A Sad Sight

A young couple, still damp from the Boston evening's torrential downpour duck into a local tavern in Allston (a neighborhood in Boston). Cheeks rosy, eyes glinting, faces glowing from--enthrallment in one another's company? Exhilaration of having escaped the surprise rainstorm? Nope, rather from the artificial light, eerily gleaming from their phones. To me, this is one of the saddest sights in modern-day America. And yet, its occurrence is becoming the norm. 

For at least fifteen minutes, the couple did not speak two words to one another as they continued to absently stare at the glowing boxes in their palms. Only when the gooping-hot nacho cheese appetizer had lost its goopy did the couple finally take a break from the 'priorities in life'--Facebook, Instagram, ScoreCenter.

Now, before I sound like a crotchety old curmudgeon (and maybe, I already do), let me say that I do believe that technologies like smart phones do have their perks. Such devices have allowed us to get information faster and easier casting us forward years; however, devices such as these have also inhibited our human interaction skills jolting us backward centuries.

I try to imagine a much different dinner scene of the young couple:

The woman smiles shyly as she glances at the smattering of freckles on the man's hairline instead of at the glowing screen with the hairline crack in the corner.

The man inwardly sighs at the sassy gleam in her emerald eyes instead of at the glint of light emanating from his device.

A shiver of electric anticipation runs up the woman's spine as the man reaches across the table with his calloused hands, instead of an artificial buzz that sends tremors through the woman's fingertips from the rough surface of the keyboard.

In all of this, they could've reveled in their shared experience, their shared adventure in the city, a shared secret perhaps--instead they basked in a shared emptiness.