It's 2017, and although I find myself in a familiar scene and setting, at O' Toole's Pub in Richmond, Virginia, it all seems so strangely different. Once again, the buzz of a game one of the final in a sports game, louder advertisement s, and boozy laughs accompanied by busy conversations throughout is comforting, like a mother's embrace after a long, hard day.
However, the odd factor rests u easily upon the sight of this particular affair: new, tiny companions. I'm sitting at the corner of a shiny, mahogany bar, and down one line sit eight men with different hair shades of reds, browns, and greys. A majority of them have a blue glow on their faces due to their smartphones that are lying down seductively before them. This has become a societal norm, to be confronted with loneliness when in a public setting and assuaged by miniature bits of technology; the smartphone is the America's new best portable buddy.
I suppose the image of that one guy writing on a cocktail napkin at a bar, as yours truly is known to do, is just as queer. I'm no stranger to taking the path less traveled, but I'm still u easy with this phenomenon. At the mature age of 33 (Ha! Revisit this in a few years!), I feel it's far easier to take a few steps outside of reality to become the chaperone of society and its trends of culture. Man, in my 20s, I was all about being active in the scene, knowing what was up. Now, in my 30s, I couldn't be bothered by it at all. So, why the quandary about what occupies others' interests? Could it be my concern of the depletion of social interaction and building human relationships? Eh, it's something to do.
I acknowledge this trend, I refuse to conform to the ways of Twitterverse and such, and I remain content with what's around me rather than what's digitally in front of me. To each their own, of course, and I'll gleefully be grateful for the everlasting presence of cocktail napkins at taverns as others are with their portable pocket pals.
Oh, boy! I'm excited to be writing I can't wait to whip out my toy and blog about this on my smartphone!
The irony...
