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Imagine a place where you can go to socialise without the fear of interruption from mobile devices
The Sunday Telegraph
July 06, 2014
Picture this sign outside a restaurant: Wi-Fi Free zone.
Yes, you read it correctly, it is the reverse of ‘Free Wi-Fi’, a zone that is free from all Wi-Fi reception.
A zone where you can be fully present with your friends or family.
Where you are free from the anti-social interruptions and ring tones of text messages and phone calls.
You know the routine at the restaurant table. One person casually decides to takes one call, often without an ‘excuse me’. This sends a green signal for the others to zone in to their own phones. Many minutes pass, and the social group are still ‘socialising’ with virtually everyone, except those at their table.
It is like a smoko that has gone out of hand. One cigarette becomes two as the next smoker arrives, so as not to be anti-social.
I recently took a photo of a table at a restaurant where all those sitting and ‘socialising’ were texting. No eye contact. No conversation. No guilt.
So how were they catching up with their head down?
Unfortunately, these iPhones and Smart phones are not sold with a social etiquette license.
Perhaps, like a box of cigarettes, they need a plain packaging warning: Overuse can lead to serial text offences.
If a person turned their back on you during a conversation, it would be deemed rude.
But if a person chooses to interrupt your conversation by communicating with someone else by phone, this is just as rude.
What compounds the rudeness is when the texter glances up and declares: “I’m still listening to you, I can multi-task.”
The response ought to be: “But I don’t want to be reduced to one of your many multi-tasks. I want our conversation to be the only task that we are doing.”
Listening is much more than the physical act of hearing the spoken words, like the words on the screen.
Listening requires zoning in to the rich tapestry of non-verbal expressions such as frowns, smiles and hand gestures.
If you are going to dismiss all these cues and treat your companion’s conversation as just another string of words, forget the coffee and just text each other.
We already have candy-free check-out counters at supermarkets. These were ostensibly designed to enable parents to exit without the tantrum of a child craving the candy that was placed at arm’s reach and at eye level.
Now is the time for the Wi-Fi Free zone, the antithesis of an Internet Café.
Just as people choose places that are smoke free, gluten free, or alcohol free, there should also be places that are Wi-Fi Free, where people can enjoy a digital detox.
Someone will look down and cry out ‘Damn! I have no phone reception! No signal bars!’
To which you can respond, ‘Oh yes you do! Look up. You have all the most beautiful signals smiling right at you.’
Our technology must never replace our humanity.
Joseph Wakim is the author of Sorry We Have No Space