Imagine a few of scenarios with me, if you will.
You see me in a grocery store walking down the aisle. You choose to walk out of your way to come and say hello to me. I look at you in the eyes, and walk away, not saying a single word.
Or, what if you were eating lunch with me at a restaurant in the middle of a conversation and someone else I know comes and walks up. I invite them to sit down with us and proceed to chat with them the rest of the meal while you sit across from us silently.
Finally, imagine you and I are having a serious conversation about something that's important to you. You ask me for my opinion on the matter and instead of responding to you, I look, turn around and walk away from you.
Odds are, you found all of these scenarios relatively rude. Each with its own degree of rudeness, but nonetheless I'm sure you'd be offended if one of these happened to you.
Here's the thing: It probably has. Have you ever texted someone you know and asked how they were and never gotten a reply? Have you ever been out to eat with someone and watched them sit on their phone for an hour rather than engaging with you? Have you ever asked someone a serious question through text and never gotten a response?
So, here's my burning question: Why is it that because it's virtual, it's not considered rude anymore? Why don't we have rules or guidelines for phone etiquette? If it's not okay to do face to face, why is it okay to do because there's a phone involved?
Is it because we've stopped caring about our peer's feelings? Is empathy all but gone in our generation thanks to the virtual world? Or is it because we can't see the look of disappointment or the degree of sadness on that person's face, so we just don't care?
Do we forget that there is a human being on the other end of that phone?
Whatever the reason, it needs to stop. Common courtesy is a very real thing, and it should be exercised regardless of the situation, even if it's on the phone.
I'm guilty just like everyone else of turning off my "read receipts" so no one can tell when I'm ignoring them. But shouldn't the question be why am I ignoring them?
When did it become appropriate to just not respond to someone because you're not interested in what they're saying?
that person. Odds are, they'll understand.
Here's my call to action to all who read this: Put your phone away. Interact with each other. And when you do use your phone, use it as if you were speaking directly to another human. Because you are.
It's time for us to exercise a little human decency, virtual or not.
