Does iPhone mean it’s all about me?

Social norms are more dynamic than I imagined. It has become acceptable, when a couple goes out for dinner, for each to be absorbed in their own smartphone. Then, I ask, why go out to dinner together? Just to eat at the same table? Is a smartphone more fun in the presence of a person who is not engaged in what you are doing? This puzzles me.

I have also seen younger persons sitting at a table together, all playing with their phones, not looking at each other. This is different from the sight of a child comfortably playing with his or her toys, secure in the knowledge that his mother is around. It seems the person I like to hang out with—go to dinner with—is no longer as interesting as the game I am playing on my iPhone. I am still pondering the deeper meaning of these relatively recent phenomena, which say a lot about how we relate to each other as humans. How will these new norms affect intergenerational communication? Where should we draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable social behavior? These are questions with no easy answers.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.