Dating couples in their teens and twenties tend to end their restaurant meals with a half an hour of blissful, silent staring at their smartphones. I’m from a different generation, and 30 minutes of silence at the end of a date still seem weird to me.
A New Trend in Dating
Clarissa's Blog 
I do not understand the whole smartphone thing. What can be so interesting on that tiny screen?
I’m also remarkably immune to the allure of ‘apps’ (whatever those cursed hell-spawned things are they seem to be a major factor in the process of turning people into zombies).
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Soon, people’s attractiveness will be measured in the number of minutes one is willing to spend with them without looking at one’s smartphone. Somebody really amazing will be said to be “totally worthy of 30 minutes away from my apps.” 🙂
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“What can be so interesting on that tiny screen?”
– Brilliant comments from the readers of one’s blog, for example. 🙂
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Shoot, I have witnessed entire meals dedicated to smart phones and other devices. And at rather expensive restaurants. I don’t get it either.
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Well, a smartphone needs to be taken out to an expensive place every once in a while, I guess. 🙂
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I don’t even have a smart phone, and no plan to get one. I do my internet at home or at work. Socializing is for, well, socializing.
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Some thoughts on this phenomenon:
1)The cost of owning and operating a smartphone is like buying a Mac every year. So if you’re not constantly in it, why bother?
2) Some of that texting and scrolling is work related.
3)Maybe they’re reporting on their date to all of their friends.
4)Across the table texting.
Although in my opinion if a date is really good I’m not going to spend thirty minutes staring at a smartphone at the beginning, middle or the end. 😉
@Abelard Lindsey: You’d better hold onto your phone for as long as you can. Verizon, at least, has stopped making or supporting good non-smart phones.
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Across the table texting?? Wow, I’m so old! I completely missed out on this form of flirtation.
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It can be fun. One use is carrying two conversations at once or talking in loud rooms. I don’t use it much unless my date is lost in app-land to begin with, but the possibilities are bountiful.
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Of course, an intelligent person can derive fun from most activities or situations.
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