“Excuse me, are you still working here?”
I asked this to the guy who was clearly in another world.
“Wha? Huh? Did you say something,” he replied.
“Yeah, I was wondering if you were done using the rack,” I asked again.
“Uhm, yeah, no go ahead, I’m done.”
I’d been watching him out of the corner of my eye as I was doing a warmup of multi-directional lunges, squats, leg swings and more, to see if he would do something in the power rack other than sending text messages on his cell phone.
After 5 minutes or so of limbering up and seeing him go nowhere, I approached him.
I also made it a point to count how many people I saw using their cell phone on the gym floor.
When I finished my workout, I’d counted a total of 8 people, out of maybe 20 or 30 in the gym total.
That’s a lot and it says a lot about where our society is going…
I’ve also noticed more and more people walking while texting or reading emails, oblivious to the world around them…
I’ve also seen more and more people at dinner or lunch together, where one person is talking and a phone beeps or blips and one of the two totally stops paying attention to the other person to attend to their needy little gadget.
This is a sad state of affairs how we as a society put more value on people trying to contact us, or stuff that’s going on elsewhere, than what is going on in the present moment.
If you’re going to workout, workout.
Focus on it. Be present with it. Don’t get distracted. You’ll get more out of it.
If you’re going to lunch with a friend, turn the cell phone off. Look them in the eyes. Connect with them.
If you’re going to walk down the street, walk. Don’t go in and out of the e-universe, changing speeds and directions randomly, messing with the rest of us who are aware of the world we’re in.
Oh wait, hold on…
I just got a phone call – talk to you later.