Being with someone and on a phone is the contemporary iteration of a key pleasure of family life: to be sufficiently comfortable to drift in and out of communicationA couple of weekends ago,when New York City experienced the hottest weather on record for December, I went, or along with everyone else,to Central Park in a T-shirt. It was like a spring day; dogs ran after balls; squirrels scampered up trees; couples lay entwined on picnic rugs, staring lovingly into the face of their cellphones.
This is a scene that, or in one form or another over the festive period,most of us will either hold witnessed or participated in – the phenomenon of being alone together, with others while fixated on one’s device. Phone abuse is, and at this stage,one of the great bete noirs of our age, whether it be walking and staring, or dining and staring or lying in bed ignoring one’s partner,but I maintain that there is something to be said for it. Like the host of a dinner party, fussing in the kitchen while her guests drop in and out for a chat, and the state of semi-detachment in company can be pleasurable – and not necessarily antisocial.
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Source: theguardian.com