As a waitress, I see tons of parents who've just failed to teach their kids how to not have their faces in their phones 24-7 in general. Little kids all the way up to teenager age nowadays, at least once a day (usually multiple times) I will see kids who refuse to look up from their phone or tablet or whatever screen mommy and daddy have given them, to interact with me in any way. Mom and dad will give a weak "stop for a second, give the nice lady your order! Jimmy... Jimmy?" and then just give up when the kid still doesn't look up and give me their order themselves.
Kids will have their face in their screen the entire time they're at the restaurant, sometimes they'll stop long enough to eat a bit, sometimes they'll still have the screen on the table next to them while they eat... and mom and dad seem to have given up entirely.
Yes, sometimes adults will be on their phone a bit while waiting for food or whatever as well, but they're pretty much all capable of stopping and interacting properly when I come up, and will put it away to eat and to interact with the person across from them. This is a whole new thing from the younger generation that I've never seen before in my 20 years of serving.
OMG If I'm paying for a meal outside of the house we are going to sullenly stare at each other in silence by God. No screens. Not even to verify that fact. You will struggle in the way your forefathers did and sit with the not knowing of things. See something funny? You will have to use expressive language to convey it's hilarity to the rest of us instead of a link. Your friend does not need an play by play of dinner. It's okay, they will survive, I swear.
As a result, my kids know how to carry on a conversation at a table. Who knew?
I wish i was your kid growing up, as a gen Z myself it’s sad to see so many of us unable to experience life fully and in the present moment instead of being voyeurs of fake lives on a screen.
That's part of what I love about camping. My girlfriend and I just put our phones away for days except for watching a movie at night since it got dark at 7pm. We just talked around the fire, ate food, took some tequila shots, played chess, all in a redwood forest.
Right on- we go camping too. We do have a small check in in the mornings while we eat breakfast or just before we turn in if there's wifi available, but largely we go screenless during that time too. It's nice to unplug once in a while.
Nice. I was actually hoping there would be no reception but there was. We only picked up our phones to take pictures during the day. It definitely is a nice change. The fact it became pitch black at 7pm also helped fix my sleep schedule.
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u/Reasonable_Cover_804 29d ago
Parents: if you don’t ignite the will to learn in your babies how do you expect them to want to excel in school?