This is nothing new. In fact on jeepneys, in parks, and on trains and ships, even in restaurants and movie houses, old and young are hooked to their mobile phones.
Aside from the discomfort that one can give to one’s neighbor, a question naturally arises: What is this phenomenon which is so wide-spread? Is it the thirst for a virtual life within the extremes of anonymity or notoriety of social media, or the fear of intimacy? Is it to avoid the inevitable effort needed to enter into each other’s world?
We don’t want to generalize. There can be real needs that highlight the importance of mobile phones. However, it’s always sad to see couples who, instead of communicating with each other, prefer to “connect” with their mobile phones, rather than with the person before them.
Without sounding alarmist, we tend to see this as one of the signs that a couple is starting to drift apart and lead separate lives: each has his or her friends, sports or cultural commitments as well as club memberships; they visit their relatives separately, etc.
Thus dinner out at the restaurant, which is supposed to be an intimate moment for bonding for a couple, becomes just a moment to reinforce the existing wall that has grown higher and thicker between them.
Nothing is more beautiful at dinnertime either in the restaurant or at home than to find two people who know how to look into each other’s eyes and listen attentively to one another. It’s the best gift that a couple can present to each other. We can begin ourselves, by bearing witness to a family where the members can still talk and listen to one another with tenderness.
