Friday, March 11, 2011

Observed



Lunching at The Standard Hotel today, I noticed that every single person at the tables around us was on their phone. This touching father/daughter scene was a wry comment on communication in the digital age (and made for a pretty good iPhone snap). FYI - I was not on my phone. I'm not a fan of texting while dining with others.


16 comments:

Razmataz said...

I noticed the same thing last weekend. 4 young women out for dinner in a very lovely restaurant.
I don't think that during the time I observed them that any of them took in their surroundings or engaged with each other 100%.

I want the people I am with to be involved and present. A source of irritation whenever I am with my kids.

Joe Holmes said...

Though I'm also alarmed at the number of people these days with their faces glued to their phones (moms pushing strollers!), I have to tell you that's a remarkable and beautiful photo.

jo(e) said...

That's so sad.

PWS said...

Then again they could have been texting with one another.?. The pic is a true comment on where we are...

Anonymous said...

such a good photo mr. danziger!

Heather Robinson said...

That is one gorgeous photo and sadly all too true. Yesterday evening while I was walking on the main square in my small Provençal town, I saw a boy, probably eight years old that was talking on his cell phone while promenading in front of his friends as a status symbol, a way of denoting himself from the others. His conversation? "Saturday? Hmmm, let me see...Saturday, saturday...no, I think that I have something." It is so outstanding how our new means of "communication" continue to evolve...

Thank you for this post.

Anonymous said...

I once went to a pre-junket dinner with a group of marketing executives. There were about 12-16 of us around a wide round table. As we sat down, everyone but me took out their phones (in those days it was exclusively Blackberry) to check their emails. It was an extraordinary sight to behold. It was almost like they were reciting a pre-dinner prayer.

Don Parsons said...

It looks like a photo by Martin Parr, from his new book "Observations". (Tongue in cheek)

Great capture, really says a lot about todays society and how we communicate or don't.

Frank said...

Like the others have said - nice photo!
One could almost put each in a bubble (remember those huge glass bubbles Melvin Sokolsky had made for a fashion shoot ?).
And I think that there is a great show in the making here....invite everyone to submit their 'everyone is on a phone' picture :-)

Anonymous said...

Does not the act of taking a picture with your phone contradict your statement that you were "not on [your] phone?" It seem to me that your phone use enhanced the experience you were having vs. the premise of it being a distraction from said experience.

Pierre said...

I like the vintage style of the colors, objects and materials in this photo. They put me back in the late 70's. With a tiny behaviour anachronism...

extrabold said...

hear f***ing hear!

Alice Olive said...

This is another reminder to me to be always aware of what I'm doing/saying in public in case I am randomly photographed.

Pierre said...

I noticed an interesting opposition between the vintage style of the furniture and the contemporary behavior of the two persons on the picture.
( Unfortunately, english is not my primary language.)

V said...

Your post reminded me of this scene while waiting for a tram to pull away from Port Melbourne: two kids still in strollers were both tapping away and engrossed with their parent's iPhones, while the mom and dad were standing behind them, talking to each other. Would have snapped a picture if I'd had been less tired that evening. In retrospect, its like a snapshot of generational gaps. But then again, all these gadgets and their games get young children sooooo excited. I was born in the 80s, but am a technology laggard. If not for the corporate blackberry I carry, I don't think I would actually be using one.

a reference said...

Beautiful photo!

I absolutely hate when people use their phones when they are with company.

Absent-Presence.

To me it means that you aren't good enough, that a device is more interesting than your company.