jane_and.the_dragon

I have a thought for you all. Have you seen the rise in paranoia in this country? Just this morning I had a thought. You all just go with me while i explain my theory. I was over to visit my neighbor last night and the whole time I was there she had her nose buried in her cell phone. She is not the only one who does this (focuses primarily on her phone even when people are visiting and basically ignores the real people around them). I went to a family Christmas party a couple years ago and 5 of my family members had their noses buried in their phones ignoring everything around them. We all only get together once a year like that , so they should spend time communicating with the family. The cell phones will still be there the next day. All the cut animals and the stupid challenges, and dares will be there the next day. People need to reconnect with people, and craw out of their phones into the real world sometimes.
I think the stupidest thing they ever did was turning your phone into a computer. What you see on the net can change who you are, and not always in a good way. I have a friend really nice person (usually), but a while back this friend became involved in violent video games and his personality changed. He became mean and hostile for no real reasons. Lucky for everyone he found something that pulled him back out or the fantastic world, and he is nearly back to his normal now.
BUT NOW TO THE POINT OF THIS BLOG. The rise in paranoia. I first noticed it in my sister in law and my nieces, and then in a friend of mine and her daughter, all of which are constantly on their phones even if they have company, or go out with someone somewhere. People are becoming so sucked into their phones, where they watch it, they have forgotten what real human contact looks and feels like. I have heard all of them complain that some random stranger was staring at them. To which I reply if you were not looking at them YOU WOULD NOT KNOW THEY WERE EVEN LOOKING YOUR DIRECTION. Which brings up another thing about paranoia, most of the people who have this paranoia can not tell the difference between someone staring at them and someone just looking their direction , but actually looking at something else beyond the paranoid person. I have 2 good examples of that: First was the time my niece got mad alleging that the woman driving the car next to us was staring at her. I looked at who she was talking about and told her to calm down. I could clearly see this woman was NOT EVEN LOOKING AT HER! the lady was setting up to make a lane change, and was looking to her left to see if it was clear for the change, but just because she was looking in the direction of my niece, she was sure this stranger (who was just driving her car) was staring at her. Example two: I was with my neighbor and her daughter one time at a local department store. My neighbor was laying away a present for her daughter for Christmas. We sat on a bench near by and waited while her mother took care of the lay away. Suddenly the daughter got really angry, and said another woman at the counter near her mother kept staring at her. I looked up at them to see that this lady was talking to a man who was there with her. The man kept pacing back and forth between us and the lady he was with. She tried desperately to maintain eye contact with the guy, but he was too fast for her to keep full contact, and occasionally her head would be facing in our direction. I doubt she even saw us at all. Her focus was on the anxious man who was there with her. I looked at my friend's daughter and told her look at the whole picture. She is not staring at you i doubt she even sees you. She is focused on the man who keeps pacing between her and us, and yesssss of course in doing so she will be looking out direction from time to time. Then I said stop being so paranoid. The point in that is, if she had seen the big picture she would have seen what was really going on, but she was only seeing a small window of the actual event. I feel because people have become so obsessed with all these social media things and animal and music videos on their phones it has become an addiction to some, not to mention it is really RUDE not to give other people in the room with you your attention. To go to see someone and have them focused entirely on the crap streaming on their phones is really RUDE. I think people need to put the phones down when they have company, or they are out and about. Then they would see what is going on in the real world.
I remember a time long before cell phones and covid when people would be happy to look their friends and family in the face, and be glad to have them visit, A smile was a wonderful thing to see when you said something nice to a friend. Now they keep their head down in their phones and if you are lucky you may get a grunt from them when you talk to them. I do not have a cell phone BY CHOICE. My b/f wanted to get me one and even pay the bill and I told him NO WAY! Personally I like seeing the world around me and my friends faces. I even like meeting new people. That is hard to do if you do not see them walk right by you because you were staring at some stupid video on your phone, or answering a text. What ever happened to ACTUALLY TALKING ON YOUR PHONES? After all that is what they were originally meant to do.
I am going to close this out now, but check it out. Watch your family and friend's that are always on their phones, see how many of them act all ( why are they staring at me ) when someone just looks at them, THEN tell me if you think I got a point on this one.