Can You Please Put Your Phone Down? 08/21/26

When I grew up there were wall phones with attached, twisty cords and rotary dials. I’m not going back to the days of Lassie, when you had to call an operator who then placed your call. And sometimes, if they were nosy, they’d listen in to your most private conversations and you’d get caught saying your Aunt Bea was a pain in the butt. Then came the Princess phone which you could use bedside, Then cordless and then, gasp, the cell phone. I once worked with a guy who was 16 years younger than me. Which meant he had a cell phone and was using it exclusively long before I was. I had a cell phone, I just didn’t use it. One time he saw me in the hallway and said, “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for an hour!” I replied, “How were you trying to reach me?” He said, “I called your mobile phone.” I said, “Oh, I left it in my office.” He replied, “You’re supposed to take it with you, that’s why they call it a mobile phone.” I had to admit he had a point. And from then on, I started carrying this strange device in my pocket. But now it’s gotten out of hand, no pun intended. well, maybe a little bit intended.

These are a few of my pet phone peeves. Sitting down at a restaurant when everyone is making excellent eye contact. With their phones. Answering someone’s question and when you look up at them, they’re staring down at their phone. But sometimes you can’t help it. Somebody says a fact to me like, Remember when the Mets won it all in ‘85?” and I say, “I think it was ‘86.” I will not pull out my phone to prove the other guy wrong unless he says, Got your phone? Check it out.” And then there is the ubiquitous, “So how are the grandkids?” question. Immediately everyone’s phone comes out so we can all share these adorable pictures.

So John and I decided to do a 6-part series pointing out how dependent we’ve become on these phones. Almost everything we do now is on our phones. Finding a good place to park? SpotHero. Need a ticket to an event? StubHub. Hotel? Hotels.com for goodness sake. Just make sure you have enough battery life left. Excuse me, I think I have a call coming in.

That’s it for this week and we will see you next week with parts 3 and 4. Stay tuned, you can even read them on your phone. Have a great weekend,

Andy and John