The Split Second-Looking Up from the Phone

I hope lots of people will read my book, The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others. It isn’t published yet but with some good luck and good intentions, it will be very soon. I want to consider the “Looking Up from the Phone” part of my book’s title.  There are a lot of people like myself who sometimes get frustrated with others when the phone is out, the head is down looking at the phone, the fingers are “dancing” over the screen and no attention is being paid to the outside world.  I identify in my book that I am the person who CANNOT multi-task at all.  Put in other words: I cannot “walk and chew gum at the same time.”  I know this about myself. I know I do not dare go out in public, do business on my phone and expect to do business with others such as in stores and restaurants.  I have a suspicion that many others are like me, but  cannot it  admit whatsoever. Haven’t a lot of us been standing in a supermarket check-out line, a fast-food restaurant line or a line at the bank to have the person in front of us totally fixated on his/her cell phone and so keep us waiting that much longer? I find that disgusting.

Yesterday, I went into one of the fast-food restaurants known as “The Hat” which is well known for its pastrami and chili cheese fries. The service is always friendly and the restaurant itself has a greasy aroma to it which connoisseurs of junk food enjoy.  I had no business going in there with the condition of my colon and overall weight, but there I was.  I was waiting for my  order number to be called but I found it so amusing that the three people whose orders were ahead of mine were  totally fixated on their phones.  Three of them!!!  Their numbers were called out several times to no avail and in one case, I told the man that his order was ready.  The business on those phones was so important that “keeping an ear out” to hear their numbers called was an impossibility.

If I had done the same thing looking at the phone and waiting for my order, I would have missed my order number being called as well. I know that about myself so the phone stays in my pants pocket and I sort of stare off into the world in the Hat.  I think many of us in society need to look up and see the world and live in it as well as enjoy it: not looking down at the phone constantly. It is a wonderful world out there! And by the way, I have heard that chiropractors are treating more cases of neck problems these days because people’s heads are looking down too much of the time but please don’t quote me on that one.