlessly. And we ALL are guilty every day of mindless digital media consumption.

You and I are just as rude.

You and I are just as thoughtless.

You and I are just as sucked in.

You and I are equally as absurd.

You and I set the same poor example for our kids.

You and I could use some more work on digital detachment.